
It's probably obvious that I love the Chords track. It's so useful that if you haven't made friends with it yet, look over the Reference Manual then take it out for lunch. Meanwhile, here's a way to have it create a rhythmic keyboard part-with very little effort.
One of the Chords track's (many) talents is generating a chord chart from your playing. Play an acoustic instrument like guitar (yes, chords are allowed) or a MIDI instrument like Presence, then drag the audio or MIDI data up to the Chords track. It automagically maps out your chord progression.
Tip: Quantize the part before you drag it up, so that chord changes happen on the beat where they're supposed to change. Or quantize the Chords track after it's extracted, so that the chord changes line up on the beat.
Once the Chords track extracts the progression, any subsequent audio or MIDI parts you record can follow the chord progression. Audio has more options than MIDI, so for this blog post, we'll just consider the MIDI aspect.
The keyboard overdub shown in fig. 1 is not following the chord track that was extracted from guitar. Actually, all it's doing is playing the same chord with different rhythms. But we'll fix this.
Figure 1: The original, unedited, totally uninteresting keyboard overdub. It sounds as useless as it looks-and to prove it, check out the following audio example. I've left the guitar, bass, and drums in for context. The keyboard part is panned right, and mixed up fairly high so you can hear the part easily.
Original Track Tip #2: When using the Chords track as a songwriting partner, don't be too concerned about the notes you play-the Chords track will fix them. Just nail the timing, and play in the general vicinity of the note range you want the final part to cover.
To have the MIDI notes follow the Chords track, click on the track, open the Inspector (F4), and from the Follow Chords drop-down menu, choose Narrow. This moves the notes to the nearest note that conforms to the chord specified in the Chords track (fig. 2). Looks a lot better, doesn't it?
Figure 2: The Chords track has processed the notes with Narrow mode. And it sounds a lot better, too, as you'll hear in the next audio example.
Narrow Mode The Parallel option shifts the notes in parallel, so that a chord's root notes line up with the root note of the chord in the Chords track. This typically creates voicings that cover a wider pitch range, which may or may not be what you want. However, occasionally this will transpose some notes so they're not in the right key. If so, you'll need to do a little manual editing. Here's what Parallel mode created (fig. 3).
Figure 3: Parallel mode voices notes over a wider pitch range. And here's what it sounds like.
Parallel Mode Following the chord track in Bass mode isn't relevant here, because it just aligns the chord's lower note with the Chords track chord-the end result is the same as choosing Parallel, which definitely doesn't generate a fun bass line. But as described previously in the blog post Studio One's Session Bass Player, combining the Chords track with the Fill Notes option can create some pretty amazing bass parts.
Oh, and if someone wants to spoil the fun and say you're cheating, remind them the only thing that matters about music is the emotional impact on the listeners-and if they like what they hear, they won't care what you did to get there.
More from PreSonus
01/07/2022
The July 4th weekend is approaching, so it's time to hit the beach-but you can't have surfing without surf music, right? So before you start scouting fo...
23/06/2022
How to Play Faster-By Playing Slower covered how to slow down tempo of non-MIDI based music without changing pitch. This allows playing a difficult part at a sl...
17/06/2022
as in, 10cc's I'm Not In Love. Back in those days, to minimize tape hiss, noise reduction compressed and increased highs when recording, then expanded...
10/06/2022
We already covered Mai Tai's FM synthesizer secret identity-but that was the start of fun things to do with Mai Tai, not the end. Here are five more Mai T...
03/06/2022
Almost all guitars, and many vintage keyboards, have mono outputs-but when it comes to recording and mixing, it's a stereo world. Ooops. Although you can al...
27/05/2022
This Main bus FX chain is all about an easy-to-adjust, useful set of controls for processing a stereo mix (or other buses, like background vocals or drums). Wan...
20/05/2022
On the surface, Mai Tai is an easy-to-program, fine-sounding virtual analog subtractive synthesizer. But let's dig deeper-and unlock its unique FM synthesis...
18/05/2022
I don't need a musical instrument when life plays the best notes
Chiara Luzzana (2022)
We at PreSonus are extremely thrilled to hear and see Chiara Luzz...
13/05/2022
The way I found out about Studio One and PreSonus: I had lunch with Bob Moses (president of the Audio Engineering Society at one time) and I asked him some que...
13/05/2022
Recently, I did some mix consulting on a 60-track project centered around Ukrainian relief-and as someone who usually works with far fewer tracks, it reminded m...
11/05/2022
Kris Xenopoulos, AKA KRIS XEN is a South African guitar player, musician and producer. Most well-known for his work with South African death metal outfit, Vul...
06/05/2022
We all know Impact XT is cool-but it's at its coolest when you use the individual audio outputs, because then you can add exquisite effects to individual dr...
29/04/2022
The Splitter is one of Studio One Professional's coolest features, because it can split by frequency and do multiband processing. I'm a huge fan of the ...
22/04/2022
Hum is like an unwanted house guest-when it shows up, all you really want to do is get rid of it. Unfortunately, I can't help you with unwanted house guests...
15/04/2022
Listening to speakers is a different experience than listening to headphones. Instead of your head being one point of an equilateral triangle with speakers, hea...
