Scenario: I have that chord in my head and I'll know that I've got it when I hear it, but I've got nothing at hand to play around with to find it.
What to do?
My first thought was to use the Big Piano interface, but so far I've only been able to click on individual notes with the mouse, and finding a chord that way, let alone identifying it for the sake of then correctly type it into the sheet, is looking less than ideal or simple. Is there a way to play chords on the Big Piano without an external device that I just don't know about? Or will I just have to accept that BBox is pretty useless for those without an external instrument, at least in this respect?!
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
Interesting, if slightly convoluted, idea, thanks for the input.
Are you by that suggesting that my hopes for the Big Piano having the solution are a dead end, then?
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
I think the limitation with the big piano is not the piano but that the mouse can focus on only one location at a time. The Chord Builder provides a method for multiple notes to be selected.
The Chord Builder is always just a button click away from opening.
I suppose that's true, but on the other hand, to use the chord builder for this particular purpose (i.e. not really what it was initially conceived for, I'd wager) has its limitations too. For one thing it rather depend on the user having some elementary notion of the connection between the sounds and the chord's names. On a keyboard you can e.g. change just one note with your finger and instantly hear if you're getting closer to the mark while the name of what you did doesn't matter one bit, whereas attempting to do the same - while at the same time having no idea what the chord names in that interface actually mean (not even that a "minor" chord means that a certain note of the chord is a half-tone below a "major" chord!) - will have you face a helluvalot of some very random guesswork. And again, are you sure you can't somehow use the computer keys to play that Big Piano thing? I haven't found a way, but if there is one I very much would like to know about it!
p.s. Maybe this just requires some designated implementation of something new by PG worthy of a request thread...
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
One way to accomplish your idea (multiple contacts on the onscreen piano keyboard) would be to add multi-finger touchscreen support to the program. I can't think of an easy way to do it using a computer mouse.
I know it is guitar, but here you can find the chord based on the notes you play - and I found quite a few chords that are not in the BIAB supported list (or are yet to find out -that my music theory stinks, and the chord is there just in a different name).
I hope it helps a bit
MacMini M1 - BIAB2021 - Logic Pro X - iZotope Music Production Suite - Scaler 2 - far too many Waves plugins and Line 6 Guitars and boards + a fantastic Yamaha THR10ll mini Amp - Avid MBOX Studio
Peters' Garage is available on all major streaming services
Well, this seems like a bit of let's go around rather than across, but to venture outside the Box (pun intended) for the answer is an angle I admittedly have overlooked. So I'll absolutely give this one a look, thanks for the tip
And now that you mention it, I've got another "long way round" inside my Daw, where I can use a feature which attempts to define (in writing) the chord of any cluster of notes that are playing simultaneously, so there's that too... but again, those do still fall under that "let's go around rather than across" which I find so annoying as solutions...
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
Another workaround is to play the notes of the chord in your DAW - save it as/render to MP3, and let Audio Chord Wizard do the translation and see if that works.
Again it is not that path across - but maybe the view from going around is not the worst ;-)
MacMini M1 - BIAB2021 - Logic Pro X - iZotope Music Production Suite - Scaler 2 - far too many Waves plugins and Line 6 Guitars and boards + a fantastic Yamaha THR10ll mini Amp - Avid MBOX Studio
Peters' Garage is available on all major streaming services
I don’t have the Mac version here, but doesn’t it have MIDI Chord Detection? This is one of my favorite functions in the Windows version. It’s in the Windows menu, and I don’t know what that might be on a Mac.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
I don’t have the Mac version here, but doesn’t it have MIDI Chord Detection?
If by that you mean that quick'n-easy holding down the notes on your midi instrument and hit a certain keystroke combo to enter that chord into the sheet, then yes that's available on our end too. But that still hinges on actually having a midi instrument, which goes against my initial premise of this thread. If, however, you are thinking of something entirely different, then a screenshot would be just the thing to clarify.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
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