Using Chord Tracker and registration buttons

[JanCK]

I'm thinking about trying out Chord Tracker as a way to feed pure chordal information to Genos and any of the styles.  Before I run off into a possible wild goose chase, I have two questions for anyone who is using Chord Tracker with the Genos:

1.   I set up one song per bank of registrations. Would it be possible to use Chord Tracker with registrations for part of a song, and have other registrations within that bank set up to play without Chord Tracker, just as I normally play?  In other words, in one bank of registrations there might be 1 or more registration buttons set to use Chord Tracker, and 1 or more registrations set to play without.

2.   Does Chord Tracker allow you to program it with slash chords?  I didn't see any in the Youtube videos, nor by reading the Chord Tracker reference manual.

I know I can achieve feeding chordal information to Genos by making a MIDI recording, but then I don't see how you could add drum fills on the fly, since the accompaniment would have to be turned off, and you'd be playing along to a recording.  I find it hard to  make those kinds of recordings without a bunch of mistakes, and then have to struggle to correct them.  That's why I thought Chord Tracker might be worth considering.

[EileenL]

Take a look at this.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNFjEVKiFVY

As I see it it will tell you the chords being used on a wav file which if you want you can play along with.
You can also write them down so you can play the chords yourself just as you would a piece of music.
You can then select your style and add your drum fills as you normally do.

[marrantz]

I have played around with chord tracker, and as far as I remember the app allows you to send the chord sequence to instrument (Genos)

You can play the track in the app and follow the chords and connect to Genos via WiFi and the tune will play through the Genos speakers and control the volume in the mixer using the WLAN volume slider. The song file format is MP3 or MP4(Apple)

The only downside for me personally is the music has to be in your Apple Music library, so you have to flaf around with iTunes to put music on your device.

When you send the chord sequence to Genos from the app, Genos displays it as a text file, so I'm sure you could save it in a registration.

I hope this helps.

Cheers Steve.

[JanCK]

Thanks Eileen.  I saw that video and while it's helpful, it doesn't answer my questions.

marrantz (or anyone else) -- Have you ever just manually added the chord changes, rather than having it analyze and play from an iTunes song?  That's what I'm thinking I would do because I'm really only wanting it as a data input method that I can still use the styles with.  I want Genos to know what chords to use for the accompaniment no matter what I'm playing and to be pre-programmed with that.  The goal is to set it up so that I can play completely independently, not having to be concerned with my chord voicings feeding it the information.  The reason is I want the freedom to voice the chords as I want and not as Genos needs it in order to read the chords correctly.  And I want to be able to use single note lines in my left hand without messing up the harmony.  I'm just wondering if Chord Tracker will make this possible.  Do you know?

Also, still wondering if it lets you input slash chords.

[pjd]

Hello Jan --

My studio situation is still tenuous, so I may not be able to answer your question about ChordTracker.

I have a similar way of working and like to create, effectively, a lead sheet accompaniment that I can play against for practice.

One possibility is right there in your keyboard. It's chord step record. Basically, in Song Creator, one needs to enter chords into the chord track. Genos chord step record supports slash chords. It's possible to change the style, too, in order to try different styles with a lead sheet-like arrangement.

Hope this helps -- pj

Genos Reference Manual, page 81

[panos]

I don't know about the chord tracker and how good or not is to identify all the correct chords froman audio file (we allready know that many other chord tracker programs do not)
but
have you tried to play a midi song and then choose a style and press the style start button?
Disable the ACCMP button and play along with both hands.
Also delete(or mute) the melody channel(s) you don't want.
You can use the Main variation buttons and fill ins this way.

But I never have tried to see how both will start together or there must be a blank bar on the midi file so you have time to press the style start button,or how we can have bot in  regs etc.

[JanCK]

pjd -- I have not tried step recording because it looks so daunting, being such a low-tech kind of person (and yet I have a Genos!).  Chord Tracker looked easier than step recording, but maybe if I settled into step recording it would be the better solution.  (I wasn't looking to Chord Tracker to reveal the songs' chords...I already have those...but just to feed data to Genos.)  Anyway, I guess I better just buck up and take a flying leap into step recording.    Your message prompted me to read the instructions again, and it looks like you can enter just the chords.  For some reason I thought you had to do much more than that.

panos -- I did try recording just the chords into a MIDI recording.  It worked for really simple songs, but I tend to play mostly jazzed up pop and soft rock tunes and I made too many mistakes,,,and then didn't know how to fix them without starting a whole new recording.  A person can burn up a whole lot of time and patience that way.

[pjd]

Hi Jan --

Yep, I just enter chords. I find it helpful to write out the chord progression (without the use of repeats) and number the measures. That makes it easier to get the right chords into the right measures during step record. Otherwise, it's easy to get confused.

We're selling our house and my gear is packed away. Makes it difficult to experiment. The idea of using ChordTracker as a lead sheet scratchpad is a good one.

All the best -- pj

[JanCK]

pjd -- All righty then, sounds worth checking out the step recording.  Thanks for the tips.  I'm wondering, why do you leave out repeats?  But I bet that will become clear.

[pjd]

Wrt repeats. I couldn't quite say what I meant. Sorry about that.

The chord track in Genos Song Creator (or whatever it's called) is one long list of chord and accompaniment events. It does not have the concept of a repeat.

Lead sheets usually have at least one repeat. So, in order to make a complete accompaniment, the user needs to expand (unroll) the repeats, i.e., effectively making multiple copies of a repeated lead sheet section one after another. Kind of clunky and easy to get lost when editing a long linear list of chord events.

Hope this explanation is a little more clear -- pj

[pjd]

BTW, here's an idea that I'd like to try.

ChordTracker generates "no chord" when it doesn't detect a musical chord.

So, maybe record an audio file with 48 or so measures of a drum beat. Then, run the audio file through ChordTracker. I'm thinking that ChordTracker will generate 48 measures of No Chord. Then, edit the measures in ChordTracker and change No Chord to something else (e.g., Fmaj7) according to the lead sheet. This gets around the main limitation of ChordTracker -- the inability to add new empty measures to a song.

ChordTracker does support slash chords. They are called "on bass" in Yamaha-speak.

All the best -- pj

[Ed B]

Hi Jan
I wonder if another approach for you might be to use Full Keyboard AI. Using this mode you play two handed and the keyboard (using the style you select) will figure out the chords to play in the accompaniment . It is pretty good but does have some problems with some of the more complex chords at times.
Regards
Ed B