bz2838
We could use a chord track similar to the one in Cubase....great feature, I put in a feature request a couple of years ago, a lot of support from users, but still no chord chart for Splat.  Great tool for songwriters and guitar players who are not proficient on the keyboard.

Exactly, similar to the EZKeys feature I mentioned.  
 
I would think this is would be fairly easy to create and be of value to a lot of users.  

Brian Walton
I think they should consider developing something in the MIDI realm like this.  Look at EZKeys as the general concept.
 
For me, the value as "WAV" files would be dramatically less, and this is the impression I get of what Craig developed.

I actually started doing this with MIDI, and might have pursued it further if Take Lanes didn't exist, but the priority of the chord library is speed in songwriting - not creating any kind of Cubase-type "arranger" track, which is a whole other concept and misses the point of the Chord Library's main purpose. The main advantages I found with WAVs are:
 

• With MIDI, you can't drag clips into the PRV, only into a track. Yet the note lengths are seldom exactly what you want, so then you have to open the PRV and adjust the durations. With Take Lanes, you can bring in a WAV file and if you drag it over an existing chord, it will mute the tail automatically so you don't have to adjust it. This is much, much faster.
• When songwriting, I often already have the basis of a chord progression in place as an audio track with guitar, and the question becomes "what chord comes next." With the browser any chord is one or two clicks away, and if I like what I hear, I can just drag it into the audio track. This maintains a similar sound, which I find more inspiring than having some GM guitar or piano appear, which then has to go into a MIDI track etc. etc.
• The chord voicings are true guitar voicings, which eliminates surprises if I go to replace the part. As you know guitar voicings are much more "open" than keyboards and give a very different flavor. If I do end up doing a MIDI version, it will use keyboard voicings instead of guitar voicings (I double on keys).
• It was easy to assign the WAV files to a soft synth so I could play one-finger chords in various voicings from a keyboard. The mapping required to map every key of a keyboard to multiple MIDI notes over various octaves would be a PITA. I'm sure there a MIDI plug-ins and such that could do it, but I doubt they can do some of the more esoteric guitar voicings.
• The unanticipated bonus of using WAVs is sometimes I found I didn't even need to replace the part. If I was a Strat player that might not be the case, but the Chord Library guitar has humbuckers, which is what I use 90% of the time.

After this thread runs its course, I'll upload the Chord Library to hightail.com, and PM those who want it with a link that's good for 7 days. The WAV files are a 131 MB download.
 
 
 
 
 

Very generous Craig ... put me down for a copy.

BobF
 
Very generous Craig ... put me down for a copy.

+1 on both counts

Anderton

• The chord voicings are true guitar voicings, which eliminates surprises if I go to replace the part. As you know guitar voicings are much more "open" than keyboards and give a very different flavor. If I do end up doing a MIDI version, it will use keyboard voicings instead of guitar voicings (I double on keys).
• It was easy to assign the WAV files to a soft synth so I could play one-finger chords in various voicings from a keyboard. The mapping required to map every key of a keyboard to multiple MIDI notes over various octaves would be a PITA. I'm sure there a MIDI plug-ins and such that could do it, but I doubt they can do some of the more esoteric guitar voicings.

 

I'm no guitarist I play just from the open strings, but I'm surprised but the idea that guitar voices are much more open. I'm no keyboardist either, but have looked a lot into Jazz and Gospal voicings and often they are really open, with the rot and fith played with the left hand and extentions played with the right, they cane streth of 2 octaves, ADo Guitar chords often d this too?
 
Refering the the MidiChords plug in above, it's very easy too play C, then program and nice rich Major 13. Copy it and past it to all the other Cs, then do the same with Dom13th chord and copy it to all the other Fs ad Gs. Then Minor13th and copy that out for the d an a, then the same with diminished. The plug in is really worth experimenting with.

Check this out, blew my mind when I first realised what he was doing. He's playing one not at a time from a WX5, whcih can only play one note, but into 4 instances of MidiChords. If you look at the bottom keybord of each plug you see it's all the same not (One hangs at the beginning). They are sent to different synths that can intelligently assign top notes to the high instruments and low notes to the low instruments, and the same for inbetween. I guess ranges are set. On is playing a solo voice, but the others are plying ensembles. 
 
Crazy good
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5ar_3nGx2w

Anderton

Brian Walton
I think they should consider developing something in the MIDI realm like this.  Look at EZKeys as the general concept.
 
For me, the value as "WAV" files would be dramatically less, and this is the impression I get of what Craig developed.

