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Having problems with Chord Symbols

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As we all know, there are many VSTi's that have built in pattern generators, particularly guitar ones for picking and strumming patterns.  All that is required is to play a chord and a pattern is generated.

I've been trying to use such a VSTi in Synfire, namely an old 32-bit plug-in from Steinberg called Virtual Guitarist 2.  It's actually very good and works fine in 64 bit using jBridge.

I'm trying to get it to work in Synfire but I'm having some problems.  Initially I thought I could use Auto-Chords, but that's no good as there are no figures so articulations would be out of the question to generate different patterns.

So I decided to go for using chord symbols with the 'Completion' setting in Interpretation (amongst other settings) so that it can generate full chords also (e.g. 7th's, etc.).

So I drew 3 chord symbols on 1, 3 and 5 (or 0, 2 and 4 in Synfire's case) and grouped them.  This works well most of the time but I can't get Synfire to play the root note of the chord for some reason.  For example, when selecting a simple C Major chord with C as the bass, Synfire plays G as the bass.  It doesn't seem to matter where I place the segment, or which symbol is the anchor, it always plays G as the root.

Usually, this is ok and VG2 handles inversions without a problem.  But in some instances it is important that the bass note is the root of the chord.  Particularly if it's a diminished chord as many chords of this type share the same notes.  Also for a m7, e.g. for Am7, A must be the root otherwise the chord may be interpreted as a C6.

So the question is, how do you get chord symbols to always select the lowest note as the root?  I have to use chord symbols as they are the only symbols for which Completion works.

It almost feels to me that there should be another symbol type, i.e. static that moves with harmony.  So you could paint C-E-G and it would transpose automatically to fit.


Fr., 18.04.2014 - 00:09 Permalink

If you do have a chordprogression ..use 1 number key ..to force to get  the root note (bass note) of the chord progression :)

So the question is, how do you get chord symbols to always select the lowest note as the root?  I have to use chord symbols as they are the only symbols for which Completion works.

Fr., 18.04.2014 - 00:13 Permalink

Thanks Jan, but I already understand that.  Like I said, I have C selected as the root but it still always plays the root as G :(

Fr., 18.04.2014 - 13:26 Permalink

I've found that it's the 'Completions' setting that was causing the problem.  Without this setting, the root note is a C, but is always a G when it's set for some reason.

So now I've drawn 4 chord symbols to cater for some of the fuller chords and it works very well (apart from 6th and sus2 chords).

There are various other settings needed to get it to work, so if anyone else wants to use a pattern generator in this way, I'll be happy to help if I can.

Fr., 18.04.2014 - 14:18 Permalink

I think if you have constructed chords in de figure editor .. then you must also add the Chordsymbols in the progression editor 
Voiceleading rules in Synfire  influences the rootpositions of chords, so maybe the voiceleading rules are now off? 

Fr., 18.04.2014 - 18:18 Permalink

I think if you have constructed chords in de figure editor .. then you must also add the Chordsymbols in the progression editor 

Yes, that was the whole idea, and it now works very well with different progressions.

so maybe the voiceleading rules are now off?

No, the Voice Leading is set to Chords Only, None and Strong (with Cooperative not ticked).