As you navigate around the workspace making selections in different areas of ChordWizard, it normally plays the sounds of chordshapes, chords and scales automatically.
You have several options for changing the way sounds are played, including the voice and timing used for chords and scales.
Step-By-Step
Step 1
First we will change the voice used to play instrument sounds.
This is a setting stored in the Instrument page of the Library Options window, which you can open with the following command:
| Button | Menu |
| Options-Library |
The Instrument page is the first in the Library Options window, and is initially active.
Step 2
Towards the top right side of the Instrument page are two settings, Voice and Chord, that affect sound.
The voice is the actual sound of the instrument. As you can see, it is currently set to Nylon Guitar (the 24 in brackets after it is the MIDI number of this voice). Usually the most appropriate voice is automatically selected for whatever instrument the library is based on.
However you can choose from several other guitar types, and also use the sounds of completely different instruments.
Each time you change the voice, you can test its sound immediately with the Play Instrument button.
The Chord setting can be set to either Strum or Arpeggio. A strum is where all notes of a chord or chordshape are played at the same time and overlap. This best suits guitar and other instruments which play backing chords.
An arpeggio is where the notes of a chord or chordshape are played forwards and then backwards in sequence without overlapping. This best suits bass guitar, and other low-pitched instruments which typically play bass lines.
Step 3
Close the Library Options window by pressing OK.
Other settings which affect sound are in the Sounds page of the Workspace Options window, which you can open with the following command:
| Button | Menu |
| Options-Workspace |
The Sounds page is the fifth page in the Workspace Options window. Click its tab to activate it.
Step 4
At the top left is an Elements list, which selects the sound element you want to change. To begin with, select the Chord element as shown.
Step 5
On the right, is a group of properties appear for the Chord element. Not all properties apply to all elements.
In this case, we can adjust the Level (as a percentage of maximum) and Duration (length of time held after being played) of all chord sounds in the workspace.
If you select the Chord Arpeggio or Chord Strum instead, you will be able to adjust the Timing of each of these instead (how fast the sequence of notes is played within a chord).
Timing is measured in beats per minute (bpm), where a higher number makes the strum, arpeggio or scale faster.
The Test Sound buttons let you sample a strum, arpeggio or scale sound with the current settings. If you make a change to a setting, you need to press the Apply button to reset the sound system before the test buttons are enabled.
See Also
