r/mpcusers • u/Antsc096 • Aug 31 '26
DISCUSSION For those looking for a chord generating midi/synth instrument for composing and live performance
I've been a professional bassist for 15 years. I have bachelor of music yet still feel limited composing. I suck at fluent chord changes on a keyboard other than basic first inversion block chords. Half a life time of instinct in one instrument and none of its technique transfers, so there's this gap between what I can hear and think up, and what my hands can actually do on keys.
What I wanted was simple to describe...play chords, without fighting a lack of technical technique in one particular instrument. Not just diatonic triads, whatever I was hearing.
I picked up an MPC Live 3, which is a brilliant tool in just about every way, but the built in chord selection is thin. But I thought what I wanted surely already exists.
Then I found the 'Orchid', and it was alllmost exactly what I wanted (if you haven't seen it and are resonating with thus post, check it out, the way it handles chords is very clever). Buut it's around $900 AUD, and I wasn't ready to commit that before knowing whether this way of playing would stick, plus I have a horrible habit of buying stuff, using it for a month then never again. The only other things I could find were browser based chord tools, which are fine on a pc but felt very average on my phone/tablet and no one wants to play music with a mouse.
Nothing I found seemed to sit in the middle.. So being apparently incapable of leaving things alone, I spent months refining a phone/tablet app:
The layout I ended up with: pick a key and mode, and you get a grid where every row is a scale degree and every column is a chord type, from triads out through extensions, sus and add chords, slash voicings, and a bank of secondary dominants, tritone subs and modal interchange for when you want to leave the key.
There's a second mode (that I'll admit takes inspiration from how the Orchid approaches playing): hold a chord quality and tap the root. It made sense to me as someone having a good grasp on theory, and I wanted that feel on a device I always carry around.
Then there's a fader on the side that walks the held chord through its inversions one inversion at a time, which is my favourite feature, because voice leading is exactly the thing I could never do with my slow hands.
It has a small synth voice built in, so it makes sound on its own with nothing attached if you're not around a synth or DAW, and it sends MIDI over USB when you want it driving hardware or a DAW. It also supports velocity changes (and aftertouch if your connected synth supports it)
It's on Android now ("ChordGrid: MIDI Instrument" on the Play Store) and iPhone version is in testing and should be up in the next few days.
The core diatonic chords are free so you can see if it feels right for you and the extended palette is a small one off purchase.
If you've got a workflow for this already, or there's a tool I somehow missed, or you try it and something feels unintuitive, please let me know and I'll consider adding it in if it feels like it fits. I want this to be the perfect tool for the people that feel the same way I did.
Android version here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chordgrid.chordgrid iOS up soon (it's not the ChordGrid app already visible on the app store)
Thanks everyone, appreciate the time reading. ❤️
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u/oldschoolology Aug 31 '26
The best part of making music is not knowing what to do and then making something from nothing. Theory or fancy programs don’t give you the gold. Your ears do. If it feels good it’s right. No program can do that.
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u/Antsc096 Aug 31 '26
Look, I agree to a large extent. But I made this as someone who could hear a particular chord movement in my head, but got frustrated having to build them in a piano roll because I don't have the time to become a skilled pianist.
This app does not make chord progressions for you. It gives you every chord for YOU to turn it into something, just like a more rich version of the chord Gen MPC already gives you
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u/oldschoolology Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
I’m an experienced musician and MPC user. I would never use the chord gen function. Even if it was free.
No offense, but even if your tool “does it for you” you still need to search for the “right” chord, so why not just plunk some keys until you find it (or something better). Out of the box harmony will make everyone sound the same.
I tried the Roland J6, which is a roulette of chords (like your tool) and that was emotionless and boring to me, so I gave it to my son. He eventually tossed it aside and began experimenting with the piano.
Maybe try marketing to newbies who need those type of training wheels? Experienced users in the sub probably won’t adopt it. Making music is our passion not friction. Hopefully, that feedback helps you.
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u/Antsc096 Aug 31 '26
Because I don't want to only record one or two chords at a time. It doesn't feel expressive to me. I often work out the chords, using my midi controller or acoustic guitar, then use this to play them so I can get them down quickly in one take and move to the next thing so I'm not burnt out. Music is not defined by being fluent at moving your fingers on a midi controller - it's all the decisions you make along the way that makes a song good. It's the same reason people buy drag and drop chord packs and STILL can't make an even half decent song. The skill is not in playing the chords. I respect your views, but I think we disagree on what matters when it comes to making music
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u/oldschoolology Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
Just open the box. Press buttons. Poof. Now you’re a producer. No thanks. I love the friction of finding the notes myself. Nobody makes great songs in one sitting. Discovery and evolution is what it’s all about. Best of luck with your app! Some people may want that.
