Individual notes of chord to seperate out. Now possible with Navichord

macduff

OK - this is a bit limited, but it kind of works. Copy the following into one of the script pages in scriptSONIC and press Run. Then any MIDI notes aimed at scriptSONIC will trigger the scripts.

If you play a chord of up to 3 notes it should map the pitches in ascending order to midi channels 1-3 and play each note for 1 sec. You have to start the notes together, and the resulting note lengths are fixed, but it gives you the idea, I hope, of what's possible.

I have this running with Cubasis with 3 instruments on 3 tracks on MIDI channels 1-3

clear()
//first loop detects any noteons and builds a list of notes sorted by pitch, v
addloop()
s='v=$.midievents;v=v.sort(function(a,b){return a.pitch<b.pitch});i=0;for (e of v){ev[i+1][0].start();i++;}'

ev[0][0].script=s
bind(ev[0][0],'start','noteon',null,null)

//3 loops that play the notes in v to MIDI channels 0-3
m=[]
for(i=0; i<3; i++)
{
    m[i]=Midi()
    m[i].channel=i+1
    addloop()
    ev[i+1][0].script=`m[${i}].play(v[${i}].note)`
}

Will

@wally nice hack and thanks for the example code @macduff!

The way polymer works is more round robin style. You set up N outputs and for every incoming midi note, it rotates through the output stack. So if you have three outputs assigned and play monophonically it will send each successive note to the next output. If you play a three note chord one note will go to each output. If you play a four note chord though, you'll only hear three notes. Which three notes depends on the config but usually you'll lose which ever one came down the pipe first (aka 'last note priority').

It's basically the same way a polyphonic synth works with regard to voices. You can see this in action visually with the iSEM voice programmer. Try setting the number of steps to 3 and playing 2, 3 and 4 note chords.

Polymer (and the mondovox) adds some interesting variations on the concept but at its heart it is really just the voice allocation part of a poly synth; instead of voices in the same box, it's using midi connections for voice distribution.

Dchild

@Wally title of the thread updated.

@macduff based on @syrupcore description of how polymer works would this be possible to code in JS.

Would be great to rotate the note output and add more notes for more complex chords.

macduff

thanks for the description @syrupcore - that sounds easier to implement - i'll give it a go @Dchild...

macduff

Here's a script to implement the 'round robin' method in scriptSONIC. Again, copy into a script page and Run. This time consecutive notes received are sent out on consecutive channels. You can set the number of channels N at the top of the script. Also, this will handle note-offs and stop notes when you release them. I played with this using an external MIDI keyboard driving several synths, and it makes a nice little instrument. You get interesting patterns if you play arpeggios, or chords with <N notes.

N=4 //polyphony
i=0 //channel index
v=[] //held notes

clear()

//handle noteons
//for each new note, put into array of held notes v, and start note player Loop
addloop()
s='for(e of $.midievents){v[i]=e;loops[i+2].start();i=(i+1)%N;}'
ev[0][0].script=s //set script
bind(ev[0][0],'start','noteon',null,null) //bind script to all note ons

//handle noteoffs
//get pitch of incoming note, find it in v, remove it, stop the appropriate player Loop
addloop()
s='for(e of $.midievents){j=v.map(function(x){return x.pitch}).indexOf(e.pitch);if(j>-1){loops[j+2].reset();delete(v[j])}}'
ev[1][0].script=s //set script
bind(ev[1][0],'start','noteoff',null,null) //bind to all note offs

//create note players
m=[]
for(k=0; k<N; k++)
{
    m[k]=Midi()
    m[k].channel=k+1 //consecutive channels
    l=addloop()
    l.length=60 //max note length
    l.events[0].script=`m[${k}].play(v[${k}].note)` //set script to play one of the held notes
}

JohnnyGoodyear

Breath-taking aboffinations. Well done.

macduff

thankyou - my spamhead is shining with pride

appaholic

interesting...

[Deleted User]

Boffinement! Tres cool.

