Power Chords Tonalic and other Tonalic ARA Teething Problems

Cubase
1

Hi - looking back at forum posts it looks like there is still no way to add power chords like C5 in a Chord Track - is that true, or is there a workaround?

It’s particularly tragic with the integration of Tonalic in the latest version of Cubase - which of course does allow you to add C5 in its own chord track when you use it as an insert plug-in, but now loses that feature in the ‘integrated’ workflow with Cubase’s chord track.

And please don’t reply saying a power chord isn’t a chord. While it’s technically not a chord, it’s clearly needed in the situation above where the chord track is driving guitar parts in Tonalic.

Many thanks

2

I think you hit the nail on the head already. Technically its not really a chord, there’s no third, its just a root-5th interval. Same reason the Chord Track doesn’t let you just do lines of thirds or seconds or something. That’s technically a ‘harmony’ not a chord at that point. Chord track just uses the scale’s proper chords, literally by the book 1-3-5-7-9-etc.

Don’t get me wrong, most of my guitar playing is ‘power chords’, but I don’t expect to see them in normal ‘chord building utilities’.

You could make a ‘feature request’ post for it.

3

I get it, but enough people have made the request over the years - you’d have thought it could have been included by now - Dorico allows power chords in its chord pop-over, so there is a Steinberg precedent. And the reality is that for guitar music power chords serve the purpose of chords and that is now seen in the loss of functionality with Tonalic.

I must say I’m very disappointed with the ARA integration of Tonalic into Cubase - I’ve encountered at least four bugs or functionality downgrades from the original ‘insert’ method - and have just had to work around all of them in a new project today:

  1. Loss of ability to drive tonalics from power chords

  2. Drag in a tonalic and get silence - if you double click the tonalic, the lower zone claims that tonalic doesn’t exist - have to delete and replace it to get the correct functionality

  3. Get loud clicks after tonalic tracks end until they are rendered

  4. Occasionally the tonalics lose sync with the chord track even though nothing has changed