How to control chord design in Evolution Strawberry?
-
- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 4 posts since 1 Jan, 2019
I just bought Evolution Strawberry. I carefully watched your Walkthrough Demonstration video. I downloaded your User's Guide and read the section on Strum. I am setting up a custom strum pattern. I saved it and loaded it to a preset button. I tested it and it works, but it's not giving me good chord shapes. I set Chords to Automatic Chords. When I activate the strum pattern and press a key sometimes it gives me pretty decent bar chords, but other times, especially when I press an F key it gives me a 3-note chord with all 3 notes being Fs, each one octave apart. That's no good. Also on the other chords it seems to drop out one note, the 3 in a 1-3-5 chord. And finally, it always sets the chords one octave up the guitar neck making the chords sound very high in pitch. Even if I press a key one octave lower on my controller it still puts the bar chord above the one octave fret. Is there a way to get these chords to be more normal, containing all notes of 1-3-5 and being up the fretboard near the nut? Also, how does somebody specify a minor chord or a 7th or something else? I don't see these kinds of instructions in the manual, unless maybe I have to do this in Custom Chords. It seems like Automatic Chords should be more powerful/advanced than what I am seeing. Finally, for extra credit, what is the most practical way to map a strum pattern into chords in a track in my song (maybe with something like a Step Sequencer)?
-
- KVRAF
- 23102 posts since 7 Jan, 2009 from Croatia
Automatic chords mode works as intended here. If you press a single note, you will get a single note/octaved "chord". To play a major chord, play the root and a third, say C-E. If you want to play a minor chord, play C-Eb instead. If you add more notes to the chord, it will influence the voicing/how many strings are used. To play a 7th chord, play a 7th chord. Say F-A-C-E will play an F major 7th.
By default I am always getting these chords played very close to the nut. So check the Fretting position parameter in Setup if it's set to a value other than 0. This is how you influence the chord's voicing by moving it around the neck.
For strumming patterns, you can either use the built-in Strum mode, or do your own patterns by utilizing the two keyswitches right below the lowest playable note - they are used for up/down strums. Velocity with which you hit those keys will decide how many strings are strummed (this is governed by a parameter in Setup page).
By default I am always getting these chords played very close to the nut. So check the Fretting position parameter in Setup if it's set to a value other than 0. This is how you influence the chord's voicing by moving it around the neck.
For strumming patterns, you can either use the built-in Strum mode, or do your own patterns by utilizing the two keyswitches right below the lowest playable note - they are used for up/down strums. Velocity with which you hit those keys will decide how many strings are strummed (this is governed by a parameter in Setup page).
-
- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 4 posts since 1 Jan, 2019
EvilDragon.
Thanks for the tip. After I posted my question I thought about it some more and I wondered if it might work like that (pressing more than one note), but I hadn't launched my DAW yet to try it. So I just opened it up. I'm finding all kinds of quirky things that don't work as expected. To start, I went to Setup and I tried to scroll down the list. No joy. I can't scroll down with the down arrow key or by clicking in the scrollbar lane. The only way to scroll down the Setup list is to drag the scroll button. Is that the way yours works? I'd say that's a major problem.
Second, I looked at Fretting Position and it is set to 12, so I guess that explains why it's putting my chords at the octave position. So I tried to change that. Again, it doesn't work. I can't change the Fretting Position. I tried clicking and double clicking the 12, the Fretting Position label, and the arrows to the left and right of the 12. Nothing changes that value. What the $%^& is going on? This shouldn't be so complicated.
Third, I tried your 2 note strumming suggestion, playing C-E and C-Eb. At first that failed, too, then I remembered something about my setup. I'm going to write it out here so that maybe I will remember this in the future. I have a 30-key MIDI controller on my desk to save space. So when I want to use the F0 key to hit an assigned strum I have to octave shift down. But that means some of the keys on my keyboard are now out of the guitar neck range. I have to remember to click a higher note to play the guitar. Which brings me to a suggestion for Orange Tree: Wouldn't it be better to assign the strum patterns to some key on the computer keyboard? That's probably what I would do if I was a computer programmer (and I am).
Lastly, I don't understand your last tip about Strum mode and the two keyswitches. Are those keys on my MIDI controller below the open E big string on the guitar? I've been selecting built-in strum patterns from the drop-down list and I built one new pattern using LOAD USER PRESET and I saved it with SAVE USER PRESET. Is your last tip about something else?
Thanks, Steve
Thanks for the tip. After I posted my question I thought about it some more and I wondered if it might work like that (pressing more than one note), but I hadn't launched my DAW yet to try it. So I just opened it up. I'm finding all kinds of quirky things that don't work as expected. To start, I went to Setup and I tried to scroll down the list. No joy. I can't scroll down with the down arrow key or by clicking in the scrollbar lane. The only way to scroll down the Setup list is to drag the scroll button. Is that the way yours works? I'd say that's a major problem.
Second, I looked at Fretting Position and it is set to 12, so I guess that explains why it's putting my chords at the octave position. So I tried to change that. Again, it doesn't work. I can't change the Fretting Position. I tried clicking and double clicking the 12, the Fretting Position label, and the arrows to the left and right of the 12. Nothing changes that value. What the $%^& is going on? This shouldn't be so complicated.
Third, I tried your 2 note strumming suggestion, playing C-E and C-Eb. At first that failed, too, then I remembered something about my setup. I'm going to write it out here so that maybe I will remember this in the future. I have a 30-key MIDI controller on my desk to save space. So when I want to use the F0 key to hit an assigned strum I have to octave shift down. But that means some of the keys on my keyboard are now out of the guitar neck range. I have to remember to click a higher note to play the guitar. Which brings me to a suggestion for Orange Tree: Wouldn't it be better to assign the strum patterns to some key on the computer keyboard? That's probably what I would do if I was a computer programmer (and I am).
Lastly, I don't understand your last tip about Strum mode and the two keyswitches. Are those keys on my MIDI controller below the open E big string on the guitar? I've been selecting built-in strum patterns from the drop-down list and I built one new pattern using LOAD USER PRESET and I saved it with SAVE USER PRESET. Is your last tip about something else?
Thanks, Steve
-
- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 4 posts since 1 Jan, 2019
EvilDragon
I solved my problem. I was able to change Fretting Position and other Setup values by dragging the value left or right. Not very intuitive, but now that I've learned the basics I think I can get some good value from this program.
Steve
I solved my problem. I was able to change Fretting Position and other Setup values by dragging the value left or right. Not very intuitive, but now that I've learned the basics I think I can get some good value from this program.
Steve
