Reason Studios Chord Sequencer in the shop

[Faastwalker]

It's very cool. I like it a lot. Not sure I'd buy it if I wasn't a Reason+ subscriber.

Not sure I'd be a Reason+ subscriber if RS didn't keep releasing these things!

Catch-22 :-/

[vncnt]

Five minutes with it and i already have a nice chord progression I wouldn't have thought of. I don't always like the next suggestion/inversion, but find that if I also have a normal piano open, I can find the missing chord that makes it zing. This is the creative unblocker I've been looking for.

Exactly how I feel about this new player.

I am very interested in workflow improvements. For both music design and animation design.
That is why I bought the Chord Sequencer immediately.

Let's just see how this can develop in the future.
I'm very curious to see what new ideas can trickle through in the next update.

[Quarmat]

I love this player so much. But what I am really excited for is the amount of user made chords palettes that will come in the future.

I already have 3 self-made palettes, and I laid down the harmonic foundation of like 7 different songs that sound and feel very different albeit all of them drawing their chords from the same palette.

Can't wait to explore other folks' palettes, hopefully shared here on RT

[DJMaytag]

Hmmm. I don't want to piss on anyone's chips here, but I'm not feeling this one at all. I feel locked into a weirdy narrow set of parameters, and everything I do ends up sounding like a yoghurt commercial or the sort of music they play in upmarket shopping malls. Needs a couple of hundred more scales, for one thing. And no inversions? no way of mucking around with chord voicings? I get that you can do all this in the sequencer afterward, but it seems like an odd limitation.

There’s definitely a few presets where it sounds a bit cheesy, so dig around to find a few that work. You might need to modify a few presets that are close to what you’re looking for. You may need to intentionally break the rules every so often to get something nice.

[MrFigg]

I didn't read back on this thread but I've been using Tonicmint Chordline (which has a massive chord library) in conjunction with the Learn/ Edit Chord function on Chord Sequencer. That's me sorted forever. Awesome.

[electrofux]

First question that comes to my mind when seeing the 4x4 trigger Matrix:

Have they this time paid more attention to Remote than in the other Players and the Matrix is remotable?
Can i use the colors to display these on my Controller?
What else is remotable?

I fear the 4x4 Matrix is not remotable as all custom display items in other reasonstudios players are not, which i never really understood why (so much wasted potential).

[jam-s]

I fear the 4x4 Matrix is not remotable as all custom display items in other reasonstudios players are not, which i never really understood why (so much wasted potential).

My guess is that this might be a limitation of the RE SDK for custom display widgets, but still if it was they could improve the SDK to allow a dev to add this funtionality.

[electrofux]

I fear the 4x4 Matrix is not remotable as all custom display items in other reasonstudios players are not, which i never really understood why (so much wasted potential).

My guess is that this might be a limitation of the RE SDK for custom display widgets, but still if it was they could improve the SDK to allow a dev to add this funtionality.

Its not a limitation of the SDK. There are numerous REs that offer remote items for parameters in Custom Displays.

I noticed a little Midi icon on the Display. But i guess its for routing incoming midi to the Matrix or the learn function (haven't really read the manual). However being able to show the colors of the 16 chords on a Launchpad would be really nice.

Maybe someone can check the Remote info on this device if there is anything related to that.

Never really understood why of all devices Players in general (maybe all is fine with this one though as i dont know yet) have the biggest issues with Remote when those are the ones you actually want to jam with and not want to get back and forth to mouse and controller all the time. Dont get me started on the missing remote item for the Record Button (which is afaik in fact a very annoying Limitation in the SDK and should be adressed)- or the missing remote item for Mutate in Pattern Mutator, the most important button.

Beat Map however and as a positive example is so damn cool on the Launchpad (if you have the nerd energy to program a codec that is) and the developer has paid very good attention to the remote items - it is a bit complicated to understand but it works so nice. StepNote Recorder is another positive example. Its imho the best programmed device ever made when it comes to supporting every parameter as a remote item, you can do so much with it.

