Harmony

Harmony connects one global key and chord progression to the eight tracks. The key and the chord lane are set once, for the whole project. Each track then chooses how far it follows them, and an incoming note from a Circuit Tracks can transpose the tracks that follow it.

The parts

Part Where What it sets
Key Global > Key The root and scale of the project, the home page and the transpose channel
Chord lane Global > Chords Up to eight chord slots, each with a scale degree, a chord type and a length in bars
Track follow Keys > Harmony Whether a track follows the key, the chord lane and the transpose, and its harmonizer voices
Voicing and arp Keys > Voice Inversion, spread, voice leading, and arpeggio octaves, seed and progression

To open the Global pages, hold SHIFT and tap SESS. RIGHT moves to Chords, and RIGHT twice moves to Key.

Hold SHIFT (1), then tap SESS (2) to open Global. RIGHT once is Chords, twice is Key.

Circuit Tracks transpose

An incoming note-on on the listening channel sets a transpose for the tracks that follow it. The transpose is the played note minus a reference, which is C4 for key C and moves with the key’s root. The transpose stays in place until another note arrives or Global > Key option 21 resets it. Each following track then snaps the result down to the nearest note of its own scale.

  • Global > Key option 22 turns listening on or off. Only notes on the Circuit input port are heard.
  • The channel is set on Global > Key. Option 23 goes back to the default, which is the Circuit Tracks synth 1 channel (1). Channels 1 to 16 are also available.
  • Only tracks with Follow transpose on are affected. See Keys > Harmony.
  • The companion screen shows TRANSPOSE with the offset while it is set.

Play order

The stages below run in this order when a step plays. Nothing is written into the steps, so turning a stage off brings back the stored notes.

  1. Stored notes.
  2. The accumulator from Track > Evolution, if it is on.
  3. The global key, on tracks that follow it.
  4. The chord lane, through chord follow.
  5. The Circuit Tracks transpose, on tracks that follow it.
  6. The sub-step chord from Type and Voicing.
  7. The voicing tools on Voice.
  8. The harmonizer voices.

An arp runs last, on the result of these stages. A step locked with the LOCK pad follows the global key, but skips the chord lane and the transpose.

Defaults and older projects

  • New projects turn Follow global key on for every track.
  • Projects saved before this change load with Follow global key off, so they sound the same as before.
  • Tracks whose own scale is No Scale (drum tracks by default) never follow the global key.
  • The companion status line shows the key, the chord that is playing, and the transpose, for example KEY C Phrygian CHORD V 7th TRANSPOSE +5.
  • Keys: the Keys sub-mode, where each track’s harmony is set.
  • Companion window: the status line and the guide.