Chapter 6: Working with Chord Tracks and ChordMaps

Download CD Content

Overview

Scott Morgan

One of the most powerful and revolutionary features of DirectMusic is its ability to handle chord progressions and scales. We first discussed the power of chords in DirectMusic in Chapter 4 and took a brief look at how to harness some of that power in Chapter 5. As you know, audio producers can apply chord changes to their music by entering chords into a Chord Track. Beyond this, they can create ChordMaps that define different paths that chord progressions can follow. Since chords, ChordMaps, and chord progressions are undoubtedly some of the most complex and daunting features, we have devoted an entire chapter to the topic.

Be prepared; it is going to be a bumpy but satisfying ride. In the end, you will be able to do some incredible musical feats with chords in DirectMusic! This chapter offers a thorough demonstration of DirectMusic's chordal and scalar abilities. For another example of connecting chords, open the file ChordMapTutorial.pro located in the Unit I\Chapter 6 folder on the companion CD.

Oh, and it is assumed the reader has an intermediate understanding of chord and scale theory.