I know Players usually have 8 patterns and that multiplies the number of items needed but thats easy to handle on the codec side of things.

[Fraxis]

One thing I'm still struggling with is how it behaves within the RRP. According to the manual:

When Reason Rack Plugin is used in a host DAW, there are no pattern clips.

Pattern Selection can be automated like any parameter, but then playback will be position synced to the main sequencer (so that, if the pattern is selected on bar 3, the chord sequencer will start playing on its third bar).

Instead, the best solution would probably be to record the output chords as MIDI notes on a MIDI track in the DAW and then adjust the note positions manually in the DAW sequencer afterwards.

This is a bit annoying if you are working on different sections of a song in a DAW. For example, if you were experimenting with a 4 bar progression for your chorus, you would need to ensure your chorus started on a multiple of your first bar, e.g. Bar 1,5,9,13,17 etc. If it started on, say, bar 11, the chord sequence would start playing the third of the four chords in the four bar progression, not the first. I don't think the 'workaround is particularly practical, as you'd want to play around alongside your rhythm track before recording the output to fixed notes and moving it into position, which rather defeats the purpose of the thing. Can someone explain why it works like that please? Is it a choice, or a limitation of how the RRP syncs with other DAWs?

[Eprom]

Hmmm. I don't want to piss on anyone's chips here, but I'm not feeling this one at all. I feel locked into a weirdy narrow set of parameters, and everything I do ends up sounding like a yoghurt commercial or the sort of music they play in upmarket shopping malls. Needs a couple of hundred more scales, for one thing. And no inversions? no way of mucking around with chord voicings? I get that you can do all this in the sequencer afterward, but it seems like an odd limitation

I usually hate it when someone comes on all snobby and says stuff like "Players are fine for clueless n00bs who don't know anything about music composition and just want to make songs with one finger". But that's kind of how I feel about this one. As always, I'm open to changing my mind if someone can get something interesting out of it (by which I mean, the diametric opposite of what's going on in the Reason promo video). Until then, I'll be voyaging on a calm blue ocean of smooth Chinese restaurant jazz-lite

I'm kind of feeling the same way.

It's fun to play with for a while, but at a certain point it feels like it's repeating itself. A bit like Chord Memory on a synth.

A few things I miss:
- The ability to play chords yourself and the player giving suggestions.
-The player recognising the key you are playing in.
- Inversions of chords (even randomising them?)

PS. Yes, I understand that you can't have everything you want, but i'm just giving my personal opinion here. I know my way around a keyboard and hoped this player would suggest chords out of my comfort zone, but sadly I can't make it to do just that.

[artotaku]

My guess is that this might be a limitation of the RE SDK for custom display widgets, but still if it was they could improve the SDK to allow a dev to add this funtionality.

Its not a limitation of the SDK. There are numerous REs that offer remote items for parameters in Custom Displays.

I noticed a little Midi icon on the Display. But i guess its for routing incoming midi to the Matrix or the learn function (haven't really read the manual). However being able to show the colors of the 16 chords on a Launchpad would be really nice.

Maybe someone can check the Remote info on this device if there is anything related to that.

Never really understood why of all devices Players in general (maybe all is fine with this one though as i dont know yet) have the biggest issues with Remote when those are the ones you actually want to jam with and not want to get back and forth to mouse and controller all the time. Dont get me started on the missing remote item for the Record Button (which is afaik in fact a very annoying Limitation in the SDK and should be adressed)- or the missing remote item for Mutate in Pattern Mutator, the most important button.

Beat Map however and as a positive example is so damn cool on the Launchpad and the developer has paid very good attention to the remote items - it is a bit complicated to understand but it works so nice. StepNote Recorder is another positive example. Its imho the best programmed device ever made when it comes to remote, you can do so much with it.

I know Players usually have 8 patterns and that multiplies the number of items needed but thats easy to handle on the codec side of things.

