Chord Track Editor, several tension options do nothing

I was entering a progression in the chord track and one of the chords I wanted was a C(b5), no 7th just a flat five. When I listened back it was just playing a regular C chord. With the chord editor open, looking at the keyboard at the bottom, toggling the b5/#11 on and off doesn’t change the notes in the chord at all at all. However if the 7 is selected in the b5 does change the chord notes.

Trying all the other tension options, the b9, #9, and #5/b13 also have no effect except when the 7th is selected. I assume the reason for this is because normally these tensions occur with 7th. But I’ve got two issues with this.

    1. Why does Cubase care if I want to do something atypical. A program that doesn’t get sharps and flats right has no business policing my use or non-use of 7ths. :unamused:
  1. If Cubase is going to restrict the use of an option, at least grey it out like it does for the 11 when using a major chord.

Cubase is just trying to help you. :wink:

Well… this is not an issue, as it is not broken. If you want to get all the possible chords that are available. set the Voicings menu to Basic. The Piano and Guitar voicings make a lot of assumptions, and are for faking piano and guitar playing. The basic pref gives you access to more note choices and voicings for the chords, though still you cannot have two instances of an interval, such as b9 and #9, in the same chord, as you might want in an altered chord.

Indeed, an unavailable selection should be greyed out. That is indeed an issue.

Right you are, Steve. Basic voicings does it. Interestingly when I manually entered the chord in the Key Editor, it colored the b5 as being in the chord even with the piano voicing.