Keith McMillen Instruments announced today its Enhanced Note Mode for their QuNeo 3D Multi-touch Pad Controller.

The Enhanced Note Mode maps QuNeo’s pads to the notes of nine types of musical scales, while setting the tonic to any of 12 notes. The scales included in Enhanced Note Mode are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian, as well as Major Pentatonic and Minor Pentatonic.

(If you missed the discussion of different kinds of scales in Intro to Music Theory, you can find an explanation at this link. If you missed our earlier articles about the QuNeo, you can find those at this link.)

Enhanced Note Mode for QuNeo features a built-in harmonizer, pitch-adding capability, timed harmonic offset, independent vibrato and pitch-bending, octave-jumping, and colored LED light feedback. More detailed explanations below the fold:

Harmonizer. Enhanced Note Mode includes a harmonizer that can add complementary pitches to each note being played. The timing of the additional harmonizer pitches can be offset to create a “rhythmically compelling cascade” of notes.

Adding Pitches. QuNeo’s far left vertical slider controls the number of additional pitches added to a note. As the value of the slider increases, pitches are layered upon the original note — one octave below, one fifth above, one octave above, and two octaves above.

Offset. QuNeo’s second vertical slider offsets the additional harmonizing pitches in time. As the value of the slider increases, the offset time grows from simultaneous to as much as a quarter note.

Pitch Bend. In Enhanced Note Mode, each pad can produce independent vibrato or deep pitch bends at the touch of a finger. Pitch bend sensitivity can be adjusted to suit the player’s preference.

LED Feedback. QuNeo’s multi-colored LEDs guide players in navigating the notes of the different scales. Keys that are illuminated in green are the root notes of the scale. Keys illuminated in orange correspond to the 2nd, 4th, and 6th notes of the scale. Keys illuminated in red are the 3rd, 5th, and 7th notes of the scale.

Octave Switching. QuNeo’s arrow buttons in the lower right corner can shift the register up or down within a nine octave range.

Pricing and Availability. Enhanced Note Mode can be downloaded for free as a Max for Live* device, as an editable Max patch, or as a standalone application for Mac OS and Windows. Use it in series with any synthesizer or DAW application.

* Note: To use the Max for Live version of Enhanced Note Mode, the user must have either Ableton Live 8 Suite or Ableton Live 9 Suite installed on your computer. Additionally, you must have a version of Cycling ’74’s Max 5 (Suite 8) or Max 6.1.2 (Suite 9).