Whats the Best Chord Progression Hardware?

Definitely not the best but the electribe 2 has some chord mode features which have a fair amount of versatility along with scale modes. I think ultimately using it convinced me to give up on the idea of chord modes and standard scale modes (microtonal is still pretty interesting) it is easy to make some nice sounding stuff but you are also putting limits on yourself which without having the theory can make it hard to figure out how and when to break out of theory and play some “wrong notes” at least for me it has been better to progress learning from a chromatic as you are just more free to explore.

On IOS “Tonality” is a great app for a few $s. It has most chords, scales and assignable pads to play back. It may also be on Android but I’m not 100% sure.

your brain

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According to the Loopop vid, the NDLR automatically changes the voicing of chords as you move up or down the range. I just ordered one from Indiegogo (not shipping until April :frowning:) and I’m excited about it because it seems to do more than other, more basic chord generators. I don’t need help coming up with chord progressions (or playing them), but I am interested in its generative sequencing possibilities.

Chordbot, obviously.

That ISLA Kordbot looks pretty intriguing

make chords with your heart <3

but yeah kordbot looks great i got an ableton friend to get one he loves it !

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Where can I get one?

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A chord’s voicing is the distance between its notes. For example, if you have C-E-G-C for a C major chord within one octave, that would be the same voicing as D-F#-A-D within one octave for a D major chord. But if the D major chord is voiced F#-A-D-F#, that would be a change in voicing, which is the first inversion. The same goes for D minor if you change the F# to an F: the note distances aren’t exactly the same, but they still feel parallel. If the box provides inversions, that helps, but that’s still not as flexible with moving the location of the chord tones as I’d need. But this only matters, I guess, if you’re feeling boxed in, like the thing is too rigid-sounding compared to what you want to hear.

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Expedited learning through the circle of 5ths…this will nullify the need for an app…

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ill be your ableton friend too :slight_smile:

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The lengths that electronic musicians will go through to avoid learning music theory still baffles me.

YOU GUYS ARE SMART. You learned what filters and oscillators and LFOs and p locking are. You can patch modular synths like mad men. But you dont want to learn basic theory and how to construct a chord?

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it’s more the personal interest in noise and ambient and soundscape and not wanting to do imitate what others do all the time… those typical song structures bore me to death (for the exception of every beatles song and some others)
And so I avoid music theory and avoid moog like synths and embrace the sound of machines and nature and look where altering this sound takes me too…

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Music theory became a lot more intuitive when I started playing accordion. Bass layout is arranged like the circle of fifths while the melody side is arranged chromatically.

Added benefit is I now know how to play accordion. Its sick for noise and ambient too.

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Sure, I know music theory: it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift…

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So then you must not know what filters do right? Or LFOs? I mean if you did it could stifle your creativity…

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Lauchpad pro mk3 has a chord mode

Maybe that’s true for some people, but it strikes me as a put down.

I knew a fair amount – even college level music theory and harmony courses (Persichetti) and have composed some, and now play multiple instruments. I have been working for years getting the theory in my fingers. But i’ve surprised myself how much i’ve learned using the Theoryboard – ear training, opening up new ideas, and making the theory practical to music. I try to bring what i do on the TB back to a standard keyboard and get it back into my hands. Look forward to using other electronic assistance that can improve my musical abilities.

I might say something about the lengths people go through to avoid new ideas – but that’s also unfair.

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Using it as a learning tool is one thing…using it as a crutch is another.

I wouldn’t be a synthesist without presets because that’s how I learned to make patches–by reverse engineering cool (and simple) patches. But if I only used presets I wouldn’t know sound design.

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Music theory does not lead you down the same paths, same song structures, etc as are used frequently in popular music or something like that… it just informs you about the relationships between frequencies, how dissonant or consonant a relationship is, which keys and modes are “brighter” or less so, etc. Regardless of whether you learn it or not, the music you make can still be described using it and the relationships still very much exist in your music. You’re working with frequency, not magic, and it’s science… so learning music theory will without question be valuable in your music-making process, unless your goal is to just have sounds come out with absolutely no preconceived idea of what they will sound like, what should follow, or how the whole is constructed or related. Learning theory doesn’t negate the ability to rely on your ear and sensibilities.

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