MIDI Chords Bay

[Zeno]

MIDI Chords Bay

As a small procrastination of my main project's work as a content provider, I created a small bay with chords as a simplification in the songwriting process. Since this paid off for myself in no time, I thought I'd share this with the community.


The idea is simple:



Each element contains the basic chords of the respective scale as takes, and each take is named by a take marker with the corresponding chord. In this way, the chord progressions and their progress in the project can be tracked at any time. Extremely useful when working with many modulations in a song.
By creating comps, you can easily compare different chord progressions without even opening the MIDI Editor.



Here are some examples:












Download in REAPER Stash

Put the file in the folder "ProjectBays" within your REAPER resource path. If the folder does not exist, just create it.
Then open the Project bay in Reaper and select under Bay: MIDI Chords.

[Zabelle_be]

Hello,

It looks fantastic !

But I don't understand how to 'open the ProjectBays in Reaper'

Thanks a lot for reply

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by Zabelle_be

Hello,

It looks fantastic !

But I don't understand how to 'open the ProjectBays in Reaper'

Thanks a lot for reply

thanks for the feedback
i've added a gif with instructions to the main post

[Spookye]

You are the creator of a wonderful utility !! Heartfelt thanks Zeno ..... simple to insert into the workstation, ready to use and pleasing to the eye. Thanks thanks thanks!!! I dreamed of this feature! Greetings from Italy. You are a wizard!!

[dahya]

WOW !! This looks absolutely fantastic, and something which I have wanted for a while now !! Thanks for sharing !

One thing I can't understand - when I drag a MIDI item from the Project Bay, how can I extend the item so that it plays for more than one beat - you demonstrate in your screenshot a 'hand' cursor, but I don't know how to achieve this?

Also, interestingly, I noted that you have a 'MIDI Drums' in your Project Bay too. I'm assuming that you can do similar things with that too, but drag drum patterns - will you be able to share any details on how we could also achieve this too at some point?

Many thanks again for this, much appreciated.

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by dahya

WOW !! This looks absolutely fantastic, and something which I have wanted for a while now !! Thanks for sharing !

One thing I can't understand - when I drag a MIDI item from the Project Bay, how can I extend the item so that it plays for more than one beat - you demonstrate in your screenshot a 'hand' cursor, but I don't know how to achieve this?

Also, interestingly, I noted that you have a 'MIDI Drums' in your Project Bay too. I'm assuming that you can do similar things with that too, but drag drum patterns - will you be able to share any details on how we could also achieve this too at some point?

Many thanks again for this, much appreciated.

By default you can stretch an item in reaper by using alt+drag to lengthen or shorten it.

Kenny made a series of videos about the project bay.

In short: the bay contains all items in your project. For example, if you create several items with different contents, you can save these items in a new databay.

[dahya]

Originally Posted by Zeno

By default you can stretch an item in reaper by using alt+drag to lengthen or shorten it.

Kenny made a series of videos about the project bay.

In short: the bay contains all items in your project. For example, if you create several items with different contents, you can save these items in a new databay.

Oh wow, nice one, thanks for that ! Reaper is amazing, I learn something new everyday...this means I could have a bay of drum patterns too...nice....

[Ozman]

Hmm... this kind of makes me wonder about more possible uses of the Project Bay. It is quite under-utilized by me.

[grandfougue]

Hi I don't understand when I load an accord in the jacks the notes are not in place. Jump into take 1 and another lower.

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by grandfougue

Hi I don't understand when I load an accord in the jacks the notes are not in place. Jump into take 1 and another lower.

Seems to be a bug.
Set your project to 120bpm and insert the midi-chords-item. Then you can choose the bpm you want and the chords should be in the right place.

[lachinhan]

It's great, I think you'll develop this tool at a higher level. I wait for you in the next version. Also, what do you think of the idea of MIDI Drum Bay?

[todd_r]

Oh wow, thanks Zeno

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by lachinhan

It's great, I think you'll develop this tool at a higher level. I wait for you in the next version. Also, what do you think of the idea of MIDI Drum Bay?

