i2m idea - chord progressions

All general pitch-to-MIDI thoughts, suggestions, complaints, etc.

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saxmad
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:52 pm

i2m idea - chord progressions

Post by saxmad »

Hello Sonuusians, first of all I would like to say thank you for a great product. I programmed a similar device in MaxMSP a few years ago but it was rubbish compared to this! It also promising to see a music technology company who actually listens to their users and regularly updates firmware (take note Roland!).

I got my i2m on friday and have had mixed success tracking guitar, voice, flute, saxophone and various samples. Some have been a bit glitchy but I am sure its just a case of spending more time tweaking the parameters to get it right. Setting the velocity gate and optimum input levels seems to be the key here. The scale modes also help ALOT to get the correct pitches and eliminate false triggering - initially this was a problem with saxophone as the initial attack of the note would often throw the pitch off and my bad technique of tuning 'into' the note didn't help. But the scale modes can solve the problem and this is what gave me the idea of being able to program in chord changes or dynamically change the scale.

I think it would be very useful if you were able to link and then change the scale mode of all 6 zones at the same time - this would enable you to transpose each zone to create a harmony and then switch the master scale to create chord sequences. It would not only be a great live tool but would also be really useful when learning to improvise - especially in jazz! I think there would be two ways you could implement this:

The trickier method would be to add a mini-sequencer that cycles through the scale/chord progressions either to a tempo clock or via a footswitch that would step through the changes. I am not sure if this would be possible to build into the firmware so I came up with another way...

What if each scale was mapped to a midi note - C-1 = C Major, C0 = C minor, C1 = C Blues etc. and then you could send that note from a DAW to set the scale. This means the sequencing side is taken care of in the software you are probably running the synths in and it gives much more flexibility in terms of programming entire songs and indeed live sets. I am not sure if the set-up could be exactly as described as it would require 24 octaves for all of the scale modes! But it could use different midi protocols to select the exact scale type and just use the note messages to choose the corresponding root note. Perhaps velocity = scale mode ???

Another idea I have had that could be useful would be to enable a CC output on a particular zone. It could work by scaling the note gate range to CC values. This would be great for controlling effect parameters of filters for example that follow your pitch. Or how about more delay time or feedback the higher up you play! This would also be really useful for expanding outside of the audio world... I am experimenting with using the i2m to control video software responding to the audio. At the moment I have each note triggering a different clip but it would be really cool to map the pitch CC to video effects.

Anyway, enough of the ramble. Thanks again guys for giving us such creative potential with the i2m. I look forward to seeing what features you invent next.

Cheers, George
saxmad
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:52 pm

Re: i2m idea - chord progressions

Post by saxmad »

One more thing - the breath controller output for controlling audio / video effects is amazing!!!!!!!! :D
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