Hello everyone!
In the past 3 days i've been working on a tool that could be quite useful in creative situations where a daw is not available: a modal chorder:
modal8.axs (43.1 KB) [LATEST VERSION: removed master detune and dedicated outputs, cpu usage is now only 4% and i trimmed away 57 KB of sram usage, tutorials are still valid]
modal.axs (99.9 KB) [OLD VERSION, far heavier (10% cpu usage), download this for the example patches]
What does it do?
This chorder allows you to memorize up to 8 musical modes (if you don't know what modes are you can check the article on wikipedia ) and output pitch CVs accordingly, tuned to the pitch you want.
You can for example memorize 4 chords and build a chord progression, or you can make an arpeggiator out of it (you could do such a thing using the modal chorder in combination with my 16 step sequencer for example)
What does it look like
Despite its scary look, the principle behind it is quite simple:
Say, for example, you want to output a D minor scale (which is D E F G A Bb C).
First of all you'll need to provide the root pitch CV. This depends mostly on the pitch you tune your oscillators in, i usually tune oscillators in C4 (-4), so if i want to provide a D root i'll have to input +2 in the chorder.
At this point you'll need to choose the scale. The natural minor scale is the 6th mode of the natural major scale, so you'll have to click the first button in "Scale 1" and the sixth button in "Mode 1"
Click on the buttons 1,2,..,7 from the "active note" strip and you're done.
Gate outlets 1,..,7 will output boolean 1, and CV outlets 1,..,7 will output the desired pitches.
ModalE1.axp (11.6 KB)
A more musical example can be found here: ModalE2.axp (14.3 KB)
Inlets:
Root pitch: Used to provide the pitch to build the scale on
Select: Allows you to choose one of the 8 memorized chords
Outlets:
Bass CV Outputs the root pitch octaved down by 1 octave. Always active.
CV (1-7): These will output the desired pitch values, corresponding to the active notes.
Gate (1-7): If the corresponding CV is active, this will output a boolean 1
Per chord parameters:
Scale: Allows you to choose a scale between these 4: natural major, harmonic major, harmonic minor, melodic minor. Check wikipedia if you don't know what these are!
Mode: Allows you to choose which mode you want to use for the selected scale. If you're in natural major scale, for example, the modes will be: Ionian (natural major), dorian, phrygian, lydian, myxolydian (dominant), aeolian (natural minor), locrian.
For this selector only buttons 1-7 are used (since there are only 7 modes per scale), button 8 outputs mode 1
Octaver: Allows you to pitch one octave up the corresponding note, in case you want to play some inversions or extended chords, again only steps 1-7 are used, steps 8-16 won't do anything (this because there are not 7 steps long selectors in the patcher
Active note: Activates the desired note of the selected scale. Because you might just want to play a 7th chord, or a suspended note, and not the full scale. Only steps 1-7 are used, steps 8-16 won't do anything (this because there are not 7 steps long selectors in the patcher
Chorder logic: This chorder will stack the outputs. If you activate steps 1, 3, 5, the corresponding CVs and gates will be outputted at 1, 2 and 3.
So, CV 7 and Gate 7 will be used only and only if all steps are activated.
No known issues for the newest version, if you encounter one please report!
Known issues for the older version:
It's really heavy, that object will suck away 10% of the cpu. This because it's really a complicated patch inside.
Also this object is quite an hardcore sram eater, this is a major issue since it will easily overflow patches.
I have some ideas on how to make it lighter, but by now this is it. So, maybe you can use it as a quick substitute for a daw, if you're in a creative moment and don't want to use midi or if you need to provide some really big chords.
Hope you enjoy it 
