Chord-O-Mat - User Manual

Chord-O-Mat 3 is a Chord Library and Trigger Device for Ableton Live 10 with Push integration.It’s designed to have quick access to the chords in a Scale, to explore Chords, make chord progressions and play Live. In the Device you’ll find all Scales from Push and also the Scale Collection of Ableton Drummer Tobias Hunke.

There are two Devices coming with Chord-O-Mat.
  • the Instant Scale Device, which is similar to the build in Lives „Scale“ Device, follows the Scale or Chords from the Chord-O-Mat Trigger Device. With this you are able to sync the Scales easily over your whole Live Project.
  • the Push Loopback Device - with this you can record Chord progressions if you play with Push.

It’s recommended to use only one instance of the Chord-O-Mat 3 Trigger Device in your Live Project. Because the Devices communicates also with other Devices, there could be unwanted behaviors when you use more than one Device in your Live Project.

  1. on the top row of Chord-O-Mat you’ll find the Settings
  2. Here you can set the Root Note & the Scale
  3. This is the Chord Matrix where all Chords from a selected scale are highlighted
  4. These are the Chord-Slots, where you can make your own chord collection per scale
  5. Here you can Modulate the chords: inversion, strum and octave pitching. On the middle there’s an Infotext message.
  6. With the Scale Correction, you can Pitch all incoming Notes the Notes of the selected Scale
  7. The Octave Designer can add / removes Notes from the chords
  8. Output Monitor: here you can Monitor the incoming / Outgoing and mapped Midinotes
  9. File Handling: drag & drop a folder or *.json file into the GUI and all files of the folder are listed in the dropdown menu. The path will be saved within the Liveset.

Settings

Device View

In the Device Window you see the Version you’re using and if your Device is up to date or not.

  1. this is the info view with credits etc.
  2. this button opens the settings view, where you are able to connect the Ableton Push Controller.
  3. these are links to the online support page, the online manual, Soundmanufacture website & the youtube resources
  4. here you can select the Ableton Push Controller. How to connect Push see here.
  5. here you can show the Controls for the Octaves & the Instat Scale Device on your Push Controller.
  6. Store the Presets per Scale or per Banks (independent from the Scale)

Float Window

On the top row of the float window you’ll find some further settings:

  • “always on top” keeps the window on top if activated
  • Zoom: here you can set the size of the float window
  • “Instant Scales” this opens the Control Panal for the Instant Scale Devices
  • “Push Loopback” this must be activated, if you use the Push Loopback Device
  • File Management: here you can recall your files with different Chordsets

Scales

set the scale & the root note

Here you can set up the Root Note and the Scale for Chord-O-Mat 3 and the related devices, like “Instant Scale”“Modular Sequencer” and also “Scale-O-Mat 4”.

Chord Matrix

which chords are in the selected scale

Scale Correction

shows the notes of the selected scale

Monitor

in the monitor you can visualize the incoming and generated notes from Chord-O-Mat

Chord Matrix

the chord matrix shows which chords are in the selected scale

In the Chord-Matrix you can see which Chords are inside the selected scale.

On the top to bottom the chords are listed and from left to right the root note of chord.

Each chord that fits into the selected scale is marked blue.

It’s possible to play each chord by clicking on it (also the chords that are not selected)

“play all chords” mode

to explore chordprogressions you can activate “play all chords” on the top of the clip slots.
then you’re able to play each chord within a scale on a keyboard or on Ableton Push

the “play all chords” mode is recomended for exploring chord and less to play live.

monitor (play all chords mode)

in “play all chords” mode the range of the keyboard is visible

It’s also possible to change the range of the keyboard layout just by clicking onto a note.