I actually started doing this with MIDI, and might have pursued it further if Take Lanes didn't exist, but the priority of the chord library is speed in songwriting - not creating any kind of Cubase-type "arranger" track, which is a whole other concept and misses the point of the Chord Library's main purpose. The main advantages I found with WAVs are:
 

• With MIDI, you can't drag clips into the PRV, only into a track. Yet the note lengths are seldom exactly what you want, so then you have to open the PRV and adjust the durations. With Take Lanes, you can bring in a WAV file and if you drag it over an existing chord, it will mute the tail automatically so you don't have to adjust it. This is much, much faster.
• When songwriting, I often already have the basis of a chord progression in place as an audio track with guitar, and the question becomes "what chord comes next." With the browser any chord is one or two clicks away, and if I like what I hear, I can just drag it into the audio track. This maintains a similar sound, which I find more inspiring than having some GM guitar or piano appear, which then has to go into a MIDI track etc. etc.
• The chord voicings are true guitar voicings, which eliminates surprises if I go to replace the part. As you know guitar voicings are much more "open" than keyboards and give a very different flavor. If I do end up doing a MIDI version, it will use keyboard voicings instead of guitar voicings (I double on keys).
• It was easy to assign the WAV files to a soft synth so I could play one-finger chords in various voicings from a keyboard. The mapping required to map every key of a keyboard to multiple MIDI notes over various octaves would be a PITA. I'm sure there a MIDI plug-ins and such that could do it, but I doubt they can do some of the more esoteric guitar voicings.
• The unanticipated bonus of using WAVs is sometimes I found I didn't even need to replace the part. If I was a Strat player that might not be the case, but the Chord Library guitar has humbuckers, which is what I use 90% of the time.

After this thread runs its course, I'll upload the Chord Library to hightail.com, and PM those who want it with a link that's good for 7 days. The WAV files are a 131 MB download.
 
 
 
 
 

Very cool.
 
As a guitar player myself, I think I look for a tool that is closer to getting the general arrangement.  
 
In fact, many times I'm more inspired by the non-guitar voicings since guitar voicing get me in a rut after so many years focused on the instrument.  Though I certainly understand the idea of using them for the "no surprises" approach if you use them as a dummy track.  
 
I guess for my personal use, I always figure the guitar track is the one that I'd actually lay down in real time since that is the instrument I can provide the most nuanced track with basically no post processing.  
 
I'd certainly take your library, it would be interesting to see if I can get some ideas from a different approach.  

Kamikaze

Anderton

• The chord voicings are true guitar voicings, which eliminates surprises if I go to replace the part. As you know guitar voicings are much more "open" than keyboards and give a very different flavor. If I do end up doing a MIDI version, it will use keyboard voicings instead of guitar voicings (I double on keys).

 

I'm no guitarist I play just from the open strings, but I'm surprised but the idea that guitar voices are much more open.

 
I'm not talking about range, but voicing. Maybe I should have used the term "wider" instead of "open." For example, here's how a common E chord on guitar translates to keyboard.
 

(image courtesy Harmony Central)
 
It requires two hands and is awkward; I rarely see keyboard players use this kind of two-handed voicing, they instead tend to articulate narrower voicings with the left and right hands. (This drawing is from an article on creating Realistic Guitar Emulations with Samplers, which provides further information on why emulating guitar parts with keyboards is difficult, and possible ways to accomplish this goal.)
 

Refering the the MidiChords plug in above, it's very easy too play C, then program and nice rich Major 13. Copy it and past it to all the other Cs, then do the same with Dom13th chord and copy it to all the other Fs ad Gs. Then Minor13th and copy that out for the d an a, then the same with diminished. The plug in is really worth experimenting with.

 
I'm sure it is, but I've already explained why I prefer to use audio.
 
This thread was started because I was PMed about how to get the Chord Library. I recommended the person post a thread to get some idea of whether people want it or not, as I'd already seen it mentioned in other threads. If there was no interest, I'd park the files temporarily and PM him with a link. This is what I've done in the past for workshop attendees who wanted it. If there was sufficient interest, I'd put the link in the thread. If there was huge amount of interest, I'd recommend to Cakewalk that they make it available as a freebie when they introduce in-app purchases.
 
I don't want to discuss, for example, whether Cakewalk should add a Cubase-style chord track. I just want to figure out a way to get this to the people who recognize its value and want it, because I've found it really helpful and it seems wrong to keep it to myself if others can benefit from it. I thought telling people how to make their own would be sufficient, but I guess it is kind of daunting project.
 

Yes from my description of the chord with the left and right hand, I am talking about voicing, not range. In Jazz and Gospal when comping, two hands is common to create open chords. As I said I'm not guitarist, so I didn't realize that the E chord was voiced so wide.
 
Here's a gospal voicing video I stumbled on last week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4a6QWjLcYM
 
I'm not taking about cubase (I've never once requested a cubase style track, I don't cubase or how that track works), I'm just talking about a tool Midi Chords from InnsertPiz, it's free (well donatable. Even my screen print is shows you how to set it up in Cakewalk. I thought posters would be interested in an easy way to input chords. You had said that inputing chords to a keyboard would be a PITA, so I was just showing that this plug in does it easily.
 
I think you are reading my post wrong Craig, I'm just giving an alternative to using WAVs. I'm not saying one is better, just that one is available that is very good.
EDIT: Go and have a look at post 9, click on the link, then maybe you'd get my post 10 a little more 
have a look at the video from Tony Ostinato video, it's stunningly good.

That midi chords tool would also work very well with AAS Strum too