Will

Sweet! Can't wait to give this a try.

wim

I think you could do this in StepPolyArp. In it's grid, you set up the intervals you want for each row. So, you might have something like -5, -3, 0, +2, +5, etc. The intervals represent the notes of the scale starting from the root at 0. For each row you can specify the midi out. Then you would set the notes of each chord you wanted to play at each step in the sequencer. Then just play the root note of each chord you want on the keyboard. You can set the scale on the keyboard, so combining this with the relative steps above, you would always be playing a chord that fits with the scale.

I just got StepPolyArp yesterday, so I'm no expert, but I did try the different notes out to different channels, and it does work. I had a bass line triggering to one synth while the higher arp notes were going out to a lead synth.

Price is a bit high, but I can see right away that it's going to be worth it.

Will

SPA is a great app but that's a little different from the router it looks like macduff has just whipped up. In SPA the notes are predetermined. This will let you play 4 mono synths as a poly synth no matter what notes you play. I wanna try this with AUM + Viking just haven't had any music making time.

Wally

As I said above , I thought it should be possible to repeat my Cream strategy for SPA,
but not as @wim suggests .

SPA has the same ablity as Cream to number & sequence input notes of a chord , in Event edit box you can choose 1-7 of input notes of chord .
As you can assign different channels out to each row , stacking 1,2,3,4 across different rows/channels ,but all set to 0 transpose , & using only step 1& chord mode will send the lowest note of any chord to channel 1 , 2nd lowest to channel2 etc .

Will

Very big thank you @macduff, @wally and @wim. I got a chance to try all three methods. They're all close (!) but not quite the same as something like polymer. The main place they differ from existing (commercial) is when holding a chord and triggering additional notes. If you're doing 4-note comps, they all work! If you're doing 3-note comps and a moving single note melody around with it they break in different ways.

Scriptsonic seems closest since it's not reliant on number of existing notes but I found lots of stuck notes and as you play a single note with three held, it would rob the notes from the held chord.

My test environment could also be the problem. Was using AUM with 4 Viking instances and channel filtering. For the ScriptSonic script, I tried it in the free version by replacing the code in the first arp template (didn't see a 'new' option', presumably because it's the free version) and couldn't figure out how to delete the existing loops so that could be messing with it-don't understand the app enough to know. I did have them turned off.

Not asking anyone to tweak anything! I really appreciate the help. Just reporting back.

rad3d

This could be scripted in Lemur, as well.

macduff

@syrupcore - happy to help and good to be able to try out scriptSONIC on a real world problem

Will

Sent another "iOS please!" note to the developer of Polymer. He, again, nicely said he consider it and "Honestly, it's people like you reaching out that influence the direction we take our apps." So... if you'd like to see Polymer on iOS, please let them know! Email is

support at paracosm.us

They have an interesting new app coming out this week called Lumen. http://lumen-app.com/ Would be sweet on iOS too.

Dchild

@Navichord thanks for the update. And listening. Navichord now supports multi channel midi out for each note in the chord.

Kaikoo2

Thank you, Navichord! 5 stars rated always.

@Dchild said:
@Navichord thanks for the update. And listening. Navichord now supports multi channel midi out for each note in the chord.

So this update can do chord arp by sending each voice to different synths. And use StepPolyArp to arp each synth voice in consecution for chord. Is that fun? Ha, must try this. Never did this before. Am I lost something from reading? Sound to me like Abu Dhabi way!

Navichord

@Dchild @Kaikoo2
My pleasure. Thanks your great ideas!

iamspoon

@Navichord wow, I love you even more.

edit: additional random thought, alternative skins maybe? I would like a black or even monochrome look if it isn't too much to ask. either way, great continued updates since v1 thank you!

Kaikoo2

Some of the functionalities have not been shown, so I take photo shots for your reference. Now Navichord can even randomize individual chord pad, does midi-learn for each pad, does midi-learn for start/stop the playhead on external controller.

Navichord never got me a crash, it is very sable and midi connection is reliable too! Plus a friendly developer for you and me.

Kaikoo2

Obviously, it can play multi IAA instruments on Auria Pro midi channels for melody and chord at the same time without inputing wrong key.

Navichord

@iamspoon thank you! I'll add colour themes in near future.

TheVimFuego

This thread and the developer responsiveness sold it to me. Excellent, looking forward to future updates.