Posted
Hi,
I’m using Synfire in a modal workflow where the order of chord tones has a specific musical meaning.
For example, I may define a chord whose musical functions are intended to be:
Voice 1 → Root
Voice 2 → 7th
Voice 3 → 5th
or
Voice 1 → Root
Voice 2 → b6
Voice 3 → 5th
In other words, the order is not determined by conventional chord spelling, but by the musical role I want each instrument to play.
When using normal Chord interpretation, Synfire follows the chord spelling.
When using Open Chord, Synfire sometimes duplicates the bass/root instead of preserving the intended ordering.
My question is therefore not specifically about seventh chords.
It is more general:
Is there any way to define or preserve a custom ordering of chord tones when Synfire generates an Open Chord?
Or is the ordering always rebuilt internally according to Synfire’s voicing algorithm?
The goal is to have three instruments consistently receive:
- first chord tone,
- second chosen chord tone,
- third chosen chord tone,
regardless of the conventional harmonic interpretation.
I know I could achieve this by using Vertical figures instead of Chord figures.
However, that would require manually writing a new figure for every harmony change.
The reason I’m trying to solve this with Chord figures is that I only need to draw a single figure at the beginning of the progression, and Synfire automatically reinterprets it over all subsequent chords.
This makes the workflow extremely elegant and efficient for modal music, so I would very much like to preserve that behaviour while controlling the assignment of chord tones to the generated voices.
Fri, 2026-07-24 - 17:11 Permalink
You never know which chord will ultimately hit your figure, so the best way to set a particular inversion (and open/close) is in the Harmony parameter itself (where the chord is known).
The Figure should be as generic as possible. You may override inversion and voicing for an individual chord segment, but for that to work Interpretation must allow this.
The highest priority constraint however is total pitch range. If an open voicing with 5th at the bottom doesn't fit into the instrument's range, it will be folded, inverted, whatever it takes to make it fit.