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I have a piece that is coming along, nicely but I want some alternate chords. Right now the piece has different instruments playing some melodic riffs, there is not 'master melody' track. So I select a track (melodic) and go to phrase harmonize. How many tracks should I check? I would imagine the more I pick the smaller my chord choices become.
Does SFP still take into account what all tracks are doing?.
Can you give us some insight?
Wed, 2012-06-27 - 08:18 Permalink
How many tracks should I check? I would imagine the more I pick the smaller my chord choices become.
That's correct. The more harmonic voices (tracks) you use at the harmonizer the easier it will be for Synfire to find an appropriate chord progression. So, the more tracks you use for harmonization, the more Synfire will narrow down the amount of chords it offers you to choose from.
But on the other side you can also use only one track (instrument) with a melodic line for harmonization. You will then get a larger amount of chords offered for selection. This can be helpful if your intention is to find alternate chords.
Does SFP still take into account what all tracks are doing?.
The harmonizer takes only the selected tracks into account for finding chord progressions. But you don't need to worry that the other tracks will sound bad, if you use one of those chord progressions from the harmonizer in your arrangement. Synfire will "adjust" all the tracks (instruments) according to this chord progression in any case.
So, a good way for finding alternative chords, is to use only a few tracks at the harmonizer (maybe the main melody, a bass line and one or two accompaniment tracks). Then you can take over this alternative chord progression into your arrangement and listen, how the complete arrangement (all instruments) will sound with this progression.