Hi folks,

I am looking to turn one of my midi devices into a chord machine (have multiple notes sent to my DAW when I press just one key on my keyboard) via software.

What are optimal/practical ways of doing this?

 

Last edited: Oct 29, 2024

Plenty of plugins can do this. Ableton's built in "Chord" MIDI effect, Scaler 2 VST, plenty of others.

 

I want this to work universally, without having to route stuff inside my daw (Studio One). I am assuming I am going to have to use some kind of virtual MIDI driver.

 

Run a MIDI app standalone and use a MIDI loopback to make it a normal MIDI in port inside your DAW.

 

How? And which ones to use?

 

I use loopMIDI for these kind of things when I need to use a standalone MIDI app or do something like route MIDI between DAWs.

 

I agree loopMIDI is the best.
You set midi input: your hardware controller and midi output: virtual midi 1
In your DAW midi input: virtual MIDI 1

Even if you want to use an standalone app I would recommend a VST host because the best MIDI utils I know are plugins.
For basics needs you can take a look at this:
https://www.codefn42.com/chordz/index.html

Great developer of free MIDI plugins

 

connecting my DAW to loopMIDI was easy enough, but I can't find a way to route my actual keyboard to loopMIDI.

 

xfer Cthulhu as a Midi FX

 

I found out that I can just use Element to route stuff into my virtual midi output. As for the midi FX, chordjam is producing good results and does what I want: 1 key = chord. Can't wrap my head around Scaler. Cthulhu is worth a try to see what it does.

 

a Midi FX is definitely what I would pick. So your signal path in the daw is MIDI Signal Path: MIDI Input ➔ MIDI FX ➔ Instrument ➔ Audio FX ➔ Output.

The instrument being external hardware instrument or a virtual software instrument, it's the same thing. The midi data goes to the DAW before it is sent back out to the external instrument. You will only get the arpeggiated notes being triggered by the instrument.

 

How is one able to assign custom MIDI signals on a controller that doesn't necessarily triggers notes (like for example, the Launchpad, or something like this - which is what I want to get).

 

it is still a Midi Note On event.

 

Related to what @clone said: it's still a MIDI controller. So for Windows it's a MIDI device input. This one have features you can use directly if the DAW, along I guess with the drivers, supports them.

But at the end of the day a MIDI device sends MIDI notes (on/off with velocity) and MIDI CCs (simplifying). Everything else is built on top of that data. Like clip launching feature in Live DAW that one has.

You can use one of the mentioned midi plugins to remap your MIDI controller input, before using the chord generator you want.
For instance, in the case of the plugin developer I recommended:
https://www.codefn42.com/notemapper/index.html

 

Last edited: Oct 30, 2024

@ghostwriter,

Since you mentioned using Studio One, this DAW includes the Chorder plug-in that can be enabled on any MIDI track.

This should solve your hurdle for good.

 

Thanks for pointing that out! Though It only solves the problem in Studio One - not in other DAWs or notation software.

Will check that out also.

 

Couldn't you use Bluecat's Patchwork as a standalone application for this kind of purpose also? You could run whatever Midi FX plugins (Cthulhu-style arp/chord triggers) inside Patchwork and send its output to whatever. Plus, you can save presets and then load it as a plugin in your DAW/ host of choice; so your "preset" would be available anywhere you took it.