dubdisciple

1 hour ago, Zo said:

Is it me or Lofi is the new dubstep .... lol 

Kinda, from the spawning trendy genre specific plugins perspective. Fortunately, unlike the various instant wub-wubafiers, most of these plugins have use outside of lo-fi. Developers made the fatal mistake of making dubstep plugins that mostly covered only one tiny subgenre of dubstep that died quickly.  

I must be getting dylexia. I read that as vag2 at first

Pad Thai 1 was by far the best hip-hop expansion for MPC.  One of few actually useful for people who actually make hip-hop

Wasn't this posted a couple of days ago?

Nope

I have always appreciated this forum . So much great information and genuinely helpful people. 

I am a sucker for mellotronesque instruments

It never fails to amaze me how many people in this forum will rationalize stealing as if they are doing the company a favor. I'm no angel by any means but anything i ever stole in life, I never deluded myself into thinking it was anything other than that.  

Note, their freebies are nice too

1 minute ago, cclarry said:

49 Euros price

thanks.  forgot to put price

I decided to actually put theory into action using a random chord from this pack scaler and a timer set for 5 minutes to come up with a base for lofi song. The first thing I noticed was that it was a chord I would not typically play live on a keyboard but might draw .  I let scaler do the work, even though, I could have used studio ones built in circle of 5ths and chord track to achieve similar vibe.   I attached a few screen shots to show how crazy staff view shots look of relatively simple stuff for this type of music. please forgive quick and dirty mix and arrangement i didn't even bother to set levels . lol

chord test(2).mp3

Although I am honestly saturated with lo-fi plugins, I have enjoyed their products. The classical guitar is simple but sounds good for the genre.  I probably will pass in bundle since I already have spent too much money today, but I highly recommend their products for lo-fi creators on a budget:

https://quietmusic.eu/qm-bundle-4

23 hours ago, Bapu said:

So 4.1 adds RX9 Standard and I already have RX9 Advanced as part of RX Post Production Suite 6 and it adds another year of Groove3.

I already have everything else in the MPS4.0 Suite. If I don't care for Groove3 what should my motivation be to spend $49?

Being that groovepass is code activated you could sell code or save until current one expires

1 hour ago, abacab said:

Ah, thanks! I picked up an MPK mini a few years ago when I was looking for a portable controller, but had to return it as it wasn't compatible with my extra large hands.

I have a full size Arturia controller that I love, and it maps very well to Analog Lab. You mentioned that you like AL, so I'm sure you would love the full V Collection 8. I sure do! The Analog Lab is still very useful with the full V Collection, and serves as a portal to that ginormous instrument and preset collection, so that you can preview them all in one interface. 😁

I am so tempted. I do have full version of pigments and i use it on almost everything. I am hoping to catch a deal on collection from kvr or other seller with below even sale price

Considering cakewalk doesn't come with a workhorse synth anymore ( RIP Z3ta+ and Rapture), Vital is a nobrainer in my opinion. Some really good presets available.

Tip: if you download demo for Serum, those wavetables can be used in Vital

Hornet's prices are so good and they have sales so often that this feels like the norm.

1 hour ago, Eric Liu said:

$79?!?! What a steal! 

They had multiple signs around store advertising it. It was either a bait and switch attempt or dreadful mistake but the fact there were multiple signs in different locations with picture of product made it hard for them to walk it back.

37 minutes ago, abacab said:

Great deal!

How are those "slim keys" on the minilab? Any different from the mini keys used on an Akai MPK mini, for example?

Takes some getting used to and not ideal for live playing anything beyond chords but about same as akai. Pads are more responsive than i expected. The rotary controllers are very useful with arturia products and others if you are lucky enough to find mappings. MPC 2 comes with map file and it pairs great. By far my favorite controller to use with MPC. Works great with Ableton preset too.

1 hour ago, pseudopop said:

No, never heard of them. I guess my browser's ad blocker works better than I realized.

That was my thought exactly. But I've learned that I am often ignorant about many things, so I thought it better to ask than to assume something.

Okay, I hear what you're saying, but I feel there is a better way to do everything you listed, even if you're missing a keyboard. Normally these cost money, so investing in something like scaler would be a much better move, like you more or less said yourself.

But I suppose there wouldn't be supply if there wasn't demand. Or perhaps supply has created demand?

In any case, if whoever is reading this finds midi chords useful, I'd like to apologize if my initial post made me sound like an elitist jerk. I support whatever helps people create music and I understand that we all have different backgrounds and different approaches. I was just so confused by this that I didn't pay much attention on how I worded my message, and after I re-read it I realized it may have come across as demeaning. That was not intended.

As a peace offering I'd like to share something I found when I was investigating this: Free Midi Chords and progressions offers over 7400 free midi chords and progressions in a single package. If midi chords is your thing you might find it useful.

