Is there not a way to use multiple chords in the mk3 chord mode? I’m reading the manual before buying, and it says the chord mode is just inputting 1 chord then transposing it up and down chromatically. Is it not possible to say assign different chords to individual keys or pads so that I can build out an actual chord progression? The combo of chord, scale, and arp modes seems so powerful…but its mind-bogglingly limited if I only get to use a single chord.
Hi @OldBotany. Welcome to the community.
You can combine Chord and different Scale modes to get different results.
Please read this thread for an example i give - as i assume work the same in Keylab MK3:
I don’t have the controller to test.
Thanks for the reply and I appreciate the time. But that definitely doesn’t seem to be what I’m looking for. I’m looking to create a chord set that I can customize and trigger each chord on demand. Say have a normal triad, a minor 9, a sus chord, and a borrowed chord. Obviously the borrowed chord wouldn’t work with the scale function, but I’d really want to be able to choose my own chord progression to feed into the arpeggiator. The Keylab chord options looks so powerful, but its weird to limit it to 1 chord. I mean other than doing house chord stabs, what are you even supposed to use this for?
I’m just telling you what i believe is possible now.
You can do more than stabs with a single chord, as you also can see in the single example i’ve posted a link for. Each chord you program and each scale you use will give you different results with a different chord on each note.
What you want is some kind of key/ chord mapper so each played note can have it’s own chord programmed. I got that. I don’t think any controller have something like that. Do you know about one? (EDIT: I think the Keylab MK2 had a Pad chord option where a pad could have a separate pre programmed chord. Perhaps that was’nt something many used, if it’s gone. Not sure how it work/ed. EDIT END) Perhaps you can find a DAW or a plugin or whatever that can do it.
The limit will probably be 128 chords at the time being, as that’s how many midi notes we have available.
A single chord can be played in many ways. Each variation have to be programmed when not played. That’s many chord memories just for one chord. How many chord memories is enough - i wonder.
When playing live you don’t have the time to program chords for each song.
Personally i play my chords and use my music theory knowleadge when needed.
Thank you, I honestly appreciate the info you shared. As a reference, I’m pretty sure the Novation and NI lines do what I’m asking about, so it’s why I was a little surprised that it’s not in Arturia’s line. The Novation does chords really incredibly from what I can read, but for some maddening reason, they do not feed those chords into the arpeggiator the way that Arturia will.
My comment on the house chord stab is that that is what it seems to have been designed for. Your approach is smart, but it only goes so far and it’s a bit of a hack to get around a design limitation. Taking a single triad, transposing it +/-, then filtering based on scale will let you generate other simple triads in the key. But say instead you want to write a soul or jazz piece with lots of weird minor 9s. And you want some chords to be inverted but not others for voice leading. And you want to use a sus and resolve it. And borrow a chord from another key. There doesn’t seem to be any way to remotely get there that I can see.
Again I’m only comparing by reading the Arturia, Novation, and NI documentation, so I really have no hands on experience here. I’m researching trying to figure out what to buy.
Yes it look like Novation perhaps have a chord function for the pads only that can store different user chords. Not sure about differences between the launch and sl product line. I think it sound like what Arturias Keylab MK2 had. Also i don’t know how well it work.
I find chords on a few pads only is limiting.
I don’t know if NI controllers can store several user chords or how it works if so.
If you have’nt used chord modes before, then perhaps it’s a good idea to try it out before you decide.
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