Chord Pads works well with most VSTs, but I’m running into issues when using NI Picked Acoustic.
The problem starts when I select a pattern in Picked Acoustic. Some pads trigger the expected chords, but a few pads—although they display the correct chord names—don’t actually play the chords. Instead, they switch the pattern.
I’ve also noticed that:
If I change the root key, the pads that were previously switching patterns start playing chords correctly, while other pads begin malfunctioning.
Changing the MIDI keyboard octave or adjusting the Pad Remote range does not fix the issue.
Example:
In the Chord Pads, I set the root key to C and choose Ionian mode.
In Picked Acoustic, I select the C1 pattern from the available eight patterns (C1–G1 range).
Most diatonic chords play correctly, all using the consistent C1 pattern.
However:
Triggering E minor chord switches the pattern from C1 to E1 instead of playing the chord.
Triggering G major chord switches the pattern from C1 to G1.
The only way to return to the C1 pattern is by manually selecting it within Picked Acoustic.
Because of this, I’m unable to play the chords like E minor and G major. Even when I drag chords from Chord Pads into the project window, the issue persists.
Is there a solution to this issue, or is this expected behavior based on how Picked Acoustic is designed to interact with Chord Pads?
I don’t know this instrument, but from your description I guess that the MIDI Notes from the Chord Pads start to trigger some control data (switch pattern) instead of the real data (play the chord).
Low notes (A0 etc) trigger different patterns of play in the plugin, so chord pads that generate those low notes will play havoc with the NI guitar VST. That’s why some chords work and some don’t.
You can use the smart chord feature (in the plugin) to generate chords to create MIDI events, then manually add in the low notes that will switch the playing patterns. I’m not in studio right now so this is from memory, but if you are still stuck I can dig out some examples.
Hi! It would be helpful if you could share some examples or explain the process. I suspect this issue, which interferes with Chord Pads, may also affect other Kontakt libraries where color-coded keys are used to trigger different functions.
Also NI plugins need to have MIDI chords starting at C3, so where chord pads include notes in C2 range (G2 in the example above) they won’t sound.
If like me you aren’t a natural keyboard player then you need to switch on the Auto Chords feature and record them with notes starting at C3 :
Of course if you can play keys ‘properly’ then it is no problem to simply play and record chords in the C3 to C4 range, adding in single notes in the C1 range to specify the patterns. Not for me, so Auto Chords is my friend.
Adding a ‘Basic Player’ and using that in place of either the ‘Piano Player’ or ‘Guitar Player’ does indeed work in that you can move the range of notes higher by using the mouse wheel over the chords, avoiding the C1 range being ‘played’ but the disadvantage is that it only generates 3-note chords.
One more thing we all need to bear in mind is to remember to use ‘Chord Pads’ in place of ‘All MIDI Inputs’:
