How to Trigger Existing MIDI Arrangement, Chord-by-Chord

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WildWillyBill
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Jun 20, 2020 2:04 am

How to Trigger Existing MIDI Arrangement, Chord-by-Chord

Post by WildWillyBill » Mon Jan 20, 2025 5:54 am

If I have a long MIDI clip (e.g. a MIDI piano song). Is there a way to trigger the upcoming notes in realtime via a MIDI controller? So that the next note doesn't play until I hit a button. And then again. And again.

Basically creating a groove manually in realtime, but hearing the prewritten MIDI notes play out so I get a feel for the song.

The idea is that I'm not a pianist. But I'm composing piano songs. The notes are quantized. And then at the end I'd like to add a human groove by hitting a MIDI button each time I want the next notes to play. Because I want some flow instead of the robotic metronome feel. (Let's assume it's all chords for this concept).

I have been recording silent "ghost notes" to fit the groove solely so I can see it on the timeline, and then manually shifting all the notes around on the timeline to fit the timing I want. But it's a pain AND there's no realtime audio feedback. Because I don't know how to play the piano.

One labor-intensive way would be to manually assign each chord to a separate drum rack hit, and then sequentially hitting each drum rack. But if the song is 3 minutes, then that's way too many and that takes way too much time.

.....I'm hoping to just have 1 MIDI button that will always jump to playing the next note in the MIDI clip. Make sense?

Example: Random simple MIDI clip below. I'd like to hit a MIDI key that will play the chords in this exact order, but the rhythm depends on however I press the key. AND record it that way & play it back in realtime so I can hear it. Thanks!

Image

schlam
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2020 11:51 am

Re: How to Trigger Existing MIDI Arrangement, Chord-by-Chord

Post by schlam » Mon Jan 20, 2025 8:20 am

Hello.
I made this free device that, maybe, can be a starting point for you..

https://maxforlive.com/library/device/7 ... rub-device

siliconarc
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Location: UK
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Re: How to Trigger Existing MIDI Arrangement, Chord-by-Chord

Post by siliconarc » Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:53 am

In the MIDI clip, enable the MIDI Note Editor Preview button (has a headphones icon, above the vertical piano ruler)
Now go into map mode (MIDI or Key) and look in the top-right or the clip editor – you'll see that 2x small circular left/right buttons have appeared next to the grid size setting. These buttons control the clip playhead position. Map the buttons to qwerty or MIDI keys, exit map mode. Now you can press to move sequentially through the chords.

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