Chord voicings automatically (like on Kontakt Kore)

[jabraham]

I'm arranging composing for a R&B band with 6 horns, and I would like to be able to write a lead line for the alto sax, and have the other two saxes follow along underneath a 3rd (or 4th, or 6th, or whatever) lower but within the chord structure of the song.

 

Also I'll write a lead trumpet line and have the second trumpet and trombone follow it along.

 

I bought "Kontakt Sax and Brass", and it has a cool system where you can send the basic chord notes to the instrument (as a set of notes low enough below the instrument's voicing), and also send it the lead line, and it will automatically generated proper voicing for the other instruments. That's pretty cool, except I'm actually arranging for real acoustic instruments so I need the voicing as a midi part, not just as an output from the VST.

 

So what I'm wondering is there a way to do this within logic? I have the chord track set up properly. I can record a loop and extend it so that logic loops it and adapts it for the different chords. That's close to what I want. But I want to record a lead line, and have the other instruments follow the lead line, within the chord structure.

 

Basically, I want logic to do, say, "drop 2 voicing" for me so I only have to write the lead line initially, then tweak the arrangement after. Or, I want a way to get the arrangement out of Kontakt Sax and Brass and back into logic, for further tweaking and scoring.

[jabraham]

Basically, I want logic to do, say, "drop 2 voicing" for me so I only have to write the lead line initially, then tweak the arrangement after.

 

A little bit more googling found a third party VST that looks good http://vielklang.zplane.de/ but it's $250. From that I also found more results by googling the important phrase "VST Harmonizer".

[David Nahmani]

This could definitely be done in the Environment, for example with Transformer objects, but depending on how much flexibility (choice of scales, modes, etc...) you want it could become quite a large environment. Nothing really scary at all, it just would take some time to program.

 

Basically a Transformer could allow you to generate another note and route it to another instrument. Cable a few of those and you could do just about any of what you just asked and more.

 

http://documentation.apple.com/en/logicpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=37%26section=16%26tasks=true

 

If programming Transformers all day doesn't sound like a lot of fun to you then the plug-in options you've found might make more sense.

[jabraham]

This could definitely be done in the Environment, for example with Transformer objects, but depending on how much flexibility (choice of scales, modes, etc...) you want it could become quite a large environment. Nothing really scary at all, it just would take some time to program.

 

Does anyone know how to get the chord track into the transformers? Or into anything, actually? I thought it was a meta-event, when the chord changes, but it doesn't seem to be.

 

Apparently the global chord track is a fairly new feature without much support? It will transform my midi loops but I can't figure out how to do much else with it.