Chord Sets

Important Information

to store & recall the chord presets properly please read about the file management of Chord-O-Mat & how to store your chord collection in the external json file!

with the “chord slots” you can create your own chord sets within a scale and presets to use them in all your live sets.

with the chord-slots you can create individual chord-collections within every scale. to play these Live with  the keyboard or with Ableton Push.

there are up to 8 presets for each scale, where you can store switch between individual chord sets.
in each chord slot you can set individual settings for the chord, like the octave or the chord inversion.

different ways to choose your assign your chords

drag & drop chords from the chord matrix into the chord slots

you can assign the chords by drag & drop from the chord matrix.

It’s possible to assign also chords that are not inside the selected scale. So you’re absoltely free to assign any chord you want.

select assign the chords while holding a key in “play all chords” mode

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while in “play all chords” mode you can also play a chord on your Keyboard or Ableton Push and there’s a red border visible, then click on a clip slot to assign it.

re-arrange chord sets

change and re-arrange the chordsets

when you want to swap the chords inside a chord slot you are able to trigger the chord and drag & drop it to another chord-slot.

Chord Slots

  1. activate / deactivate the chord slot
  2. assign a key to the chord slot
  3. change the root note of the chord slot (works like a dial - click + move up down)
  4. change the chord (drop down menu)
  5. trigger the chord / move the chord to another clipslot via drag & drop
  6. set the chord inversion (if it’s set to global the chord always folows the global inversion setting)
  7. set the octave of the chord
here you can see the functions of the chord slots

follow the root note

If you change the rootnote of the selected scale all assigned chords in the clip slots will follow the actual key.

play with an Keyboard & how to assign the chords

assign the Keys to a Midichord

activate the Midi learn button, it blinks red, then hit any Key of your Keyboard and the Midi learn button inside the Clip Slot is coloured blue and shows for example “N 60” for Note 60.

Then this key is assigned to the Chord inside Chord-O-Mat

Scale Correction

with the scale correction you can force the incomming notes to the given scale

if you have connected a Keyboard only the Notes that fit into the selected Scale
will be played. All other Notes will be muted (in Gated Mode) or will be pitched
To the Scale (pitched Mode)
With Push only, you can ignore this.

  • Scale Correction: turn the Scale Correction On or Off
  • min / max: here you can set the range of your Keyboard, Notes outside the range will be bypassed
  • Keyboard: shows the Notes which fit into the selected Scale
  • pitched / gated: if Pitched is selected all Notes that will not fit into the scale will be pitched to the Scale.
    If Gated is selected all Notes that will not fit into the Scale will be bypassed
  • Octave: you can Pitch the Octave up and Down

Octave Designer

use the octave designer to bring variarions to your chords.

add octaves to the notes of the chord

in this example, the first note of the c-major chord was duplicated and played two octaves downwards.
in this example, the first note of the d-minor 7(9) chord was duplicated and played two octaves downwards.

filter notes from a chord

in this example, the second note of the C-major chord is filtered and not played.

spread the chords over the Keyboard

in this example, the notes of the D-minor 7(9) chord are spread over several octaves.

use the presets to switch create variations

with the presets you can create variations to your chords on the fly

you can map the preset selector by an controller or even automate it with the LFO or any other control Device.

Connect a Keyboard

connect a Keyboard to Chord-O-Mat 3

to connect a Keyboard to Chord-O-Mat 3, select the midi input port of your Keyboard and set the Monitor in Ableton Live to “IN”

Assigned Chords

change the key and the chords will follow

If the keys are assigned to the chords, you can play the chords with these keys.All other keys can be played as usual. If the scale corection is turned on, they will be pitched to the set scale.

Trigger Chords

using the “master trigger”

The “Master Trigger” function is another way to trigger Chords.
If you activate the “Master Trigger”, you can map a midi note
to it.
If the Midi Note is played, it will always trigger the last chord.

