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MChord is a simple chord generator plugin. It forms part of the adbe MVelope MIDI tool kit along with the MP5 pattern arpeggiator, the MPulse MIDI CC LFO, the MWay MIDI Router, and the MKey MIDI PC Keyboard.

What does it do?

MChord allows you to assign chords to notes so that when a given note is played through MChord, the user specified chord is output. Currently MChord offers chord mapping for a full octave which is duplicated across the entire keyboard range. The MIDI receive channel can be used to adjust whether the plug listens to a specific MIDI channel, or all MIDI channels. Conversely the MIDI transmit channel can be used to decide whether the generated output is transmitted on the same channel as the input note, or whether it should be forced to a new channel. After-touch is supported on generated chords, and MIDI-thru is supported for all other MIDI data.

Click here to download MChord.

MChord ships with a small text file called MChord.res. This file needs to be located in the same folder as the MChord.dll. It is a plain text file that you can edit in Notepad to add new chord presets. The format is very simple, and the file is documented.

Much to my surprise, this plug has generated a large amount of feature addition requests, so a new version is currently in development that will offer a greatly extended feature set in addition to fixing some known bugs.

On the probable new features list are:

• Improved UI, designed to make setting up note chord sequences easier.
• Tools for generating chord progressions and mapping to different keys.
• Randomness control to allow note velocities and note starts of the chord notes to independently drift a little from the input note.
• Strum mode that causes note-ons to happen in series.
• Support for presets as well as fxp patches.
• Support for inverted chords.
• Extended .res file format for more complex setup.
• Ability to edit the .res file from the UI.

Bug fixes needed:

• MChord incorrectly identifies itself as MReflect.
• Changes to chord assignments during playback may cause hanging notes.
• Corrupted .res files may not load correctly.

What do I need to use MWay?

Your sequencer or host must support VST plugins, and specifically it must support MIDI only plugins. If you host does not allow MIDI output from a VST plugin to be passed to another plugin then MWay will work but you will not be able to use it for anything much. Consult your sequencer's manual for information on passing MIDI data from plugins to other plugins.

I can vouch that Tracktion, FLStudio, Buzz, and Bidule offer this functionality. If you know of other hosts that do, please let me know.

This pugin was developed with Steinberg's VST SDK. The translation to Borland's Delphi was made by Frederic Vanmol. Tobybear's Delphi Template was also used in the development of this plugin. If you are interested in creating audio plugins, you could do a lot worse than take a look at these.

Thanks, in no particular order, must also go out to Matias, Nuffink, Amoebe, Glurgle, KerryDan, and AD80 for assistance, ideas, bug hunting, patches, and in the case of AD80 giving me the idea in the first place.

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