Posted
Hi Andre and all forum readers! This is Chris, one of Cognitone's longtime (and most annoying) customers. :)
I was writing to let you all know about a new program called SongFrame by www.tanageraudioworks.com - I just downloaded the demo and overall, I am not impressed.... EXCEPT for a few features I hope Andre will add to Harmony Navigator, which I feel best represents most modern songwriter needs... and they are as follows:
The chord progression generator that SongFrame has can generate progressions diatonically (as HN can, I know) but they give you a bunch to audition at any tempo (and you can set ANY amount of bars, up to 24 bars work well... after that, hardly any progressions show up when searching), and the best part is you can set the audition rhythms for the chord progressions, such as:
Whole Notes
Half Notes
Quarter Notes
Eighth Notes (very useful, as this is a common rhythm for most pop songs)
and other rhythms such as 12/8, etc.
Additionally, it has a chord spread feature, so they sound more "lazy" instead of straight notes... they have a more arpeggiated/lazy feel if you want.
This, I feel, has a huge advantage over Harmony Navigator in the sense that you can just audition a very basic rhythm, which is how a lot of people (myself included) write songs and get ideas. You don't want to get too distracted with a full arrangement (like a lot of HN's pre-made patterns)... usually when songwriters write, we're just strumming a very basic rhythm to get the feel of a chord change.
Is there a possibility that HN will implement very basic rhythms (also the chord progression generator feature) in a future update? If so, that would be incredibly useful.
Another issue I've had with HN over the last year and a half is that sometimes it's just too complicated to use... the editing functions can be a bit confusing at times... especially moving chords around in the progression window (right below the main menu)... sometimes they just don't work properly, after moving things around... and oftentimes I have to start over from scratch.
I think SongFrame has a very easy-to-understand layout and the functions are great. But, the program runs VERY slowly compared to HN... which runs ridiculously fast even on older computers (kudos to you for writing such a low-resource program). If HN could have the ease of use that SongFrame has, you would have an even better program.
Now of course, where HN excels is the harmonization of melodies... SongFrame has none of this.
Anyway, without babbling, check out their demo and see the functionality and the features I'm talking about... (oh and I almost forgot - SongFrame can host VSTs!!) the installation can be somewhat of a pain (and a big download after the initial download) but definitely check it out, and hopefully some other people on this forum will take note and see if these nice features can be implemented in a future Harmony Navigator update.
Thanks as always, for your great software!
-Chris
longtime registered user of HN
Tue, 2008-09-30 - 16:59 Permalink
Is there a possibility that HN will implement very basic rhythms (also the chord progression generator feature) in a future update? If so, that would be incredibly useful.
Sure. You can do that already. Just create the accompaniment patterns you want yourself:
[list]Be sure they include one "Auto-Chords" instrument, as that will render the full chords when they are pressed automatically.
Add a simple bass and GM drum patterns according to your needs (you can import them from MIDI files)[/list:u]
Regarding the progression generator, why not just look here and get inspired by real songs?
(http://www.ralphpatt.com/Song.html)
The good thing is you will more likely learn how to write a song this way than if you just played along to random chord sequences. Many good Pop/R&B songs are actually stripped down and minimalized Jazz tunes.
Andre
[list][/list:u]
Wed, 2009-02-04 - 08:32 Permalink
I spoke to the developer of Songframe for 30 minutes at the NAMM show a few weeks ago. One of the cool things about it, is that they have entered hundreds of songs into their database including all the Beatles songs, and it has a feature to suggest what chord should appear next based on this data.
It also allowed you to create a database of your own song parts (verses, choruses, etc) that you can draw on to use or mix and match.
I am sure there are many things it doesn't do compared to HN, because my demo period ran out long ago for HN and I didn't really use it that much before it ran out.
Sun, 2009-02-22 - 18:52 Permalink
i've just installed Songframe to have a look.
it is a very good program but it is not HN.
what i like about HN is that you can check out chords progressions just by clicking on different chords.
you can not do this in Songframe.
the only other program that does something similar to HN is Harmony Improvisator.
but HN is way more elegant in the execution.