Korde vs. Mercury

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childofsaturn
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24 Feb 2015

Hi everyone,

I currently have Korde on trial right now and am really enjoying what it offers. A friend of mine swears by Mercury, but hasn't yet had a chance to try out Korde to compare. Has anyone tried both and found any significant differences between the two?

I'm considering the Korde and Shape bundle, but I'm specifically curious if Mercury has any significant features that Korde lacks.

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rcbuse
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24 Feb 2015

I'm probably pretty biased, but here is my take:

I tried Mercury before I wrote Korde.  Ultimately, I was unhappy with how Mercury allocated notes to each voice, there wasn't any control there, its really meant to have 4 devices hooked to it with the same patch for a polyphonic arpeggiator.  

There are lots of things Mercury does that Korde doesn't.  Korde doesn't have and Key/Scale conforming, Auto Chord, Performance Parameters, and Arpeggiator.  

So they are really a different beasts.  Korde is much less of an arpeggiator and more of just a sequencer like the matrix, but each note row is assigned a note from incoming midi.
Korde does has 8 Voices, each with its own sequence.   Each voice has 8 patterns, and each pattern has a curve for velocity, gate length, auxillary cv1 and cv2, rate divisor, direction.

I put everything into Korde that I wanted, and then some stuff other people wanted, and it turned into this kind of odd thing thats like a plain step sequencer, but behaves like arpeggiator.  



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childofsaturn
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25 Feb 2015

Thanks for the quick reply!

Biased or not, you provided some solid info and I really appreciate that. The more time I spend with Korde, the more "at home" I feel with it. It's been a while since I trialed Mercury, but I recall not meshing well with it.

I bet Rack Extensions such as AutoTheory and ChordSet would compliment Korde well if people want to add auto-chord functionality. I imagine sending the Note/Gate output from one of them to Korde and have several of the sequencers within Korde going to multiple instances of the same instrument, it would achieve similar results to what you're describing Mercury does.

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MirEko
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25 Feb 2015

I own both but korde is the shiz, I love it.
:reason: :record: :re: :ignition: :refill: :PUF_take: :PUF_figure:

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rcbuse
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25 Feb 2015

childofsaturn wrote: I bet Rack Extensions such as AutoTheory and ChordSet would compliment Korde well if people want to add auto-chord functionality.
The latest updated added the note/gate input for exactly this reason.  I used AutoTheory and Chordset to drive Korde quite a bit and its fantastic!



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hamu
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25 Feb 2015

childofsaturn wrote: I bet Rack Extensions such as AutoTheory and ChordSet would compliment Korde well if people want to add auto-chord functionality.
rcbuse wrote:
The latest updated added the note/gate input for exactly this reason.  I used AutoTheory and Chordset to drive Korde quite a bit and its fantastic!

It's also very useful to use AutoTheory after Korde!  8-)

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ncurry
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26 Feb 2015

rcbuse wrote:
The latest updated added the note/gate input for exactly this reason.  I used AutoTheory and Chordset to drive Korde quite a bit and its fantastic!

Would you be able to create a demo video of this? I saw that you added the version notes on the Shop page, but I think people would really benefit from seeing this integration in action.

True
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26 Feb 2015

ncurry wrote:Would you be able to create a demo video of this? I saw that you added the version notes on the Shop page, but I think people would really benefit from seeing this integration in action.
Indeed. I understand the purpose of making a video that blasts through all the cool features, but I benefit much more from seeing it put to actual use in a typical song environment.

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childofsaturn
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26 Feb 2015

This might be a bit noobish of me to ask, but is there a way record the midi notations of the instruments Korde is outputting to?

AJ_3000
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27 Feb 2015

I trust the OP InavigableHeart does not object my quoting from the 'ChordSet in Shop' thread  (and excuses my editing), concerning  Nooomy's virtual MIDI connections  tutorial.
InavigableHeart wrote:      
....  I route the Chord Out CV into Loop Midi (free virtual midi tool) and then lock the Thor to that, .....
.... useful to capture the complete chord notes in the sequencer. 

BTW, for those that wanted this to work with an arp, you can feed your chosen arp the captured notes as described above, and moreover, its great to now be able to do micro edits of those notes in the chord progression!!! Yeah, I'd definitely recommend downloading Loop Midi in conjunction with this device...

Here's Nooomy's excellent tutorial on installing and using Loop Midi as a tool in reason. Its extremely useful in many circumstances, such as capturing RE sequencer patterns (while that functionality is not yet supported within reason).  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUkpcnHkoRI
 

A revelation that seems to offer the solution to the query you raised, which I too had wondered about. I need to explore the whole virtual MIDI cable concept in depth this  weekend, as they do seem to offer great benefits ..

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rcbuse
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27 Feb 2015

childofsaturn wrote:This might be a bit noobish of me to ask, but is there a way record the midi notations of the instruments Korde is outputting to?
The Autotheory guys made really nice instructions for this, which applies to all devices that output cv note/gate:

http://www.pitchblende.co.nz/AutoTheory ... -Track.pdf



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childofsaturn
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27 Feb 2015

Fantastic, thank you AJ_3000 and rcbuse!

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