New features in progress

[bvdp]

Couple of neat things I'm working (or may be working) on. Expect a beta/developer release later this month.

1. I've added a '-' option to the scaletype setting for aria tracks. So, you can now have a scaletype of "Scale", "Chord", etc. Or, "Scale-", "Chord-", etc. The magical '-' will force the depletion of the existing note list ... almost a poor man's 12 tone composition And it does a good job of avoiding a lot of repeated tones.

2. I'm considering adding a special track setting for CHORDs. Right now you set a chord and it applies to all the tracks. My understanding is that some styles (repetitive dance/hip-hop stuff) use a basic bass line over which different chords are played. So, I'm thinking that if one simply adds a Chord option/setting to each track one could have something like:

    Bass Chord D   /// use a 'D' chord to figure the bass notes
    C                    /// C chords for everything else, but the bass
    E                    /// E chords, still 'D' bass
    ...

Any comments on the above appreciated!
 

[Oren]

Feature #2 looks like a dandy for those of us who don't have a lot of higher brain function left...
Seriously - "bass and drums" oriented compositions would benefit from this approach... and letting the chording instrument "riff" over a repetitive bass line would help establish something for the dance/trance folks to work with.

[bvdp]

So I'm told. Honestly, at this point I don't understand the concept. I'm way too much structured in chords. It took me a very long time to finally figure out that chords were the basis of most music ... now I need relearn some things ... tough at my age

But, I do think that if the groove creator is using roman number chord notation, and the user sets a keysig ... it should be pretty seamless and easy. So, in my thoughts (not a single line of code so far, but I think it'll be fairly trivial) one could create groove with something like this:

Begin Bass-Boring
   Octave ...
    Sequence ...
   Chord I
   ....
End

and then do the rest of the chord and drum stuff. And save it with a catchy name.

Now the user can do something like:

Keysig A /// for you guitar players, not sax guys!!! We LIKE flat keys
Groove catchy-name

A
E
C#
....

And, with the key set to "A" and the bass line following the I chord (also "A") it should work out.

Only things we (user and groove writer) need to remember is to use roman notation in the groove and to set a keysig.

Guess I'll have to write some code tomorrow!

[bvdp]

I should add that our good friend, Alexis, is to blame for all this

He's trying his best to write a hip-hop groove and is finding that the only way to do this, currently, is by having a melody line repeating throughout the piece as a riff macro. I think track specific chords will make his life easier!

[bvdp]

An update: I've been working for about an hour on having track specific chords and most of it seems to be working. Very simple to shoehorn in! Hardest part is to make sure that the chord data is of a proper format, etc.

So, now we can do things like:

Code:

/// set the bass line to use the root chord for every bar
   Bass Chord I

/// Disable the track specific chords
   Bass Chord -

/// set the bass to 3 bars of root and a fifth on the 4th bar
/// this assumes 4 bar seq. Note the grouping mechanism
   Bass Chord {I} / / {V}

/// Disable the bass on the 4th bar only
   Bass Chord {} / /  {z}

Etc.  From my end it appears to be a neat addition.

Before I wrap this up into a beta I'd love some additional comments. And I need to do more testing.

Bob.

[alexis]

I should add that our good friend, Alexis, is to blame for all this

Sorry, Bob!

He's trying his best to write a hip-hop groove and is finding that the only way to do this, currently, is by having a melody line repeating throughout the piece as a riff macro.

Actually, I'm not sure this issue arises often in hip-hop but in house/techno music sure it does.

I think track specific chords will make his life easier!

Sure they will! Good addition. I'll have a look to MMA 12.02a.

Thanks

Alexis

[alexis]

He's trying his best to write a hip-hop groove and is finding that the only way to do this, currently, is by having a melody line repeating throughout the piece as a riff macro.

Actually, I'm not sure this issue arises often in hip-hop but in house/techno music sure it does.

By the way, I suggest that you, readers of this forum, have a look to UJAM:
http://www.ujam.com
You need a Facebook ( ) account to use it.
It is free (more and less "as beer", but unfortunately not at all "as speech").
The concept is nice, IMHA: UJAM permits to edit a melody,  helps harmonize it (but does not do it for you) and lets you apply a style.
This could give ideas for people willing to develop an UI around MMA.
And the range of styles offered to user is good, too. All main styles are there, from classical music to trance.
Tell if I'm wrong, but I think MMA lacks of styles covering recent musics.

Alexis

[bvdp]

Tell if I'm wrong, but I think MMA lacks of styles covering recent musics.

Alexis

You're not wrong. The author of MMA has written most of the groove files and he doesn't go for this new-fangled-modern music stuff.

Stuck-in-past-Bob. When singers could sing, players could read music and it was all wonderful

[alexis]

You're not wrong. The author of MMA has written most of the groove files and he doesn't go for this new-fangled-modern music stuff.
Stuck-in-past-Bob. When singers could sing, players could read music and it was all wonderful

After all, it's up to us, MMA users, to create styles not currently found in the distribution.

And for UJAM, I was wrong on this :

You need a Facebook ( Angry) account to use it.

...you may also supply an ID and a password, without using Facebook.

Alexis