Scales and Chords plays wrong notes?

[Sk5]

To start off, I know very little about Reason and computer music in general. I'm an electric bassist trying to run my Hammond XPK 200gl bass pedals through my Korg Minilogue XD to be able to play chords with my feet while playing bass. The built-in chord feature on the Korg is extremely limited, only allowing one single type of chord to be selected at a time.

I'm trying to use the built-in device Scales and Chords on Reason, but its not making much sense to me. In C major, for example, when I play a B note the resulting chord is Bm#5, the program playing the notes B D G (though the G is technically an Fx here, which does not belong to the key). In the key of C, this should be B diminished, notes B D F. The only way around this that I found was to remove the G note from the scale, but obviously removing the 5 from the major scale is not an option. Why would this program go out of its way to avoid playing the correct vii diminished and instead add a note that is not in the key to play a misspelled first inversion of V? I've had this same problem in other keys and scales, where the program for some reason plays chords that do not belong to the key.

I tried downloading a different VST, CodeFN42's Chordz, but I couldn't figure out how to get it working in Reason. From what I've read online that might not be possible. Is there any way to get Reason's Scales and Chords to be useful live, or are there any other programs I could use to achieve this?

[deeplink]

Quite honestly, I don't have an explanation - perhaps there is a reason for this? I have very limited knowledge in music theory, but still I can't believe that I didn't pick up on this before.
From what I see on the internet the 7th chord should be B-D-F - instead Scales and Chords plays B-D-G.

I hope someone can explain this.

Here is the workaround to achieve B-D-F;

Create a NoteEcho - there's a patch for it chord 'Major' - where the step length is 0ms, repeats are 7, pitch increase by +1 and the initial step, 4th repeat and 7th repeat are selected.
Create a Scales and Chord - Set the Key to C and Scale to Major as usual (by default), however set the Nr of Notes to 1.

See below for reference;

[deeplink]

Looks like someone had the question back in 2018, don't believe the answer was fully concluded: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7506600

[Billy+]

I believe it was to make the chords more useful / musical for people without theory knowledge.

I'm not convinced but then I'm not up on my theory and definitely would have preferred that the chords are scale and mode correct. Maybe they are useful but I still haven't seen any real good explanation.

I got ChordSet RE so I could build as I please!
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... /chordset/

[Sk5]

I believe it was to make the chords more useful / musical for people without theory knowledge.

I'm not convinced but then I'm not up on my theory and definitely would have preferred that the chords are scale and mode correct. Maybe they are useful but I still haven't seen any real good explanation.

I got ChordSet RE so I could build as I please!
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... /chordset/

I can almost understand why, but that's still a lame excuse on Reason's part. The vii diminished chord is so important. It's the top 3/4th's of the V7 (G B D F in C). That resolving back to tonic is the foundation of tonal music, and can really elevate a song if used properly. (G B D F -> G C E, as a quick example of possible voice leading of V7 to I (technically I64, 64 meaning 2nd inversion. The 6 should be on top of the 4, Idk how to do that.) Or B D F -> C E G, for viio to I. This is a mess, I'm getting too distracted).

For something that seems to be designed to teach theory to those unexposed to it, that's a pretty inexcusable mistake to make. In the very least that should be spelled as B D G and explained as a first inversion G chord--V6 (again, the 6 should be up top) or G/B. In no way is it ok to call that Bm#5, or vii#5.

[Sk5]

Quite honestly, I don't have an explanation - perhaps there is a reason for this? I have very limited knowledge in music theory, but still I can't believe that I didn't pick up on this before.
From what I see on the internet the 7th chord should be B-D-F - instead Scales and Chords plays B-D-G.

I hope someone can explain this.

Here is the workaround to achieve B-D-F;

Create a NoteEcho - there's a patch for it chord 'Major' - where the step length is 0ms, repeats are 7, pitch increase by +1 and the initial step, 4th repeat and 7th repeat are selected.
Create a Scales and Chord - Set the Key to C and Scale to Major as usual (by default), however set the Nr of Notes to 1.

See below for reference;

I ended up downloading a different program and was able to get that Chordz VST working. I like that better, anyway. It lets you customize each individual chord of the key. So you can get V7 in minor while keeping III, instead of the III+ you get from harmonic minor, for example.

[loopeydoug]

I've come up against diatonic oddities in most of the scale-based Players. I've spent hours trying to build player-based chains to properly modulate, with poor results accross the board. You always end up with anomalies. I think it's due to the fact that no one has really dealt with programming for the whole/half step irregularities that occur as you modulate. All that aside, this particular case doesn't really apply so it's even harder to over look.

[Sk5]

I've come up against diatonic oddities in most of the scale-based Players. I've spent hours trying to build player-based chains to properly modulate, with poor results accross the board. You always end up with anomalies. I think it's due to the fact that no one has really dealt with programming for the whole/half step irregularities that occur as you modulate. All that aside, this particular case doesn't really apply so it's even harder to over look.

I guess I shouldn't be advertising other programs on a Reason forum, but for a free download that Chordz VST that I could only get working in a different DAW offers you a fair amount of customization. If you pick a chromatic scale, for example, you can have 12 fully custom chords with as many notes as you please in each. Still doesn't really help if you're looking to modulate to distant keys, though.

[huggermugger]

ScaleMatrix might be worth checking out. It immediately gave me the proper diminished triad on the leading tone. It's got a shitload of scales to choose from, and you can easily define your own. Many other musically useful features too, like strumming.

[Oberlai]

Is this positively a bug or logical bug (mis-programming) in the player then?

[jam-s]

Is this positively a bug or logical bug (mis-programming) in the player then?

I think it's a bug which was then declared as "by design":