That's the same thing Chuck is saying.  

dscoyne
 
Could it be done the same way in Sonar, grabbing groups of notes and moving them up or down?

Yes, you can do the same thing, or you can use the Transpose command on the selected notes. If you want to change the chord's quality -- for example, major to minor-- you would have to start manipulating the individual notes.

groovey1

dscoyne
 
Could it be done the same way in Sonar, grabbing groups of notes and moving them up or down?

Yes, you can do the same thing, or you can use the Transpose command on the selected notes. If you want to change the chord's quality -- for example, major to minor-- you would have to start manipulating the individual notes.

Thanks, that helps clarify.  I guess I will wind up changing one note in a lot of the chords since I use many minor chords in my songs.
 
If Sonar had a chord track, that would be a big help to many songwriters.  Or if one could type in a chord in the staff view and have it sound in the production.

dscoyne
 
Could it be done the same way in Sonar, grabbing groups of notes and moving them up or down?

 
If I may make a suggestion, my advice is to learn the basics. Familiarize yourself with the Piano roll view. Once you learn how the tools work it wont be long before you are used to it and writing parts out quickly. Matter of fact, You wont even need to purchase or use any free midi loops from other vendors because you will create your own chord that you will use for future projects.
 
1- Load your midi track
2- Open the piano roll view
3- Hold the right mouse button down while dragging a box around the notes of the chord.
4- drag the box of chords up/down to change chord notes.
 
There is no need for any kind of "chord track" or anything like that.
Once you have one chord in the piano roll view, just copy/paste it further down the line.
This duplicates the chord. Then you can drag that chord box up/down, change one note, what ever, exc.
 
 

A chord track would be helpful in Splat for songwriters who are not proficient on keyboards, I find the chord track in Cubase very helpful, and would like to see one in Sonar Platinum!

The Transpose MIDI plug-in will constrain notes to particular keys and scales. It's really quite cool. You can even create custom note mappings. 
 

 
Also the MIDI Inspector will constrain notes to particular scales and keys when you draw them in the PRV (either its own window or in-line).
 
To do chord arrangements in SONAR, think like Ableton Live or Matrix View scenes...create a track for each chord type you want to use, set the Transpose plug-in to constrain to the desired scale/key, then drag the parts from your original track that you want affected by the desired constraint to the appropriate track. Given the huge number of scale options SONAR provides, this is a very comprehensive solution.
 
The Transpose plug-in can also be inspiring for songwriting. Play your part, try different scales...be surprised and delighted 
 

I have to learn more about using MIDI other than basic steps. The transpose plug in looks very helpful. And that Sonar MIDI will constrain to keys and more automatically when drawing chords or notes in is something I haven't used before.

dscoyne

dubdisciple
I believe acidized loops will respond to key change markers un song.

Thanks for response, but that is one of the problems I have with terminology.  I don't want to change KEY; if the song is written in the key of C, I want to keep it there.  What I want is the ability to change the chords within that key so they will match my chord sequences.
 
I am not sure if the phrase "key change markers" is used for convenience as another way of saying the same thing???
 

When you say chord sequences are you talking about chords in a rhythm guitar track (or other instrument), or riffs in measures, or a base line, to be duplicated at places across verses, or? 😉 I don't play "chord sequences" in songs so I'm trying to understand where in a song and what instrument you're wanting to repeat.
There are different chord structures in same key to use for a different sound.

How many verses, bridges, etc in your song and how long is the song?
😊 my interest and creative bone is piqued now. I'm trying to picture your "deliverable" , the song structure and how to add to it.

I know this is too much to share, no worries...but let us know how the final mix sounds.

I'm going to have to start truly learning more about using MIDI. Maybe tomorrow I'll start tinkering with building chords myself. *I've always been mostly focused on recording audio.

Joe_A

dscoyne

dubdisciple
I believe acidized loops will respond to key change markers un song.

Thanks for response, but that is one of the problems I have with terminology.  I don't want to change KEY; if the song is written in the key of C, I want to keep it there.  What I want is the ability to change the chords within that key so they will match my chord sequences.
 
I am not sure if the phrase "key change markers" is used for convenience as another way of saying the same thing???
 

When you say chord sequences are you talking about chords in a rhythm guitar track (or other instrument), or riffs in measures, or a base line, to be duplicated at places across verses, or?

How many verses, bridges, etc in your song and how long is the song?
😊 my interest and creative bone is piqued now. I'm trying to picture your "deliverable" , the song structure and how to add to it.
I know this is too much to share, no worries...but let us know how the final mix sounds.

I'll share!  If you were to look at a "fake book," you would see that all the included songs' sheet music is in the form of "lead sheets," which typically have just one staff with notes for the main melody, chord symbols above the bars for the harmony, plus lyrics.  The sequence of these chord symbols is, by definition, the chord sequences, or "chord progressions."  All instruments with pitches in a production would normally be playing the same indicated harmony.
 
Since I am a non-performing songwriter, I do notation instead of laying down a track, and that is the form I use with a free notation program called MuseScore.  MIDI then becomes very important to me because I then export the song as a MIDI file into an arranging program.  Some writers use Band-in-a-Box for this purpose,,,,I use Jammer Pro (which unfortunately is no longer being supported, but still works).
 
I then save the resulting arrangement as a MIDI file and open it in Sonar, where I can then add a vocal and improve the quality of the instruments.
 
And this gets to the reason why I am interested in using Loops (my original question), because I want to update some of these arrangements to get a more contemporary sound.  These loops would have to match up with the harmonies (the chords) of my original compositions.
 
The productions that I make of my songs are primarily to get feedback and critiques on each song before arranging for a professional demo to be produced, usually in Nashville.  But that could change some if I can get up to speed in the use of current loops.
 
As to your question about the structure of my songs:  Usually they have 2 or 3 verses, a repeated chorus, and a bridge, but some are in AABA structure without a chorus.  To hear some of them, and to analyze the structure by looking at the lyrics, you can go to:
http://www.broadjam.com/doncoyne
 
Hope that helps..........Don

Super! That's what i was looking for! So from an AABA or related, (I'm sadly very structured in my songs, probably too rigid), following the "Billy Joel" theology...
So your loops will be repeated in verses, then last two measures of a turnaround may vary, and loops in the chorus/bridges may be repeated.

Working from your original loops, using them as the rhythm instrument staying in same key.... the more modern feel might be accomplished by changing each existing chord structure and maybe using a different synth or instrument.... something like that may be the answer. 😊 and the steps in doing that I think that's your question if I'm understand right.

Is there an existing chord sheet for the present loops? Or not, that may be one of the issues trying to get to that starting point?

Sounds like a good project!