Hmm... I don't think there will be a next version.
I'd thought about integrating 7th chords etc. and decided against it, because chords are easy to customize.

I will not release my drum bay, but it's really easy to create something like that yourself. Every time i play midi (no matter if drums or melodies) and decide that it doesn't fit the current song, the midi item ends up in my bay.

[Zabelle_be]

Originally Posted by Zeno

thanks for the feedback
i've added a gif with instructions to the main post

Thanks a lot !

[grandfougue]

Originally Posted by Zeno

Seems to be a bug.
Set your project to 120bpm and insert the midi-chords-item. Then you can choose the bpm you want and the chords should be in the right place.

Thank its cool thanks

[TonE]

Originally Posted by Zeno

Hmm... I don't think there will be a next version.
I'd thought about integrating 7th chords etc. and decided against it, because chords are easy to customize.

I will not release my drum bay, but it's really easy to create something like that yourself. Every time i play midi (no matter if drums or melodies) and decide that it doesn't fit the current song, the midi item ends up in my bay.

I did not test this yet.
What is the bay concept? Is it a collection of midi files, saved as items? Or saved as .mid files in some directory? Or something else? When converting project items to linked .mid files those midi files are placed in the project directory anyway, so do not understand the bay concept? Is it a "global" linked .mid file collection kind of?

Not sharing is ok, if we know the concept, someone can replicate it and share it, thus freeing some "hidden" ideas. In some years, you will change your mind, or not. Both ok.

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by TonE

I did not test this yet.
What is the bay concept? Is it a collection of midi files, saved as items? Or saved as .mid files in some directory? Or something else? When converting project items to linked .mid files those midi files are placed in the project directory anyway, so do not understand the bay concept? Is it a "global" linked .mid file collection kind of?

Not sharing is ok, if we know the concept, someone can replicate it and share it, thus freeing some "hidden" ideas. In some years, you will change your mind, or not. Both ok.

The concept of bay cannot be explained in brief. Kenny has created a 3-part video series in which he explains the concept and some possible applications.

No, they are not .mid files.
It is a single .reabay file where all information is stored: item, item content, takes, markers etc.
Items can be copied from the project to a bay at any time and saved in this file. The reabay file is not located in a project folder, but in the resource path.
Altogether the bay is a very powerful tool in reaper.

[TonE]

Then the bay seems to be the global item collection, probably in same format as inside .rpp files, now renamed to .reabay, I guess. So all projects can access those "valuable" items.

How did you create your bays? By item copy pasting there or programmatically? Easiest technique I would see, generating a set of .mid files, loading them into Reaper, converting them to internal items (if not already), then copying over to bay area. One could do this then for any type of interesting data like you did for example for drums, or 303 lines maybe or anything else which can be musically useful.

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by TonE

Then the bay seems to be the global item collection, probably in same format as inside .rpp files, now renamed to .reabay, I guess. So all projects can access those "valuable" items.

How did you create your bays? By item copy pasting there or programmatically? Easiest technique I would see, generating a set of .mid files, loading them into Reaper, converting them to internal items (if not already), then copying over to bay area. One could do this then for any type of interesting data like you did for example for drums, or 303 lines maybe or anything else which can be musically useful.

Create item, name item, record chord-scale, split item at the beginning of the note, add all items to takes of an item, insert take markers, name take markers, save finished item in new bay...
Most of this can be semi-automated via cycle action

[Sucrepop]

Hi
Too bad, the images are now unavailable, So I dan't see what it is supposed to do, I just read chords and this piqued my curiosity

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by Sucrepop

Hi
Too bad, the images are now unavailable, So I dan't see what it is supposed to do, I just read chords and this piqued my curiosity

Thanks for the hint. I will update the images in a timely manner.

[DaniloVillanova]

Hi, I'm interested in this too, but images to see it working would be appreciated.

[slangbein]

Kenny explains working with a bay in this Youtube Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8_fSWVH4qs&t=1285

if you follow the instructions and then open your project bay (menu view - project bay)
the result looks like the attached screenshot