It´s not a limitation of SDK but more like how the dev has chosen to pass data between the custom display and realtime engine. Typically, for custom displays string properties are used that encode and decode various parameters into one string which is just more efficient. String properties cannot be mapped to remote items (strings are not supported, I tried that once with a RE and it failed Remote engine) that´s why they are typically not exposed as remotable items by the RE.
However, if the dev wanted to make it properly supported for Remote he/she´d have to add integer properties in addition to the string properties specifically for this purpose to pass e. g. the color coding of a pad. This involves more coding logic and possible bugs and effort. IMHO I think it was not worth the effort for just a minor amount of users that need this.

[electrofux]

Its not a limitation of the SDK. There are numerous REs that offer remote items for parameters in Custom Displays.

I noticed a little Midi icon on the Display. But i guess its for routing incoming midi to the Matrix or the learn function (haven't really read the manual). However being able to show the colors of the 16 chords on a Launchpad would be really nice.

Maybe someone can check the Remote info on this device if there is anything related to that.

Never really understood why of all devices Players in general (maybe all is fine with this one though as i dont know yet) have the biggest issues with Remote when those are the ones you actually want to jam with and not want to get back and forth to mouse and controller all the time. Dont get me started on the missing remote item for the Record Button (which is afaik in fact a very annoying Limitation in the SDK and should be adressed)- or the missing remote item for Mutate in Pattern Mutator, the most important button.

Beat Map however and as a positive example is so damn cool on the Launchpad and the developer has paid very good attention to the remote items - it is a bit complicated to understand but it works so nice. StepNote Recorder is another positive example. Its imho the best programmed device ever made when it comes to remote, you can do so much with it.

I know Players usually have 8 patterns and that multiplies the number of items needed but thats easy to handle on the codec side of things.

It´s not a limitation of SDK but more like how the dev has chosen to pass data between the custom display and realtime engine. Typically, for custom displays string properties are used that encode and decode various parameters into one string which is just more efficient. String properties cannot be mapped to remote items (strings are not supported, I tried that once with a RE and it failed Remote engine) that´s why they are typically not exposed as remotable items by the RE.
However, if the dev wanted to make it properly supported for Remote he/she´d have to add integer properties in addition to the string properties specifically for this purpose to pass e. g. the color coding of a pad. This involves more coding logic and possible bugs and effort. IMHO I think it was not worth the effort for just a minor amount of users that need this.

True, only a few would make it happen on their controller via Remote. It is a shame though if it is so complicated that devs rather leave it out. Sometimes i wish Reasonstudios had someone who constantly updates Launchpad codecs like Bitwig does. I mean, the launchpads are so powerfull and widely used but the Reason integrated codec is so bad. No wonder RE devs dont care about adding additional code so that pads can light up corresponding to whats happening in the RE. If more people would use Launchpads with Reason because the out of the box codec was better then i think RE devs would think about adding a bit more code.

[manisnotabird]

Hmmm. I don't want to piss on anyone's chips here, but I'm not feeling this one at all. I feel locked into a weirdy narrow set of parameters, and everything I do ends up sounding like a yoghurt commercial or the sort of music they play in upmarket shopping malls. Needs a couple of hundred more scales, for one thing. And no inversions? no way of mucking around with chord voicings? I get that you can do all this in the sequencer afterward, but it seems like an odd limitation

I usually hate it when someone comes on all snobby and says stuff like "Players are fine for clueless n00bs who don't know anything about music composition and just want to make songs with one finger". But that's kind of how I feel about this one. As always, I'm open to changing my mind if someone can get something interesting out of it (by which I mean, the diametric opposite of what's going on in the Reason promo video). Until then, I'll be voyaging on a calm blue ocean of smooth Chinese restaurant jazz-lite

Playing around with it, I definitely agree it could stand to have some more dark/downbeat sounding chordsets.

[Billy+]

Playing around with it, I definitely agree it could stand to have some more dark/downbeat sounding chordsets.

Im curious about what you mean when you say "dark" ?

I don't have the device but I'm assuming minor chords are what your looking for possibly ?

Or is it the colour coding/choices that are suggested that don't cut it for you?

