The chord/quality setting determines which notes of a scale are to be played in a voicing. Chord and Quality share the same dashboard menu, but exist on different layers.
Open the Chord/Quality menu from the Dashboard
Chord / Quality Menu #
In the example below, the chord “Triads (R, 3, 5)” is selected, indicating that the voicing generator will play the Root, 3rd, and 5th of whatever scale a cymatic is set to.
Chords are set on the global, palette, and bank layers. On the cymatic layer, chords are displayed as qualities, the names of which will vary depending on which scale is being used. Both chords and qualities are sorted by the natural voice count.
For example applying the chord “Sevenths” to the Ionian scale will result in the quality “maj7” while that same chord applied to the scale Aeolian will result in a completely separate quality “-7”.
Menu Filters #
The list of chords/qualities can be filtered by:
- Voice Count – list is filtered to only show chords/qualities matching the number of ‘natural‘ voices
- All – shows all possible chords/qualities (derived from the selected scale)
- Chord Member – list is filtered to only include results that include the selected chord members)
*Quality menu is always filtered to only show results derived from the cymatic’s assigned scale
Chord Quality Circle Display #
Chord Qualities are represented in the right section of the menu by using a ‘clock-like’ circle, where 12 o’clock represents the root of the chord quality, and each ‘hour’ mark represents a semitone within an octave. Each chord quality will show its unique intervallic ‘DNA’, as well as the pitches in the quality (in reference to the root pitch of the Cymatic)
Audition #
The audition icon (speaker) located to the right of Chord Quality Circle Display will ‘automatically ‘audition’ and automatically play a quality when selected (will play the quality all at once, then arpeggiate up and down the quality)
