Inquiry About Possible Issue with Scale and Chord Functionality on Keylab Keyboard

Lab KeyLab Essential
#1

Hello everyone,

I would like to understand if there is an issue with my keyboard. When I set it to “Scale = C Minor” and “Chord presets = min. Triad” and press the black key Eb (also known as D#), the keyboard produces the notes Eb+F+Bb instead of the correct notes Eb+G+C, which form the Eb major chord, the III° degree in the selected C Minor key. This pattern repeats with other scale degrees as well, such as the sixth degree (Ab) and the seventh degree (Bb), where the keyboard produces chords that do not correspond to the expected key and chords.

Could you kindly check what combination of notes your keyboard produces with a similar setup? (The notes can be easily viewed in any DAW by recording the MIDI output).

I would greatly appreciate a response to understand if this is a defect with my keyboard or a bug.

Thank you very much.

#2

Hi @ingegnere . Welcome to the community.

I don’t have the controller.

According to the manual Chord mode is a way to play chords with one finger.
From the manual:
“4.10. Chord Mode
KeyLab Essential includes a Chord Mode that memorizes chords you input and then allows you to play them from one key, transposing as it goes.”

If you indeed can use Chord and Scale mode together, then the chord you get make sense.
If the base note is Eb and the Chord mode is minor triad, then the chord should consist of the notes Eb-Gb-Bb. Gb is’nt a note in c-minor. So it make sense it play a F instead in a cm scale mode. The resulting Eb-F-Bb notes can btw be seen as a three note Ebm9 or a Ebmsus2 chord. This Chords have no third and can be seen as both minor and Major. However i think the scale mode simply correct a note not in the scale with a note in the scale. It all fit to a cm scale and even as a three note part of a extended cm chord.

It sound like you think the Chord mode is a Chord correction tool. It’s not.
Scale mode seem to correct wrong notes to the nearest correct note in the scale - perhaps with nearest note downwards as priority, at least if the interval to the nearest note up or down is the same.

If you still think there might be something wrong, then feel free to contact Arturia support.

#3

Ciao LBH,

Thank you for your response. I probably didn’t explain myself clearly. If I set it to “C Minor”, I expect to have standard triads in the key of C minor:
Cm, D°, Eb, Fm, Gm, Ab, Bb.

==> If I set TYPE = Minor, I expect to have chords in all minor keys:
I° = Minor, II° = Diminished, III° = Major, IV° = Minor, V° = Minor, VI° = Major, VII° = Major

However, this is not happening, and it’s a problem that limits its functionality since I can’t use it this way.

In other words, if I wanted to play the III°, VI°, or VII°, which are major triads, I would have to change the settings while playing… which is impractical. If Arturia can’t resolve this issue, I will return the keyboard.

#4

Hi again @ingegnere ,

Yes.
That’s not quite how it work.

But let me suggest you try this:

  1. Select a c minor in Scale mode.
  2. Select a C Major Triad in Chord mode.
  3. Play one note at a time in a c minor scale.
    I suspect the Scale mode will correct wrong notes a semitone down to fit the selected scale. If so this should produce the chords you wan’t.

C should become cm
D should be the diminished
Eb - Eb
F - fm
G - gm
Ab -Ab
Bb - Bb

Can you try it out, and tell me if this indeed work?

1 Like
#5

Not immediately intuitive for a non-musician but… Thank you, I’m going back to studying! Peace, goodness, and love to all.

1 Like
#6

Glad it worked. Thanks for letting me know @ingegnere.

I think Arturia should describe how the scale mode note correction work. Perhaps they even could offer some choices to how the priority for the notes to correct should work. It could be “Allways the nearest note down”, “Allways the nearest note up” and “The nearest note no matter the nearest note is up or down”. I don’t know, if this allready is possible to select.

The thing is, that you don’t have a advanced Musical Function Analyser tool. I’m not even sure that would be possible in realtime. Even software that can do advanced Musical Function Analyses can have difficulties to work properly, and it have to ask you which option you want, when there are multiple possibilities.

You also don’t have any limited functionality modes, where for example each note in each scale is assigned to some certain pre programmed chords, when you play a single note.
I can’t see how this should work, when you play multiple notes manually. I mean, how should it know which chord you meant to play?
Also you will never be able to play chords that’s not pre programmed. So it’s musically limiting and can be quite annoying for some.

What you do have is a one finger Chord mode, where you only have the programmed notes in the formed chord, and then you can transpose that chord.
And then you have a Scale mode that correct notes that’s not in the selected scale. This also work when you play multiple notes.

I actually think it’s pretty good, that the Chord and Scale modes can be combined. This give you options like the one i suggested.
When you know which notes that’s in the scale, know which notes you feed the scaler, and know how the scaler will correct notes out of scale, then you can calculate the outcoming notes/ chords.
It’s a technically simple way to create functionality that actually can give quite advanced and interesting results.
Think about it - you can play any notes with or without using the chord mode, and then the notes will be adapted to the scale you have selected.
Keep in mind, that the musically functions you mention for each step does’nt match all scales. So you would need multiple Musical Functionality types to do things the way you want, i would say.
But you do have lot’s of possibilities as it is.
Good studying.