Mesh
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Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
Although this isn't a new product, I just found this great little inspirational chord generator developed by Steve Duda (especially good for us non-keyboardists)......one finger chord generator.  It may not be for all the purist musicians, but it does allow you to get out of your normal "playing loop" process and explore other creative ways to inspire you. It also comes with a very interesting/powerful Arp Module. $39.00 "Cthulhu is firstly a chord memorizer and player, allowing you to experiment with creating and reworking chord progressions with single-note presses.Included are over 150 factory chord presets allowing for a near-unlimited amount of possible musical-sounding chord progressions.Import MIDI or 'record' chords straight in, Cthulhu is able to analyze the chords you play and allow for various sorting options (Circle of 5ths, Chromatic, low note, etc) allowing for easy access over your chords!" http://www.xferrecords.com/products/cthulhu 
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Glyn Barnes
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/17 10:43:29
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I seem to recall a thread about people having problems with the MIDI out in Sonar? It may have been an earlier version or a routing issue?
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Mesh
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/17 11:03:00
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Glyn Barnes
I seem to recall a thread about people having problems with the MIDI out in Sonar? It may have been an earlier version or a routing issue?
I just found that thread from Jan 2013: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Has-anyone-tried-Cthulhu-in-Sonar-yet-m2757681.aspx Brando and Nigel were having some initial issues with it, but seems like they were resolved. I'm definitely going to give the demo a try........looks to be a very good composition tool.
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Bajan Blue
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/17 11:42:28
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Hi Mesh
Yes did have some issues to start with but got it working OK in the end. Have to say though I did not find it very useful and I have hardly used it. If you can get a demo (not sure there was one when I purchased) I would definitely give it a very good test before deciding to purchase. I do feel it could have been a lot better and I saw some product advertised recently (stupidly I have forgotten the name!) which seemed far better, although I never did try that one either!!!
Cheers
Nigel
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Mesh
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/17 11:51:19
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Bajan Blue
Hi Mesh
Yes did have some issues to start with but got it working OK in the end. Have to say though I did not find it very useful and I have hardly used it. If you can get a demo (not sure there was one when I purchased) I would definitely give it a very good test before deciding to purchase. I do feel it could have been a lot better and I saw some product advertised recently (stupidly I have forgotten the name!) which seemed far better, although I never did try that one either!!!
Cheers
Nigel
Glad you chimed in Nigel..... Do you remember what were things that made it "not so useful"? Did it not work as advertised/bugs? It looks quite simple to use (at least from the videos) and seems like the routing my be slightly complicated.....
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Bajan Blue
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/17 11:58:58
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Mesh
Not used it in ages and I'm sitting in an airport waiting for my flight, so can't fire up the system!! What I remember was that the chord generation system was based on classical (I think) music progression patterns - I really didn't like the way it had been done - might have been OK for simple Dance Type Music but I wasn't really looking for that. I will be in front of my system in a couple days and I can refresh my memory better - in the mean time, THRASH the demo!!
Nigel
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Mesh
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/17 12:41:51
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Bajan Blue
Mesh
Not used it in ages and I'm sitting in an airport waiting for my flight, so can't fire up the system!! What I remember was that the chord generation system was based on classical (I think) music progression patterns - I really didn't like the way it had been done - might have been OK for simple Dance Type Music but I wasn't really looking for that. I will be in front of my system in a couple days and I can refresh my memory better - in the mean time, THRASH the demo!!
Nigel
 ....lol......will do. Have a safe flight!!
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rtucker55
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/17 18:20:12
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☄ Helpfulby Mesh 2014/09/18 08:18:01
Hey Mesh,
I purchased this Monday this week. I have been using it in Sonar X3e 64 Pro with no problems at all. It is kinda intimidating at first but after I figured the routing out it is as easy as below:
Instantiate the Cthulhu vsti like any instrument so that you have a midi and audio track for it (the audio track comes in handy for using the on-board tone generator while getting things setup, you can toggle the speaker on Cthulhu's ui on or off to hear the tone generator)
Instantiate another vsti that you would like for it to send the chords to.
Route your midi controller(keyboard) to the input of Cthulhu's midi track input
Route Cthulhu's midi track output to the midi track input of the above vsti you want to send chords to.
Call up a chord preset and play any single note on your keyboard and it will trigger the chord ,associated with the preset key, on the other vsti.
While the presets are interesting the real power comes in being able to learn and save your own... It will learn new notes by playing them on your keyboard, while in Learn Mode, but it does not pickup velocity and you will need to manually adjust with the mouse or type in the value for each note. Still, VERY COOL TOOL for $39.
Up to 8 notes, each, at separate velocities can be triggered by one key on your keyboard. Great for playing chords you could not play with one hand while freeing up the other hand, or for background horn or string sections.
I've only scratched the surface so far but If you have any other questions I can try to answer them for you.
