Chord Cadenza
Extract chords from a MIDI file and play!
Extract chords from a MIDI file and play!
It uses various algorithms to find a good fit. In the case of chords, if it can't find a good chord, it will return a null. It isn't necessary for the whole chord to be present in the MIDI file - just enough to make an intelligent estimate.
Yes. The program allows keys to be typed in (on any bar), and chord names (e.g. Cdim, Am etc.) to be typed in on a grid. This is an alternative to using the program's key and chord generation function.
No. You can input keys and chords manually and play to an audio file or stream. However, using a MIDI file is quicker.
No. There is no music staff notation anywhere in the program. The intention of this application is to help with improvisation, and to allow you to play along with a MIDI or audio file for pleasure or to provide an accompaniment.
Yes. The keys and chords can be output to a MIDI file, or can be read from a text file.
There are literally thousands of MIDI files on the internet. Just do a google search for MIDI files!
No. The program supports playing using a normal PC keyboard. However, a MIDI keyboard is preferred if you have access to one.
There are no restriction on this. You can play melodies, bass lines, block chords, arpeggios, or combinations of these.
Not really. If you want to learn to play a musical keyboard "properly", you should do that as a separate course. You can still use this program in parallel for some light relief.
No. The program uses solfa notation ('drm...' for 'do re mi...') to show where the notes are relative to the current key, and to help with improvisation and ear training. You can choose to replace these with actual notes names (C, C# etc.), or not display any names.
You can try this link: Music Theory
It shows the chords on a display (the 'PlayMap') that matches a MIDI keyboard. The display changes as the music is played. There are various options to control what happens when you play a note on the keyboard. You can play the normal keyboard pitch, or just chord pitches in various ways.
You can use the PlayMap to help find chords on the keyboard. Or you can use one of the chord modes to play the chords generated by this program with different inversions and in different registers.
The PC keyboard is mapped to MIDI notes. The mapping is configurable to allow for different types of keyboard and personal preferences. The PlayMap has options to display PC keyboard labels. Key switches and the mouse wheel can be used to control key velocity. Switch keys can also be used to emulate a sustain pedal.
No. The program has it's own built-in synthesizer that outputs to a soundcard. However, you can also configure it to output to another MIDI synthesizer.
If you intend to use the builtin synthesizer, you will need at least one soundfont file. A small soundfont file is supplied with the program. However, you may want to download a bigger soundfont. A small list of soundfont links can be found here.
No. The program was initially designed to play MIDI files. Support for audio files and streams was added later.
No. Although a number of programs claim to be able to do this, I'm not aware of any accurate way of achieving it. In order to play along to an an audio file or stream, you need another source for the chords. This could be a MIDI file, or you can input the chords from sheet music.
The program supports MPEG (MP1, MP2, MP3), OGG, WAV and AIFF files.
With an audio file, you synchronize the audio to the bars and beats of the music before playing along with it. With an audio stream or other musicians, you update the current position as you play, using various techniques to locate to the next bar, beat or chord.
It's advisable to get as close a match as possible. The program allows for different start and end sequences, and you can also jump over missing bars in the chord source or audio file. However, the more differences there are, the more complicated it will be to synchronise it.
No. The program can transpose the chords to any key. The in-built synthesizer can also be tuned to a non-standard pitch, although this is not normally necessary.
This is a list of links to sites that offer General MIDI (GM) soundfonts. The list is by no means exhaustive. Any soundfonts you want to use with the program should end with the extension .sf2. You may need to decompress some files after downloading.