Instrument following Chord track when it shouldn't be.

[shadowfax]

Hi, Got Trilian on an instrument track with follow chord track switched off in the inspector but Trilian keeps playing even though there is no midi on the track,
this is happening on all other instrument tracks…when follow chord track is switched off in the inspector.

this has never happened before so I’m wondering if it’s something to do with CB11 or if it’s me being stupid…again, cause I’m not that good with the workings of puters or DAW’s…bit thick really

[Martin.Jirsak]

Hi,

By default, Chord Track’s settings is to “Use Monitor Track” to play the chord. Moreover, by default, any track becomes monitored, when you select it. So once you select any track, it becomes the Monitor Track for the Chord Track.

Mute the Chord Track, if you don’t want to send the data to any track, please.

[BezowinZ]

I just discovered this problem while demoing Cubase 12 Pro.

So “follow chord track” set to off is not really off?

So far I’m only using the chord track to alert me of the chord changes. So muting the chord track works. But what’s the solution when one does want some instruments to follow the chord track?

This is some odd behavior. Is this a known bug?

[raino]

Follow Chord Track means something different than what you are thinking.

It does not mean that the Track plays whatever the Chord Track has on it (that is enabled elsewhere). When you have Follow Chord Track enabled then anything you play or record onto the Track, for example from a MIDI keyboard, the Notes you play will be forced to conform to the Chord Track. So any key you hit will always be in the Chord and/or Key depending on the specific settings.

To have a Track play block chords of whatever is on the Chord Track you need to set that on the Chord Track itself. You can set it to play on one single Track OR on all the Tracks that have the Monitor button Enabled.

If you would like more control over what Tracks play the Chord Track, here is a method that uses Virtual MIDI Cables to make the Chord Track appear in a Track’s Inspector like any other MIDI source.

How to add the Chord Track as a MIDI Source for any Track

Out of the box there are two ways you can have the Chord Track play on a MIDI or Instrument Track. Both of these methods have some major limitations. You can set the Chord Track to “Use Monitored Tracks” which works great - unless you want to Monitor a Track for some purpose other than playing chords. Perhaps to play a solo. You don’t want the solo instrument to also be playing the chords, but they will with this method. Or you can set the Chord Track to play back on one, and only one Track at…

[BezowinZ]

@raino

Thanks for the response! The problem I’m having is that I have an instrument with a sequencer. I’m triggering sequences with single notes recorded on the instrument track. After recording those single notes, I added chords to the chord track to reference when recording other instruments. These chords seem to be changing what notes are played by the instrument’s sequencer.

What is causing this and how do I avoid it? There has to be something other than muting the chord track as I may need it for what it’s designed for.

[raino]

That implies that somehow you are routing the Chord Track to the Instrument Track. Without seeing your actual configuration it’s impossible to know for sure what’s occurring.

However the most likely situation is something like this.

You could create a dummy MIDI Track that doesn’t do anything and Route the Chord Track directly to it.

[BezowinZ]

Yes, the only options are monitored tracks or one of the other tracks I don’t want effected currently. I left it on default thinking I could set the track itself to ignore the chord track. So that off setting means what exactly?

So to not have any tracks affected by the chord track, I have to create a dummy track? There’s no “off” or “no track”? Cubase is a different animal. It needs to take cues from some slicker, more modern DAWs. The grass is not looking so green over here.

[raino]

@BezowinZ

So that off setting means what exactly?

I’m not sure what this is referring to.

@BezowinZ

So to not have any tracks affected by the chord track, I have to create a dummy track? There’s no “off” or “no track”?

The Mute button turns the Chord Track off, but you’ve indicated you don’t want to use that for some reason.

[BezowinZ]

On instrument tracks, Follow Chord Track set to off, what is it for? Because I have it off but it’s affecting what’s played/recorded.

I’m certain I didn’t say I didn’t want to mute the chord track. I think I said muting works for now, but…

I’m probably not understanding the chord track. In Studio One, it affects multiple tracks. And each track can be set to be affected or not.

In Cubase, there appears to be a similar setting - “follow chord track” on/off - but I’m clearly not understanding what this setting does. The chord track probably works completely different than in S1 and these settings make sense in Cubase. I’m trying to understand the “follow chord track” on/off setting.

[raino]

The Chord Track has 2 different & independent capabilities that you are conflating.

1. The Chord Track can act like a simpleton musician that will play a single block chord whenever a Chord Event occurs. And that’s it. You of course can add further complexity by feeding this chord to things like an arpeggiator. But the Chord Track itself is generating brand new MIDI Note data. The Mute button controls if this capability is on or off. And you select which Track(s) it plays on using the drop-down menu shown above.

I suspect that this is what’s causing the problem you are having. And since the issue goes away when the Chord Track is muted that would tend to confirm it.

2. The Chord Track can also be used to modify MIDI Data that is generated elsewhere. In this case the Chord Track does not create any new MIDI Data it only changes the Pitch values for existing Data. While this has a variety of uses the most common would be to take the MIDI Notes coming out of a MIDI Keyboard Controller and changing them so they match what’s on the Chord Track. The “Follow Chord Track” setting determines whether this transformation occurs on its Instrument Track - so this is a Track by Track on/off setting. The Chord Track’s Mute and Track Selection settings are not used in any manner for this capability. As an example, if you put just a C Major Scale Event on the Chord Track with no Chord events. Then on a Track with “Follow Chord Track” disabled you could play chromatically up the keyboard and hear both the black and white keys as expected. But if you then enabled “Follow Chord Track” whenever you hit a black key you would hear one of the adjacent white keys instead because they are forced to be in the C Major scale by the Chord Track.