Posted
HI All..
I just purchased HN2 as a tool to help us build more interesting Chord Progressions into our experimental/electronic production setup.
I have a few questions i hope to resolve as i get to grips with this awesome new tool.
In it's purest form i would like to use HN2 with 3 instrument tracks.
2 Playing Imported Midi Phrases from another project for Kick/Bass triggering, which i would like to do externally in Ableton via the IAC setup.
The last track i would like to play the palettes of chords in our desired scale, also playing over IAC to a nice chord sound in Ableton. I understand i cant fully sync between the 2 programs but should be able to route sounds between the 2 and record the chord progressions/arrangements in HN2 and then export those out at a later date after some cool on the fly jamming via the 2 programs.
So far i have managed to get the 2 instruments playing the Kick/Bass parts working ok with the Midi phrases imported and the sounds playing out via IAC. The problem i have is making the palettes play the 3rd track in Ableton and especially when i put HN2 into record mode to jam i seem to loose the sound routing for everything.Basically i can make it work until i press record but after that i loose the backing sounds and only hear the chords?
Any ideas what i'm doing wrong? Should be something simple i'm missing i hope.
Do i need to create a special accompaniment?
Do i need to set the chords track up with some figure?
Do i need to setup NH2 for recording in anyway?
Sorry, just a little confused and excited to get this rig up and running.
BTW i found the harmoniser very using for laying nice chords to some pre-prepped melodies...
I can see lots of potential with this all working, and look forward to speaking with more of you around here!
Thanks for help in advance...
Lee
Tue, 2010-07-20 - 21:24 Permalink
Hi Lee,
thanks for your experience report and welcome to the forum!
[quote]The problem i have is making the palettes play the 3rd track in Ableton and especially when i put HN2 into record mode to jam i seem to loose the sound routing for everything.Basically i can make it work until i press record but after that i loose the backing sounds and only hear the chords?
Hm. Hopefully I understand your problem correctly. First off, you can't have an accompaniment running in the background while you play live chords in a palette at the same time. Either one will stop the other.
If you play palettes in chords-only mode, this will use the global instruments for chords and bass (Audio & MIDi Setup). Configure these global instruments to address your desired track(s) in Ableton Live.
If you play accompaniments, these were created for mutiple sounds. HN attempts to match them with any sounds it can find in your setup. So, if you don't edit the accompaniments and change them to use your own sounds, HN might select suboptimal replacements, especially if your collection of sounds is small.
Andre
Wed, 2010-07-21 - 04:32 Permalink
Hi Andre
Huge Thanks for your time. Ok i think i still have difficulties understanding the nuts n bolts of the program at this stage, but am frantically making headway through the manual once again to pick more up.
I guess if i outline what i would really like to do with HN2, then perhaps you could suggest a quick way of getting to that level, and getting me working solidly with the program. The rest will follow over time. I remember first loading Logic years ago.. :-?
OK so our project is a Electronic Hybrid Band. We use mixed Electronic/Acoustic Drums,Electronic Bass/Melodies & Chords Blended with Live Electric Guitar.
For songwriting, i would like to be able to take some of our grrove ideas (Kick/Bass MIDI Parterns) and bring them into HN2 to then trigger externally our synths in Ableton or Logic. Next i would like to construct the arrangement of the track based on jamming palettes of chords also using a nice sound in Ableton.
To be able to do that alone, and come up with some nice new interesting progressions would be great. I also use the Harmoniser to suggest chords for pre-arranged melodies we have written with the keyboard/guitar. I would ultimately like to be able to arrange all of those progressions together in the song window(Intro,Verse,Chorus,ect), and export my chord progressions as a basis for how the whole track will unfold once back in my DAW.
I'm not too worried about the groove side or auto chord side of the program, but would love to be able to do the above somehow and press record and jam the progressions in HN2 but playing sounds external.
Is that possible and whats the best method to follow setting it all up? Like i said before i have come so very close, but am not 100% sure i am working things correctly.
Again, i'm really grateful for the community base of this program, and am glad i invested into it, as i can see it being real useful for time to come...
Many Thanks
Lee :lol:
Sat, 2010-07-24 - 20:59 Permalink
The easiest way of getting complete drum patterns into HN is MIDI import. As HN does not offer a piano roll editor, you'll probably want to edit these patterns in your DAW and export them as MIDI files.
Of course, recording simple bass drum plus snare grooves is even easier when you simply record them directly into HN using a MIDI keyboard.
For jamming, you can create a new accompaniment pattern that consist of your drums and one auto-chords pad, and use that for live palette playing. Be sure you set the Interpretation parameter to "Auto-Chords". This will render the full chord you currently click.
If you feel you need more and faster chord changes, edit the Transition parameter. It determins at what beats exactly you have the option to change the chord.
And yes, you can record everything you play this way and get a progression as the result.
Let us know if this works for you.