[manisnotabird]

Playing around with it, I definitely agree it could stand to have some more dark/downbeat sounding chordsets.

Im curious about what you mean when you say "dark" ?

I don't have the device but I'm assuming minor chords are what your looking for possibly ?

Or is it the colour coding/choices that are suggested that don't cut it for you?

Even minor chords played a slow tempo can still sound relatively poppy or jazzy, and not eerie or foreboding or depressing.

[madmacman]

Was about to try Scaler 2 for comparison and downloaded the Trial installer. WTF? 1.41GB for a midi chords player? Are they crazy? CS is only 35.8MB I'm out...

[Billy+]

Was about to try Scaler 2 for comparison and downloaded the Trial installer. WTF? 1.41GB for a midi chords player? Are they crazy? CS is only 35.8MB I'm out...

Scaler comes with sample based instruments that's why it's a larger download

over 30 internal electronic, acoustic and orchestral sounds

[motuscott]

I didn't read back on this thread but I've been using Tonicmint Chordline (which has a massive chord library) in conjunction with the Learn/ Edit Chord function on Chord Sequencer. That's me sorted forever. Awesome.

Big Chordline fan here. Must check this out

[madmacman]

Scaler comes with sample based instruments that's why it's a larger download

over 30 internal electronic, acoustic and orchestral sounds

I remember something like this when I watched the YT demos some days ago. But man - I just want a nice Chords tool, not another full fledged ROMpler.

[Billy+]

Scaler comes with sample based instruments that's why it's a larger download

I remember something like this when I watched the YT demos some days ago. But man - I just want a nice Chords tool, not another full fledged ROMpler.

Oh I'm not trying to sell you on scaler and the demo is fu**ing annoying I've tried it.

What I would say is that there's not really any comparison.

Scaler is great for finding your own chords and progression

CS is more than worth buying but it doesn't necessarily allow for the same level of experimentation useless you put the extra effort into finding and building your own chord sets.

However it does contain enough to satisfy most uses and can be used in conjunction with other players.

So it's really a matter of preference

Personally I would prefer that midi vst support gets added to Reason as I already have MiK captain bundle and scaler 2.6 so adding another player isn't necessarily for me, but given a good discount I would probably buy it just so I've got it.

I also have / use Odesi

[deigm]

Why was the strum feature removed from the prototype? That would have been so much fun to use on a virtual guitar instrument or similar.

You can put this player after it: https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... g-machine/

Thanks. I actually own this player but have never gotten along with it.

[dvdrtldg]

I didn't read back on this thread but I've been using Tonicmint Chordline (which has a massive chord library) in conjunction with the Learn/ Edit Chord function on Chord Sequencer. That's me sorted forever. Awesome.

Big Chordline fan here. Must check this out

I use Chordline too. How exactly are you using it with Chord Sequencer? I get how the Learn/Edit function works, but are you just inputting new chords from Chordline and using CS to fire off your new banks of chords, or does CS actually suggest chords based on the new ones you've taught it?

[MrFigg]

Big Chordline fan here. Must check this out

I use Chordline too. How exactly are you using it with Chord Sequencer? I get how the Learn/Edit function works, but are you just inputting new chords from Chordline and using CS to fire off your new banks of chords, or does CS actually suggest chords based on the new ones you've taught it?

Uuum...can't remember. I just put chordline on top of CS then put it on learn then whatever chord I played on Chordline was transferred over to CS. Can't remember if it suggested chords. Probably not.

[dvdrtldg]

Ah, OK. So it's just a way of bypassing Chordline's weird UI and getting the chords into the CS sequencer

[PhillipOrdonez]

Big Chordline fan here. Must check this out

I use Chordline too. How exactly are you using it with Chord Sequencer? I get how the Learn/Edit function works, but are you just inputting new chords from Chordline and using CS to fire off your new banks of chords, or does CS actually suggest chords based on the new ones you've taught it?

It does the best it can to suggest the best next chords among the ones you've inputted, but not at the same level as the included sets do this whole suggesting thing.