Chord progressions over euclidean track

Pyramid
#1

Hi! I know it’s currently not possible to record notes over a euclidean track.
I’m been sending a feature request to https://squarp.net/contact but in the meantime does someone know of a workaround to do this?
I’d like to be able to start from some euclidean rhythm, and have a chord progression over several bars. I can only do that live (changing the notes played at each event of the euclidean track) but not record.

For now the only way I can think of is copy-paste the euclidean pattern several time (like on 4 bars) on a separate regular track, on which I then have to edit the steps manually to replace them by chords, which is not as convenient as just hitting a pad in chord live mode to change the chord that plays from that point. Plus once I’ve done that I no longer can quickly change the pattern to some other. Maybe I can get some mileage out of the master transpose track, but that would only transpose all the notes equally (I couldn’t play some maj, min and sus chords for instance in the same progression).

Being able to separate the rhythm from the notes is insanely convenient when playing chord progressions live, but it would be so great if I could use that as a composition tool too :slight_smile:

EDIT: I can think of another way to do it, but it would require some flexibility on the synth side (so you couldn’t do it with just any synth). My idea would be two have two tracks: one euclidean track that outputs to some midi channel (say channel 1) and one regular track that outputs to another channel (say channel 2). Then, on the synth, only the gate of channel 1 would be used to control an ADSR (so the note of the euclidean pattern would just be ignored) and channel 2 would control only the osc frequency (with several voices). And the ADSR would be applied to that osc.
I would then be able to record any chords I want on the regular track and apply to them any rhythm I want on the euclidean track. On my Axoloti core so I can hack around that quite easily, but on the software synths I have that’s not that easy, as most cannot decorelate the osc from the envelope. That would require to implement some intermediate plugin that “mixes” the two channels before the final notes reach the synth.

Another possibility would be to have the euclidean track send CC events that open the gate (I don’t know if there’s a dedicated CC message for that that synths understand), and I’d be able to do this with just one MIDI channel. Is it possible to have an euclidean track send CC messages instead of notes? (Else I’ll use the note-to-CC pyramid MIDI FX)

#2

yeah, this is something I do quite a bit on modular, and is very easy to do … since gate and pitch are separate (so I use one track for gates, and another for pitch.

unfortunately, midi intrinsically links gate and pitch (since note_on is both a gate and pitch).
you could actually use a midi processor to change this… like the modular use one midi channel for pitch information, and then the other for gate (aka rhythm) - then the midi processor tracks the pitch, but only outputs when it receives note on the gate channel (where it ignores the pitch)
(you could do this with your axoloti, as it can send and receive midi)

the Euclidean FX is a bit limited on the Pyramid, I guess it was largely designed for percussive elements - where note simply selects the ‘sound’.
as you say, you could do something with master transpose, and/or with modulating the scale fx (for transpose), and/or modulating harmonizer fx. (for chord type changes)
for sure, neither is particularly straightforward, and might get a bit complicated - but should work.