Connect Ableton Push

Connect Ableton Push 1 or Push 2 to Cord-O-Mat 3

If you use Ableton Push, both Push 1 & Push 2 are working with Chord-O-Mat 3
You have to go first in the settings in the Device itself and select your Push Device. If Push isn’t found, please hit “rescan Push”
Your Push Controller should be visible in the Dropdown Menu. Please selct your Ableton Push there and activate the Device via the “Device activeated” Button.

the chord slots are highlighted on the Pads from Push

if you assign a chord to the chordslot it will be immediatly visible and playable on Ableton Push.
You can switch between the "Play" mode and the "play all chords" mode withthe "SHIFT" button on Push.

control the Instant Scale Device / change octaves

change the key and the chords will follow

In the settings you can activate to show the octaves and to show the controls for the "Instant Scale Device"
This is only visible in the "play" mode, not in the "play all chords" mode.

Record a Chord-Progression via Ableton Push

please read the page about the Push Loopback Device

To record Midi Notes into the track Chord-O-Mat is inside and trigger the chords via a clip it’s easy with an keyboard. While Chord-O-Mat receives the messages directly from Push and not from the Track input, you have to use the “Push Loopback” Device. Please read more here about how to integrate this workaround.

Instant Scale Device

The “Instant scale device” is similar to the internal scale device of Ableton Live, with the difference that it is possible to change the key of the complete Live set.

It’s a shared device with Chord-O-Mat and Scale-O-Mat. That means the instant scale device can be controlled by both devices.

control the instantscale device from chord-o-mat

to see the control panel for the instant scale devices, click on "instant scales" in the top of chord-o-mat

you can assing each instant scale device to one of the four groups of chord-o-mat. each group controls all instant scale devices realted to this group.

the functions of the Instant Scale Device

the instant scale device receives midi notes from the track+

if the related group is set to “track in” the instant scale device receives the midi input from the Track (playing clips, or Live input). 
It behaves like the native Ableton Live Scale Device.

the Instant Scale Device is muted

Instant Scale Functions

to follow the chord progression, activate the “instant chord mapping” button.

control selected groups

in this matrix you are able to control selected groups

Push Loopback Device

Ok, if you’re working with Push and you want to make Chord Progressions and record into a clip, there is indeed a problem. 

With a connected Keyboard everything is working well, because Ableton Live receives the Midinotes from the Track Input, but if you Play over Push, the Device receives the messages over the remote script from Push and not over the Track Input.

So, to solve this problem there is a Device inside the Package called „Push Loopback“. This Device just sends Midimessages to the Trackinput where Chord-O-Mat 3 is. Please read this how to set up everything.

yes … this Device is more a crutch  … but there was no way around that.

  1. create a new Miditrack with the Push Loopback Device inside. Then set the Input of this Track to „no input“

  2. route the Output of this Track to the Midi Track where Chord-O-Mat 3 is inside

  3. Now Chord-O-Mat 3 will communicate with the „Push Loopback“ Device and the Device will send the Midimessages you have mapped inside the Chordslots to the Input of Chord-O-Mat 3

  4. Activate “Push Loopback”

Be sure you have assigned the incomming Midinotes to the Chordslots, like you use it with a Keyboard. It doesn’t matter which Notes are mapped. You can use the same midi mapping as with your keyboard. If the Slots are not mapped the Device couldn’t receive any Message from Push! 

If you’re using only Push it’s recommended to use the „Standart Mapping“ which maps automatically the white keys to the 16 Chordslots.

If the Chordslots are not mapped to a Midi Note, the Loopback Device won’t work.

Store & Recall

drag & drop the file or folder to the GUI

select your preset file

On the top right side of chord-o-mat you find a dropdown menu, which lists all files cantained in the folder. 
This path is stored inside chord-o-mat and the file will be recalled, if you load your live set.

don’t forget to save your changes

While all the settngs are stored insde the *.json file don’t forget to save the file after every change you make inside chord-o-mat. Please remind, the changes will not be saved within the Liveset, only the path to locate the file.

Routing

routing the output to another track

you can quickly route the Midi Output of Chord-O-Mat to another Track.
you can also midi map this button.

  1. select a track

  2. click on the “route output to selected track”

  3. and the output of chord-o-mat will play the instrument of this track

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