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
 

   

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?

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.

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
 

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.....    

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
 

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!!

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
 
 

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!!
  
 

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