Hello!
I have an assignment for one of my courses, I was wondering if you guys could help me out with some of the tasks I have to do. I bet you're thinking I want you to do it for me basically but that's not the case. I need to understand this program for what I want to be able to do. I believe that a majority of my struggle is understanding what's being asked of me.

One of the biggest parts of my assignment that I'm struggling with is using the QWERTY keyboard to enable a set of group chord structures to be available and how to make a chord recognition facility.

Any help or resources would be much appreciated!

Thank you!

@rjp9 Hello, I have a better understanding of what I need to do now if you could still help me. I need to make PD receive keyboard data and then I need to assign two twelve tone octaves to 24 keys, and I need to be enable transposition of this data.

@laura_owen24 I have no idea where you are at with your understanding of pd, so I will start with the very basics. I apologize in advance if this is old hat for you. It also sounds like you want to figure this out on your own, so I'll will try not to give too many spoilers, unless of course you need more help.

Look into the [key] or [hid] object. This will grab keystrokes from your keyboard.

Then you need to setup some sort of selection system so that when a certain key is pressed "something" happens. Look into the [sel] object (short for 'selection') for this. BTW you can right click on any object to bring up its help file which will explain what it does an provide some examples.

Then you will need to decide what the "something" is that you want to have happen. Since it sounds like you want to convert key strokes on your keyboard into notes that correspond to a Western musical scale, you will probably want to convert your key strokes into MIDI note numbers or frequency values for an oscillator. Look into this page: http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/graphics/notes.GIF , the [mtof] object (MIDI to frequency conversion), and the [osc~] object.

As for transposition, try to work out what sort of mathematical operations you will need to do in order to change the frequency values, or alter the data that you get from [key].

Let me know if I can explain anything better or if you need clarification on any of the points.

As far as chord recognition goes, do you just want to have pd spit out a string (in this case, the name of the chord I.e. Amaj7b9) when a certain combination of keys are pressed?

@laura_owen24
I suggest turning off 'key repeat' in your operating system settings before using key, keyname and keyup if you haven't already done so.
Cheers
Balwyn

@laura_owen24
But do remember to turn it on again afterwards

@rjp9 Yeah that's exactly what I need to do. Thank you so much, you saved me hahah

@Balwyn Thank you!

@rjp9 You explained it perfectly, that's what I need to do and that link really helped me out. I'm going to work on it for a bit then I'll share the patch so you can see, if that's okay?

Thank you so much!

@rjp9 Untitled-1.pd

I found out that what I need to do is enable the chord structures to be called upon by a certain key. For example, if I pressed the "C" chord it's programmed to play the Cmaj chord.

@laura_owen24 I looked at your patch. You are almost there! Make sure that you have an [osc~] for each individual note in your chord. So far example if you are playing a C major triad (C, E, and G), you will need three oscillators.

Also, [select] works by outputting a bang when the input matches one of its arguments. It doesn't actually output any numbers for you to use [mtof] with. See attached for some ideas:

chordhelp.pd

@rjp9 Thank you so much dude!

@rjp9 CT Ass..pd

I have changed a the patch and I think I am really close but I can't get any sound. I have made a smaller version of what I need to do, but I think that there is something missing.

@laura_owen24 See attached chordhelp2.pd

@rjp9 Thanks for your help! Here's the finished patch if you fancy taking a look. CT Ass. Final.pd

@laura_owen24 Glad you got it figured out. It looks like this is a class assignment, and I don't know if you've submitted it already, but your Cmaj9 chord isn't connected to the cutoff trigger, and the [83( and [84( message boxes don't work, although that might not matter if the user is using an actual keyboard to trigger your chords.

@laura_owen24 Wow! What a lot of work!
As @rjp9 says you have a couple of small errors that I think I have corrected here:
laura_owen.pd
I am on a windows system, and the final sound output was way too high (a lot of distortion) so I have added a volume control (and a meter).
Please check what I have changed!!!! I could be wrong.
Your next task (if you are "hooked" on Pd) will be to learn about abstractions. Your patch could have been easier to construct, and a lot tidier, but that is for the future. Well done!
David.

@rjp9 Thank you, no I haven't submitted yet I've sent in a draft. How would I enable transposition for these?

@laura_owen24 Hello again Laura.
I have made your patch again using abstractions. The [laura_chord] objects are all identical and have arguments that tell them their trigger number and their chord note outputs.

@rjp9 will be more likely to be able to tell you how to transpose, but as your patch is at the moment it will become even more messy very quickly, and harder to follow and modify.

Obviously if you cannot understand how I have changed your patch then you should not use mine, as you might have to explain it to your tutor. But if you can understand it then you have made the next big leap in patching.
You will need to add in all of your chords as before but it will be much quicker than before, and there are far less cords...........

laura_piano.zip

David.

@laura_owen24 Here's an idea: chordhelp3.pd You will have to look inside the abstractions to make some changes

@whale-av said:

Your next task (if you are "hooked" on Pd) will be to learn about abstractions. Your patch could have been easier to construct, and a lot tidier, but that is for the future.

+1 Abstractions and subpatches make understanding and fixing patches a heck of a lot easier!