Kind regards,
Rick
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Mesh
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/18 08:48:10
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Excellent post Rick....THANK YOU for the detailed info on routing this!!! I was really hoping that this could be used in X3 as well as be a useful tool for me in the initial song composition. Knowing my very limited keyboard "banging" skills, I tend to always end up playing the keys in sort of a repetitive way where inspiration/variety is severely needed.......so this might just help boost that. Will check out the demo for sure and now seeing your post, looks like I'll be onboard very soon.  Thanks again!!
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auto_da_fe
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/18 14:32:58
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http://www.7aliens.com/w2-harmonizer-vst This is the one finger chord generator that I love...unfortunately once I went 64 bit it stopped working and would not work with any wrappers in Sonar. it works fine in other 64 bit hosts, just not in Sonar X. The developer is supposed to be "working on it." But I am going to try this demo this evening. JR
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perfectprint
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/18 20:33:06
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Bajan Blue
Mesh
Not used it in ages and I'm sitting in an airport waiting for my flight, so can't fire up the system!! What I remember was that the chord generation system was based on classical (I think) music progression patterns - I really didn't like the way it had been done - might have been OK for simple Dance Type Music but I wasn't really looking for that. I will be in front of my system in a couple days and I can refresh my memory better - in the mean time, THRASH the demo!!
Nigel
yeah the presets are Bach chorales, but they are presets after all and not a limitation of the plugin. I recorded in hundreds of progression from MIDI files in old sessions that I may make available soon.
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Mesh
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/19 08:30:19
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perfectprint
Bajan Blue
Mesh
Not used it in ages and I'm sitting in an airport waiting for my flight, so can't fire up the system!! What I remember was that the chord generation system was based on classical (I think) music progression patterns - I really didn't like the way it had been done - might have been OK for simple Dance Type Music but I wasn't really looking for that. I will be in front of my system in a couple days and I can refresh my memory better - in the mean time, THRASH the demo!!
Nigel
yeah the presets are Bach chorales, but they are presets after all and not a limitation of the plugin. I recorded in hundreds of progression from MIDI files in old sessions that I may make available soon.
To be honest, I'm a big fan of Bach, Mozart, classical music etc.....and do like incorporating multiple genre's in my musical bag. These presets will definitely come in handy and I'm sure I'll make good use of them, but like Rick said, creating your own will be where this can be turned into a powerful tool. Auto_da_fe, Cthulhu seems to be Catanya and Harmonizer both in one tool........I do have Catanya (which is a great little midi phrase Arp) and from what I've read, the developer is MIA most of the time (even with general support emails as such). Interestingly, Catanya is 64 bit compatible but the Harmonizer (which has been out for some years) isn't.... 
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Mesh
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/22 08:35:23
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rtucker55
Hey Mesh,
I purchased this Monday this week. I have been using it in Sonar X3e 64 Pro with no problems at all. It is kinda intimidating at first but after I figured the routing out it is as easy as below:
Instantiate the Cthulhu vsti like any instrument so that you have a midi and audio track for it (the audio track comes in handy for using the on-board tone generator while getting things setup, you can toggle the speaker on Cthulhu's ui on or off to hear the tone generator)
Instantiate another vsti that you would like for it to send the chords to.
Route your midi controller(keyboard) to the input of Cthulhu's midi track input
Route Cthulhu's midi track output to the midi track input of the above vsti you want to send chords to.
Call up a chord preset and play any single note on your keyboard and it will trigger the chord ,associated with the preset key, on the other vsti.
While the presets are interesting the real power comes in being able to learn and save your own... It will learn new notes by playing them on your keyboard, while in Learn Mode, but it does not pickup velocity and you will need to manually adjust with the mouse or type in the value for each note. Still, VERY COOL TOOL for $39.
Up to 8 notes, each, at separate velocities can be triggered by one key on your keyboard. Great for playing chords you could not play with one hand while freeing up the other hand, or for background horn or string sections.
I've only scratched the surface so far but If you have any other questions I can try to answer them for you.
Kind regards,
Rick
I tried Cthulhu over the weekend and got it to (sort of) work......I was able to play something on my midi keyboard and hear the Arp through Alchemy, but couldn't get the the Chord thing going. I could see the litle green light being on for both the Arp & Chord. I also selected one of the presetes (seperately) for both, bit only the Arp played back. The main thing I wanted to use it for was the 1 finger shord function, but.....??? Don't know if it's the Demo version that's causing this, but the only limitation it say is "Timing out afet 20 minutes and No Saving"...... not sure why it's now working?? I might have to just contact Steve Duda and see what he says...
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rtucker55
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/22 11:04:19
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Hi Mesh,
Couple of things you might chk/try:
-In Sonar, chk the Cthul vst properties and ensure you have it configured as a synth. My settings are:
Enable as plug-in, Configure as synth, Force stereo operation( don't care ), Enable delay compensation.
-On the Cthulhu UI, click on the CTHULHU name (Upper Right side of UI) see which version you have. I am still using 1.0.3 although a 1.0.6 is now available but I have not tried it yet.