You sounded genuinely curious and not like a jerk at all. I have seen posts from elitists and I would have ignored it. I see such opportunities as opportunities to exchange and find understanding rather than agreement.  Thanks for convo and progressions

49 minutes ago, Marc Cormier said:

I’ve learned, seen, and heard more chords through Scaler than any device or midi pack on the planet.  They’re all in there.  I don’t see why I would ever need a bunch of files like this when Scaler not only reveals them to me but also makes relationships to related chords (and not so related chords) on the fly and then builds scale-specific melody/arpeggios.

I mentioned scaler in my response. I agree 100% scaler is best way to make use of these. No way would I pay for a pack of single chords when i could generate them in scaler. Since these are free, they would probably work well at seeding scaler's new suggestion features.

2 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

You are not constantly bombarded by Unison MIDI chord pack or NIKO chord pack ads on YouTube??  

I'd imagine one would use this in a similar way, other than if these are only individual chords the user would have to actually experiment or know some theory to get usable results.

unison ads are part of why i pay to not have youtube ads.  This deal is slightly different since these are not progressions but single chords. Believe it or not there are hacks( for lack of better word at the moment) to use a single chord without really knowing theory. A chord on a piano roll can easily used to create a progression even if the user doesn't understand why it works.  Many of the kids that have been in my studio know absolutely zero theory and were using visual hacks to generate melodies that were very baroque like and often ended up as phrygian or dorian mode. In fact, when I had them listen closely to some Bach they realized they were somewhat reinventing the wheel .

Thanks for your patience.  I will start by saying, part of the answer lies in the website that makes this particular chord pack. These were originally meant to be used in Cthulhu and were arranged into progressions banks. Some of these these are not chord packs that have basic major and minor bass chords but chords a beginner or even intermediate player are likely play casually. This workflow is a little more obvious when done this way. Here is an example of how they were meant to be used :

They decided to convert them to midi files which are more universal, but for this particular application less intuitive.  Although less intuitive, there are several ways and reasons to use. Disclaimer: I wouldn't personally use first route since tools exist like the program this was designed for. 

1. Creating presets for aids such as Chthulu or(  more likely in the case of someone who bought midi version of a cthulu pack ) the free chording progression tool Ripchord.  Admittedly, this sounds tedious, but once progression presets are made they can be re-used in countless ways. 

2. More practical and efficient would be dragging into a program like Scaler seems a more efficient way to use. Dragging a single chord into scaler opens up new worlds by having the ability to generate multiple chord progressions, both typical and unconventional via the suggestion and modal exchange functions.  Throw in other features like ability to play the results as strums, humanize and so on and one chord ends up having much more potential than the sum of the literal notes. If I have time later, I can show how practical this is for creating samples by actually dragging one of those into scaler.

3. The ability to study chords in a way that is more practical in modern music. Pop music and EDM are made mostly on piano rolls and grids rather than staffs. Visually, seeing a chord laid out on a piano roll is more useful for a person born into a world of DAW based music. Remember, every single music theory fact we know is based on constructs created to make transcribing what exists as sound easier to translate to reproducible forms.  For the DAW based musician the relationship between notes makes more sense laid out on a piano roll. They may not understand the names of what they are doing but this does not stop them from doing it. I ha. ve watched kids in FL studio instinctively move the bass notes up from a chord to give themselves more room for actual bass instruments without being able to describe these things in music theory terms.  Recognizing the visual relationships of things like diminished and sus chords becomes habit after awhile for them.

You may ask, why not just play the chords? Good question with a few answers:

1) knowing a chord and physically being able to play it are two different things. There are chords I can use my understanding of music theory to construct but would butcher playing , especially if I had to chain together progressions of them.

2) Using something like this and physically playing too are not mutually exclusive.  I have watched kids evolve from using chord packs to playing them depending in composition technique.

3) Some people have no controller and use various piano roll techniques that involve laying chords out and manipulating notes for melodies example:

I could probably think of more, but hopefully this gives some insight even if it doesn't inspire you to go this route 😂

Ok. I understand curiosity. Give me a moment to wake up lol.

34 minutes ago, pseudopop said:

Ok, so I didn't want to believe it but it is exactly what it says on the tin: 1673 midi files that each contain a single chord. That's it.

Can someone please explain to me why someone would use these? Is there some mystic workflow or software where selecting a midi file is actually faster and easier than hitting a C major on your keyboard? Or is this for people who don't have a keyboard? For people who want to make music without learning any theory?

Not judging, simply curious.

Though admittedly, I have now learned that you should use a different variation of C major for future bass and chillwave, and that Spanish hip-hop doesn't use C major at all (only C min, but you can use two variations of it). 🤷‍♂️

I will take a look but can probably guess work flow(s) that makes these useful.  I could share a few scenarios if you really are curious.

23 minutes ago, Marc Cormier said:

This seems like a lot of bang for the buck.  Like, seriously.  I checkout out some of the videos and it seems intuitive.  24 hours isn't enough time for a trial but for $49....

Every other year i talk myself into it and then never use it. The videos are my rationalization this time but I have to wonder how useful the videos will be if i never bother following up? lol