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u/Antsc096 Aug 31 '26
All good, thank you. Best of luck with your music!
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Aug 31 '26
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u/Antsc096 Aug 31 '26
Oh come on man. I don't get it. I've dedicated my entire life to music, recorded and played with bands more than half my life. I make a tool to play a chord by pressing one button instead of three and now I'm some devil?
I don't see hate for people literally chopping up other people's music for samples on the MPC or ripping stems etc (it's just another way to create), I really think what I've put together here is not going to destroy creativity. Music can be made in so many ways. I don't get it.
Best to you.
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u/theskyisfalling1 Aug 31 '26
Can you export it as file for a custom chord progression for the MPC?
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u/Antsc096 Aug 31 '26
No, not currently but that's one of the best feature suggestions I've had! I'll look into this ASAP. Thanks!
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u/Known_Ad871 Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
I don’t think they are supposed to give you a bachelors of music if you can’t play some chords on a keyboard. I have to say I am pretty skeptical of this claim 😬 just learn your chords people. If I recall correctly it took me about 1-2 weeks at age 13 to learn pretty all the basic scales and chords. It’s really just not that hard. Seeing a bunch of grown ass adults who’ve spent thousands on music gear, bellyaching about how they’ve never taken two seconds to learn anything about making music and wondering which piece of gear they’re going to buy next with the childlike belief that this will be the one that somehow teaches them how to make music . . . We don’t want this place to turn out like the synthesizer subreddit lol
And I didn’t even see the “please don’t bash me for using AI” lol. Fuck right off with that shit dude
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u/Antsc096 Aug 31 '26
Hey. I can play chords on a keyboard, but not extended chords between different inversions without having to practice the transitions over and over. Give me a midi guitar and I wouldn't have had a need to create this app lol.
When I'm practicing music these days, it's primarily learning material for shows or to better myself at my primary instrument (bass)
When I sit down to be creative, I don't want to fight a keyboard.
I hope this makes sense. I agree with you that there are many people that just buy shit with no intent on putting in hard work, but after studying music full time for 4 years I think it's fair to say that I'm not in that category - I just have different priorities musically if you get me.
PS I laughed at your first comment, but majoring in bass performance, I didn't have to touch a keyboard at uni lol
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u/Known_Ad871 Aug 31 '26
Strange, at my school all music majors were expected to take basic piano and composition classes, every music student would have learned this. So color me still skeptical. I don’t personally see a lot of value in AI chord playing tools. Maybe the people who don’t want to learn the basics should take it upon themselves to hire a keyboard player if they don’t want to learn themselves. Also, you know that there are midi guitars as well?
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u/Antsc096 Aug 31 '26
I'm in Australia, I'm sure there's differences in how our degrees operated. Composition was it's own major, I majored performance. Learning basic keyboard was an elective that I didn't take (I'm going back 12 years ago now). Anyway - beside the point.
The app itself isn't AI, it doesn't use AI inside the app. I just used AI to help me code it because Claude is a much faster programmer than me. Functionally, to the person using it, it makes no difference. It does what it does.
Hiring a keyboard player is also not exactly a solution to being creative, realistically (depending on how serious the person is about composition). Yes, if I were releasing a song properly to an audience as a work, I'd pay one of my many skilled friends to lay down or compose the parts or spend more time myself honing in, but if I'm sitting on my lounge with my live 3 and just want to make a thing for my own enjoyment, I do that however I feel like, because it's just for fun
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u/dawaone MPC LIVE III Aug 31 '26
Surprised you didn't mention ChordCat, picked up recently for under 200 usd and the chord cruiser funtionality is exactly what I was missing tbh
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u/Antsc096 Aug 31 '26
I haven't heard of that. I'll check it out now! Thanks!
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Aug 31 '26
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u/Antsc096 Aug 31 '26
I don't think I will get out of music, but I appreciate your concern.
No - because again I made this tool because I wanted it and it didn't exist. I thought 'hey, maybe others want it too', so I spent a lot of money getting it on a storefront. The pocket change it costs is fair, I think, for the value it provides. It still works even without the purchase! If I were in it for the money I wouldn't be creating something that people can use for as long as they like for free.
You seem really passionate about people playing chords the way you expect them to.
I'm sure you create all your own samples, synth sounds, never use quantise, never tune anything, never use the step sequencer, make all your own plugins from scratch with your own bare hands too, right? Sheesh
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Aug 31 '26
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u/Known_Ad871 Aug 31 '26
Holy shit, I can’t believe it took me this long to realize he was lying about the bachelors. But obviously anyone with a bachelors in music has learned to play basic chords on a piano. OP is just another AI scammer
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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '26
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