Developer Rick Burnett has released Xeno – Chord Explorer Version 1 – a free Max For Live + Ableton Live chord plugin.
Here’s what Burnett has to say about it:
I’ve spent a great deal of time looking through all the available chord plugins in VST, AU and M4L formats and just never really found what I was looking for. Most chord exploration programs either have non-generative fixed chord patterns per key (Cthulu) or chord generation that is based on the full 12 note scale and deals in semitones (Nordmann Chord Generator or Ableton Live MIDI chord plugin).
I wanted a chord generator that generated all chords in key with varying chord sizes very easily. I do not come from a keyboard/piano background and I don’t like getting lost in theory while I write music. This is the perfect tool to really get into exploring chords in all sorts of ways.
Even further, pairing it with Ableton Live’s arpeggiator and you REALLY have a lot of flexibility in what you can do. The best part, this plugin is free (provided you own Max For Live)!
You can download Xeno – Chord Explorer from the Erogenous Tones site.
Genius. Thank you for making this. This will be very helpful.
this is fantastic. thanks very much. I will use it. Is it possible that you might do a hands on video tutorial someday. I read through the documentation twice and kinda get what’s going on but it always helps to see someone who really knows it to demonstrate it to get a better idea. I’m interested in using to find interesting sounding progressions. Really really nice. thanks again!
Stunning work! Thank you!
I am definitely planning on doing a video about using it in the near future! I’m still finding new ways of using it myself and I wrote it, haha.
That said, The best thing to do is just with say CMajor, create a loop playing just a C1, then go to the first position and play with each knob and look at what the keyboards show. That’s one of the reasons I put the keyboards in there so it was easy to see what was happening. Once you do that, including things like the note filter, it becomes easy to see.
Have fun!
thanks Rick!!
I always forget where the .amxd files are suppose to be place on a Mac????
… just drop the device from downloads on a track in live and press the disk icon in the upper right hand corner of the device … live then will add it to the appropriate place in your library … hope this helps!
fantastic! Look forward to checking it out later.. Thanks for sharing your hard work!
Is there a plan to release this as a Kontack plug-in for those of us who are unfortunate enough to own Live?
Awesome. I found this tool when I was lost in theory and browsed for a smarter solution. Thank you for releasing 🙂
Just played around with it some more. Just a tip for novice people (like me):
– Create the midi track A
– Create the (single) midi progression in midi track A
– Let xeno-chord-explorer do it’s magic (add sub for example) on midi track A
– Create another midi track B
– Set the midi input of midi track B to midi track A
– Arm midi track B (record)
– Record the midi output from midi track A
Now you have the midi output from midi track A in midi track B in which you can remove or add notes for layering different synths/sounds