Easy chord inversions mapped to a knob? Is this possible?

[mgunthe]

Hi,

I'm trying to find a way in Ableton to take simple phrase, say three 4 notes played in a C major chord, one on each quarter note, C, F, G, C for a one measure and to map a knob/dial so that as I turn it up to the right it will begin to invert that arpeggio up the keyboard, so F, G, C, F then G, C, F, G, etc.

Am I explaining this well enough?

It would be so great to be able to take a line of notes in Ableton and as you are playing this MIDI loop live to be able to invert it up increasing the intensity as you play. Is anyone aware of a relatively easy way of doing this?

Thanks for your time!

[infernal.machine]

I feel like there's a way to do it with some combination of arpeggiator/pitch/and scale plugins in a midi effect rack with a chain selector, but that would take so much setting up that you might as well preprogram the notes IMO... Plus there are cooler effects you can get from an arpeggiator than simple inversions.

If you want to do something like this as an effect for a live performance, I would recommend you just put the different inversions in clips and trigger them with a pad whenever you want them (maybe use follow actions). Or play it live on a keyboard.


PS. C major= C E G

[mgunthe]

Yes... C, E, G...

I like the suggestions of using the arpeggiator. I have thought about the arpeggiator to take a series of notes and to keep inverting them up but I'm not exactly sure how to execute this.

I am playing guitar and singing (live) while doing this and also controlling ableton with my feet using an FCB1010 and want to have this effect in ableton for particular MIDI riffs in ableton (mostly keyboard one or two measure stabs).

I know how to do this by jumping octaves, but... that just isn't musically getting at the sound that I am going for because it is such a big jump up. It is a pretty simple concept, that you just take the bottom note of whatever is in a particular loop and move that up one octave. It is the way that a lot of solos go that you are building when playing guitar, or sax or whatnot and has a very different feel than jumping the whole riff up and octave.

I suppose I could map one of the foot pedals to move up the scale on the arpeggiator... but again still not quite the same thing...

Any other suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

[chapelier fou]

maybe an arp at very high rate + note length combo ?
Just a random idea.

[Matt_Quinn]

Are you feeding it a chord to start, or an individual line of notes? If you feed it a single note, use a Chord effect to build the exact chord you want, then use an arp to split that chord into it's components. So C major, you'd play a C & have the chord effect adding +4 and +3 to give you the the C major chord, then use an arp to play the C-E-G pattern at whatever rate you want. Create as many chains as you need for your inversions (ie for the 1st inversion chain, you'd use +3 & +5 in the chord effect, then +5 and +4 for the 2nd), then map a macro knob to select the chains one at a time. I think that should work.


Chain 1>Chord (+4 and +3)>arp
Chain 2>Chord (+3 and +5)>arp
Chain 3>Chord (+5 and +4)>arp

[Matt_Quinn]

Actually looking at the manual, you might be able to do this with just an arp using the Offset parameter. From page 343:

"The Offset parameter shifts the sequence of notes in the pattern by the number of places selected with the control. This is best illustrated with an example: A setting of 1 makes the second note in the pattern play first, and the first note last. If you imagine the pattern as a circle of notes that is played in a clockwise direction from a set start point, the Offset parameter effectively rotates this circle counter-clockwise one note at a time, changing where in the pattern play begins."


That should do it I think, as long as you feed it the chord you want to invert & then map the Offset knob to a macro. A bonus is that it should work with any chord regardless of key or type (ie 7th chords would still work without creating a separate chain for them as you would in the 1st solution I suggested.

[infernal.machine]

Only problem with the offset parameter is that it won't go up the keyboard. It will play C1 E1 G1, then E1 G1 C1 (not E1 G1 C2).

so you'd need to use a pitch plugin or something to get it going up the octaves, but I'm not sure that's possible.



I do like the idea of using the chord plugin in conjunction with an arpeggiator. I'm gonna play with that later today, thanks for the idea Matt!

[Matt_Quinn]

No problem! Oohf, just realized I totally screwed up those semitone numbers for making a major chord. Should be +4 and +7 for a major triad, not +3 & +5. But you get the idea.

Only problem with the offset parameter is that it won't go up the keyboard. It will play C1 E1 G1, then E1 G1 C1 (not E1 G1 C2).

so you'd need to use a pitch plugin or something to get it going up the octaves, but I'm not sure that's possible.

Well I think if he played a 4 note chord (say C,E,G,C) changing the offset would still cycle through all 4 notes in order. Not 100% sure on that though as I never actually use this parameter.

[infernal.machine]

Interesting. If you just make the chord really big you can do this with offset alone. Say you have a C major starting on C1,C2,C3,C4,andC5. You will be able to cycle up 5 octaves!

Pretty cool! I'm definitely going to implement this in the near future!