Optional helper programs

There are several optional add-on programs to give Harmony Space additional capabilities, as follows.

Making sound

Harmony Space works well as a standalone program on the Mac and PC, with the exception that in the case of the Mac, it needs HarmonySpaceMIDIPlayer, available here, to connect to the inbuilt Mac MIDI synthesizer).

MIDI out to other devices

If you prefer to connect harmony space’s MIDI output directly to some other app or MIDI device, Harmony Space has built in facilities to send MIDI output to any MIDI device, using the hardware menu options for mac and PC:

Hardware>> Choose port for MIDI out (Mac) or

Hardware>> Choose port for MIDI out (PC)

MIDI IN

The easiest way to get MIDI input into Harmony Space  (e.g. from MIDI keyboards or apps) is to use the RAW MIDI to Harmony Space helper, available here. Other MIDI Devices can connect to this helper,  which relays MIDI traffic on to Harmony Space. At present, only monophonic (i.e. melodic)  MIDI input is automatically spatially well-plotted in Harmony Space. A step-time algorithm for dealing with homophonic and polyphonic harmonic material is in preparation.

Melody in via MIDI

One straightforward application for MIDI input is to take melodies from a MIDI instrument or app as input, which can be recorded and edited in Harmony Space (in curated songs) and studied visually and aurally to see how they might be harmonised.

Management of melodic input

Melodic traces can take up a lot of screen real estate – so for purposes of clear spatial plotting,  when working with melody, to avoid a messy screen,  it can be helpful to use use scrolling, using the menus

            Harmony Space >> Scrollable play area on

            Harmony Space >> large or giant scroll area

 Melodic input is automatically  plotted spatially in Harmony Space as it arrives, but arrow tracing is not enabled by default. To see arrow tracing in the case of melody, press the ‘Trace All’ button before inputting (or playing back) the use the Arrow recap button when the melody is complete.

Recording and editing melodies

Melodies can be recorded either freely, or using step record. Freely recorded recordings can be quantised  after recording, and edited using the curated songs editor. For quick experiments, melodic input can also be played, plotted, recorded and edited using the onscreen piano keyboard.

Trying out harmonies against a melody

One a melody has been plotted, if ‘Trace All’ is then switched off, melodies can be tried out without disturbing the melodic trace. The Chord explorer can be useful here as well.

Why is a helper app needed for midi input?

For technical reasons, although Harmony Space can accept MIDI input directly, it cannot connect to a MIDI in and MIDI out device at the same time – and the latter is always needed for Harmony Space to be heard. To get around this limitation, the RAW MIDI to Harmony Space helper converts  incoming MIDI to Open Sound Control (OSC data).

MIDI FILES

Harmony Space can read and write midi files – but this is currently undocumented. Monophonic midi files can be spatially plotted automatically.

Game Controllers  and Dance Mats : Song walker

Harmony Space works well with both Microsoft X-box controllers  and PlayStation controllers. These can be used in expert mode to allow a single player to play chord sequences in real-time, or can be used together with dance mats to distribute the work among a team of players. The PlayStation controller helper app takes advantage of the PlayStation controller’s inertial measurement unit (accelerometers and gyro).

Game controllers for live polyphony

Two game controllers  can be used simultaneously to play (and spatially map) chords and an accompanying bass line.

Chord explorer and Gametrak

Game track controller can be used with the Harmony Space Chord Explorer to explore altered and extended chord qualities

Rhythm helpers overview

There are various experimental helper programs to facilitate strumming, fingerpicking  and arpeggiation in Harmony Space. It is possible to  play, record and edit  simple rhythms with Harmony Space using a mouse, and to record and play these back at different speeds, but generally it is more fun to strum and arpeggiate rhythm live, perhaps splitting harmonic and rhythmic actions between different players, or applying live rhythms and arpeggiations to existing or previously recorded harmonic sequences.

Fishman guitar interface

We have experimented with Fishman hexaphonic guitar to midi interfaces, for this purpose. One simple idea is to discard pitch information from the guitar (apart from octave information) and instead use strings 1 to 6 to pick out the constituent notes  of each chord in an ongoing  harmonic  sequence on Harmony Space. The chord sequence could be played live by a collaborator or could be pre-recorded. We are still experimenting with this - to  make it work well depends on careful real-time processing and filtering of output from the Fishman.   

Harmonic Sequencer

The harmonic sequencer  (or chord element sequencer) is a way of exploring the idea of strumming, fingerpicking  and arpeggiation in Harmony Space in a more controller manned than the guitar interface noted above. In some ways it is just like any other sequencer, but in other ways it is utterly different, Instead of sequencing particular notes, it instead issues commands to play individually  the constituent notes  of whatever chord is currently  playing in Harmony Space. As always, the chord could be part of chord sequence can played live by a collaborator or could be pre-recorded.

The sequencer can sequence bass and chord paths simultaneously and independently.

Analogously to Ableton, a live player can switch the bass or chord rhythms between figures without losing the beat.

The sequencer works well with game controllers for live polyphony. For example, four players can collaborate with two responsible for controlling live rhythmic patterns for bass and chord respectively, while two other players navigate bass and chord paths in Harmony Space.