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MONTAGE Series Synthesizers
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Topic starter
I'm using Yamaha's Chord Tracker iOS app to help me figure out Thelonious Monk's Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. Chord Tracker captured the basics for me, but missed many of the subtleties, which is not surprising because it's Thelonious Monk!
But it did a good enough job that it's going to be helpful. It would be even more helpful if I could get what Chord Tracker figured out into a Chord Track in Cubase. So I tried doing that yesterday.
Chord Tracker can send its analysis to an "instrument." So my first try was hooking up my Montage to my iPad Pro via the Apple Camera Connection Kit. Chord Tracker couldn't see the Montage. But my Montage was properly connected to the iPad Pro because Cubasis could record MIDI when I played the keyboard.
The other possibility is sending the analysis directly to a Cubase Chord Track. It seems unlikely to me that this would work, given what I saw in this thread.
My impression is that Chord Tracker was created to give Yamaha an advantage in the arranger keyboard market. Buy a Yamaha arranger and you can instantly get the chord progression for any song. No other brand has this capability. That would explain the proprietary MIDI that was mentioned in the thread I linked. But there are some of us who own other Yamaha products like Montage and Cubase. We could benefit from this capability too.
Is there a way I can get the Chord Tracker analysis into a Cubase Chord Track or MIDI Track? I'm starting to think I'm going to need to play the chords into my Montage/Cubase setup "by hand," reading from the Chord Tracker display. That's doable, but kind of a sad way to have to go in the 21st Century.
Posted : 16/09/2017 6:34 pm
Not helpful for your specific question - but there are some other resources out there for this tune - at least to cross-check what the tracker comes up with.
Transcription to the version you linked to (the youtube video):
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2ntFP1w9UmaNlk5aE4zS0FQM3M/edit
A different version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v34mEPl436Q
Here's just the sheet:
https://musescore.com/user/630156/scores/1131401
I do not disagree it would be nice for something like chord tracker to support a less proprietary "sharing" method and just spit out a MIDI file you can edit as you wish with any software. That said - if the goal here is to learn the tune then just using the output (on screen) as a reference and having to do some manual work may be good for the process.
There's also the school of thought that you should largely forego technology (except perhaps slowing down the track) and use your ears - coming up with your own transcription. Perhaps using other sources to check your work after-the-fact. Or ... over time ... you'll be checking "their" version (instead of the other way around) because your ears may eventually surpass any references you can find out there.
Current Yamaha Synthesizers: Montage Classic 7, Motif XF6, S90XS, MO6, EX5R
Posted : 17/09/2017 9:16 am
Yamaha owns the worldwide Arranger Workstation market, that's a fact. The Chord Tracker creates a chart that can be directly input to the supported products (which have an accompaniment feature) so it automatically creates a chord Track for those instruments (DGX660, is the lowest priced unit; others are PSR-S-series, Tyros, Clavinovas CVP-series... home keyboards) you basically just have to play along the melody. It is a propriety system for these specific models.
The pro synthesizers don't feature that type of specific accompaniment engine, and neither does Cubase, at this time. (Cubase can turn your Chord voicing into a Chord Chart) - the thinking here is for the target customer custom chord voicing are the norm. If you are transcribing Thelonious Monk, the Chord Tracker app is a little out of its league (to be sure). It is designed to be a "popular song" transcriber... You really ought to be using your ear. We have the perfect App for this type of thing (for more advanced harmonically challenging stuff... and it's free, too! Get it!!! You will not regret it.
Check out the app called "Yamaha Kittar -Phrase Practice App" - this app analyzes songs from your Music library and breaks them down into relevant audio phrases... which you can repeat, slow them down without changing pitch. You can even move the phrase analysis points as you desire. Quick - Easy - and actually good for your ears (which is good because you really should be *using* them).
Leave the Chord Tracker transcription to the "Home Keyboards" and basic pop tunes.
Use Kittar to figure out your chords, you'll feel better about it all in the end.
This is my favorite App of the week!!!
Posted : 17/09/2017 12:38 pm
Topic starter
Thanks, guys.
Jason, I appreciate those links to the sheet music.
Bad Mister, that app looks really cool. I already used it on the song.
One thing I'm planning to do is set up a Chord Track in Cubase that plays along with the original audio, and then tweak the cords with the Cubase Chord Editor to see how close I can get to the sound of the original. I'm hoping that it will help me understand jazz chords.
But I'll also work on exercising my ears, as the two of you have recommended.
Posted : 19/09/2017 12:20 am
Topic starter
I just realized that http://musescore.com that Jason told me about lets you download a MIDI file for the song as well as the sheet music! That's a whole new set of possibilities!
Posted : 19/09/2017 1:11 am