-Click on the ARP button to turn the green light off and dismiss the arp section then see if you can get the chords to work
- Ensure you have a Chord Preset selected (you can tell by the Blue lines above the UI keyboard and make sure you Play one of those keys on your controller.
- If things are working correctly you should see the chord keys show up (in green) on the UI keyboard when you play a note on your keyboard. If you can't see that then it is a setup issue vs. a routing issue. At least it is a data point we can start from.
Can't think of anything else right now, Please let me know how you make out.
Kind regards,
Rick
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Mesh
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/22 12:15:51
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rtucker55
Hi Mesh,
Couple of things you might chk/try:
-In Sonar, chk the Cthul vst properties and ensure you have it configured as a synth. My settings are:
Enable as plug-in, Configure as synth, Force stereo operation( don't care ), Enable delay compensation.
-On the Cthulhu UI, click on the CTHULHU name (Upper Right side of UI) see which version you have. I am still using 1.0.3 although a 1.0.6 is now available but I have not tried it yet.
-Click on the ARP button to turn the green light off and dismiss the arp section then see if you can get the chords to work
- Ensure you have a Chord Preset selected (you can tell by the Blue lines above the UI keyboard and make sure you Play one of those keys on your controller.
- If things are working correctly you should see the chord keys show up (in green) on the UI keyboard when you play a note on your keyboard. If you can't see that then it is a setup issue vs. a routing issue. At least it is a data point we can start from.
Can't think of anything else right now, Please let me know how you make out.
Kind regards,
Rick
Hi Rick, Thanks these tips, I appreciate them and will give it a shot tonight. IIRC, I too am on version 1.03 (Demo) and did disarm the Arp function when trying to get the Chrord function to work.....to no avail. I also tried pulling up a Chord preset with only the Chrod Function armed, but nothing would happen.....of note, I did try clicking on the UI keyboard with my mouse, but the keyboard didn't work (meaning none of the keys on the virtual keyboard responded as they normally should, when getting depressed by clicking on them). It also didn't play anything when I played my midi keyboard controller (only the Arp would work (when it was armed)). I will check those outher things out tonight and post back......
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rtucker55
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/22 13:14:34
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Maybe I am reading you wrong but just in case.
The virtual keyboard, on the Cthulhu UI, will not trigger the chords or sound any notes. You must use the controller/keyboard that is routed to the Cthulhu midi input to do that.
From what I can see the virtual keyboard either acts as an indicator of which keys are being triggered by the chord stored in the preset or it allows you to mouse select notes, when in Learn Mode, that will be stored in your own chords for a given chord slot.
If you have a chord preset selected and you are playing your keyboard that is routed to the Cthulhu midi input you should be getting something even if it is just a visual on the UI virtual keyboard. If you are playing a note that triggers an empty chord slot you should still see a Red Line, above the UI virtual keyboard, for the note being played.
Hope I'm not confusing things for you...
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auto_da_fe
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/22 16:55:16
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I got it up and working no issues.
Did not give it much of a workout, but seems to do as advertised.
And you are right, was clicking on the GUI keyboard and nothing happens, need to trigger it externally and then that keyboard shows you the chords generated.
20 minute time out on the demo and making you re-add it is a bit of a bother...but intellectual property is precious.
JR
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Mesh
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/23 10:39:53
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Good to know JR and thanks for posting that.....
I didn't get a chance last night to get on the DAW, hopefully tonight.
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Mesh
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/25 11:09:41
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The version I have is 1.02b2 Demo. For some reason, I can't get the Chord function to work......the arp works very well without a problem, so I'm not sure what the deal is. BTW, I could see the hi-lighted green notes displayed on the virtual keyboard WHEN I click with the mouse on the far left bottom corner and do see the 3 or four green keys lit up, but only get a one note sound (the note I push on my controller). So, this is somewhat of a mystery??
Will email Steve Duda on this tonight.
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rtucker55
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Re: Anyone needing Chord Inspiration??
2014/09/25 13:08:15
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That does sound strange... The fact that you hear the note you press on the midi controller yet still see several keys highlighted green on the virtual keyboard but don't hear them. Do you have anything else in the project that your midi controller could be triggering when you play a note?
The email to Steve Duda sounds like a good idea in this case.
One last thing if you have not tried this yet. Create a new project in sonar, instantiate Cthulhu Vsti. When/if asked, select a midi track and the first audio track.
Route your midi controller output to the Cthulhu midi track input.
Route the Cthulhu audio track out to Sonar master buss or whatever your sound card in connected to.
Ensure the speaker icon is lit on the Cthulhu UI. (so you are using the internal tone generator only)
Dismiss the Arp module so it is not visible
Select a chord preset.
Play a few notes on your midi controller one note at a time.
Do you hear anything?
Do you still hear a single note, the one you are pressing on your controller, from Cthulhu internal tone generator?
Do you now hear the chord from Cthulhu?
Mesh, Please don't feel obligated to run that test but, Please let us know what you find out from Steve.
Kind regards,
Rick
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