08/04/2022
Multiband compressors can seem daunting. However, they're just several compressors stuffed into one plug-in (or in the case of Studio One, dynamics processo...
04/04/2022
From April 1, 2022 until May 31, 2022 get a FREE*** PreSonus MicroStation BT when you purchase a new pair of R65 V2 or R80 V2 studio monitors from participating...
01/04/2022
Last week's tip covered using the Mixverb to create the 80s gated reverb effects with drums. This week, we'll present a more universal solution. But als...
25/03/2022
The gated reverb effect on drums was one of the signature sounds of the 80s, with probably the most famous example being Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight. ...
18/03/2022
A modular synthesizer's VCA (Voltage-Controlled Amplifier) changes gain in response to an input control voltage. One of my favorite applications is controll...
11/03/2022
It's probably obvious that I love the Chords track. It's so useful that if you haven't made friends with it yet, look over the Reference Manual then...
04/03/2022
One element that can help make drums exciting is including the room sound where the drums were recorded. If you don't believe me, listen to the drum part in...
25/02/2022
First, some news: If you own The Huge Book of Studio One Tips and Tricks, the free update to version 1.2 is available from the PreSonus shop. Just go to your ac...
11/02/2022
Version 5.5 introduced Chord Stack and Strum features, which are pretty cool (for the basics on how they work, check out Gregor Beyerle's YouTube video). We...
04/02/2022
Wouldn't it be cool to add a harmonic element to beats? Well, thanks to Harmonic Editing and a little pink noise, you can. The goal is to have your beat or ...
28/01/2022
Let's go right to the audio examples, because they're worth a thousand words.
The problem: You want a big, lush reverb on drums. But that overpowers th...
21/01/2022
It may seem like VU meters are a relic of the past. However, the VU Meter plug-in that's available for free in the PreSonus Shop is well worth the download-...
14/01/2022
It's a streaming world-and streaming services have their own audio standards with respect to LUFS and True Peak levels. LUFS is not the same as peak or aver...
14/01/2022
Perry Sorensen, Head of Mastering for NAXOS of America, gives us his favorite fe...
11/01/2022
Happytwobehere is a duo from Covington, Louisiana comprised of two young ladies: Isabel Mathes (vocals) and Lillian Stegen (drums, keyboard, programming, produc...
11/01/2022
Studio One 5.5 has arrived, adding a ton of new mastering power to the Project Page - including Automation - as well as plenty of other features, including a st...
08/01/2022
Although this isn't an actual talk box, it does give humanized mouth sounds with Studio One Professional. This is possible because the human mouth is a filt...
31/12/2021
Mix referencing, where you compare your mix to well-mixed music, can be a big help if you want a reality check on what you're doing. There are even curve-s...
24/12/2021
Check out renowned composer, Robin Hoffmann's, rendition of The Night Before Christmas created exclusively in Studio One showcasing the use of Sound Varia...
24/12/2021
It happens to everyone: creative blocks. You want to do something musical, but you keep falling into the same old patterns, or you need something new and differ...
17/12/2021
The Fat Channel is a versatile channel strip plug-in that, because of all the other cool Studio One individual processors, is easy to overlook. But it has sever...
10/12/2021
Hardware is making a comeback. Real-time, improvisation-based drum machines and synths are gaining popularity, and you can find occasional bargains for used syn...
08/12/2021
So why is BTS ( ) Fake Love official video shown above? Because their hit song was mixed in Studio One Professional by our latest PreSonus Sphere Featured...
03/12/2021
An astute Friday Tip reader commented that while the tip on how to level the outputs of amp sim presets was indeed useful, I should also write about the importa...
27/11/2021
It's great we can store presets, trade them with other users, and download free ones. But when selecting different Ampire presets to decide how they fit wit...
23/11/2021
Brody Tullier (aka Zeno) is a 17 year-old composer based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who has been composing and arranging original music for the past four years.
...
22/11/2021
Click here to find a dealer! Instant Rebate! Now through the November 29th 2021,...
22/11/2021
Click here to find a dealer! Now through the end of December, get an instant reb...
22/11/2021
JOIN PRESONUS SPHERE
SOFTWARE
HARDWARE
TUTORIALS
BUY...
20/11/2021
Click here to find a dealer! Now through the end of November 2021, save $30 on t...
19/11/2021
Studio One includes multiple algorithmic composition tools, but I'm not sure how many users are aware of them. So, let's look at the way some of these t...
12/11/2021
I'm a fan of hand percussion. Tambourines, cowbells, claves, guiros you name it. But mixing it just right is always tricky. When mixed too high, the percuss...
05/11/2021
For this tip to make sense, I need to be upfront about two personal biases.
Personal bias #1: Drums should sound percussive. I can't remember the last time...
02/11/2021
Now through the end of Dec. 2021, - save $50/ 50 on the ioStation 24c at participating dealers! When you're a solo artist, you have to be more than just cre...
02/11/2021
Now through the end of Dec. 2021, - save $30/ 30 on the Revelator USB microphone at participating dealers! Stand out from the crowd! Revelator is the first USB ...