Voicing

[hanton]

Hi! I'm playing in a cover band, and I need to do some strings and brass and stuff,
and I was kind of wondering if there is a synth that can automatically voice a three note chord
so that the top note is played by violins/trumpets the middle note is played by violas/alto sax and the bottom note is played by cellos/trombones?

It would do my job (and probably others too) a lot easier!

Thanks!

[-=AnatomiC=-]

For this kind of thing, I think you should take a closer look at "arranger keyboards" - however, I would never buy one...

I don't think there is a workstation that can do it... unless...

Real Time Phrasing of Fantom x, or the similar feature of Oasys or M3... I think it's called RTPC or something like that...

To make a long story short, there is nothing you can't do with these technologies... It records ALL midi internal midi messages, no matter how much. So, it theory, you can change hundreds of parameters, just by pressing 1 key...

You can even change patches by striking the lower/higher keys, like Jordan does on his short Oasys videos. It's also possible on FX, thanks to RPS.

This is how it works: you make a short sequence in your Phrase Sequencer - your chord with all nuances you need, and then just assign it to a key. Turn RPS off if you don't need it.

[Graulrus]

If you're looking to finger a triad and have each one a separate instrument, I don't know of ANY way.

Of course, you can always play a single note and have separate parts or instruments playing at different intervals from the single note (eg, root note/zone is tenor sax program, another zone transposed a major third with a trombone program, and a third zone transposed a fifth with a trumpet program). But I doubt that's what you're looking for since you could only play major triads and no variations.

[DraconiusAldavo]

Yeah, I'm not really sure what you're asking, but I'd say depending on what keys your playing you can make a combination with different sounds transposed for the third/fifth as Graulrus said. Otherwise I don't think any set of keys would automatically pick a chord that fits what you want with the sounds you want.

[ChipCurtis]

It's possible by MIDI-chaining a couple of synth rackmount modules to your main controller synth. Transpose the two modules up or down as necessary, pick the right instrument for each module, there go you. However, like somebody already said, if you program things this way, you will only end up with a major or minor triad that can't be altered except to change key. You're better off just learning to play the chords!

[RobD]

You could always use a sampler, and record new samples of chords from different patches and assign the sampled chords to one key. That would be a very simple way to do it but it is really a matter of having the space to keep the samples, depending on how much you need.

[Omega Monkey]

Rob's method is one way. That one is probably best for live use, since you go give up some sound quality resampling the chords, but it makes the stuff easier to play.

The "stacking" method CAN work to give you major OR minor chords, with one minor tweak. You have to disable pitch bend for the root and 5th, and have the 3rd have a pitch bend range of +/- 1 semitone.

Then you set the pitch to a major or minor 3rd (minor 3rd might be more natural since people tend to bend up more often anyway). And youre all set. Play one note on your controller, manipulate the pitch wheel accordingly and you can play major and minor chords.

[hanton]

Sorry if my question was a bit unclear.
What I was looking for was what Graulrus said.
Transposing for the third/fifth wouldn't work, cause I'll play lots of notes in between the chords also.
I'm basically going to play a string/horn arrangement arranged for real players, so for added realism,
I want the voices to automatically transmit on different midi channels so that I can assign different patches to the different notes i play.
And it wouldn't just be triads either. My hands aren't big enough to cover 4-5 octaves if I do a split,
thus I wondered if there was a synth that could do this.
Plus, I need to be able to play piano with my left hand underneath all this!

I know Synful Orchestra automatically distribute players when you play sections,
so if you play a three note chord with a section of 10 players, it will distribute 3 on one note, 4-3-3 across the notes.


Anyway, wouldn't it be a great feature? :)