Galaxy

Galaxy is a semi-random chord generator. The arms of the galaxy are chord qualities (i.e, Major, Minor, Major 7, etc). The stars in each arm are specific chords, starting with C close to the galactic centre and ascending chromatically to B at the edge of the galaxy.

This visualisation was inspired by a paper by Alexander Kachkaev et al (http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/~sa746/Kachkaev-et-al-2014-Visualising-Chord-Progressions.pdf).

The input at the centre of the galaxy receives a trigger; on triggering the currently selected chord moves around the galaxy accord to the mode selected from the 'Chord Selection' context menu.

In Random mode, the chord moves by up around the galaxy by up to 2 arms in either direction, and up or down the currently selected scale by up to two notes.

In 'in Key' mode, the root note of the scale is selected by the ROOT dial or by CV; C is selected with the dial turned to the far left, B at the far right. Chords are selected from notes in that key, but can have any chord quality.

The scale mode the scale is selected by the MODE dial or by CV; The module must be in the 'in Mode' modes, selectable from the context menu. Chords and chord qualities are selected from notes in that mode.

The BAD control works in the 'in Key' and 'in Mode' settings, as the setting increases, so does the probability that a chord will be chosen outside the current key/mode setting. When in 'in Key' setting, the module could select a random chord and the LED will flash red. In 'in Mode' setting, the mode can select a chord from the underlying key of the mode (flashing green) or a random chord (flashing red).

If a Major chord is selected in the 'in Mode' setting, there is a small chance that this chord will be substituted by a Major 7 or Dominant 7 chord with the same root note. Likewise a Minor chord can be substituted with a Min7 or Dominant 7 chord.

Chord inversions are selected randomly, depending on the setting of the Allowed Inversion setting. There is a small chance on selecting the First, or First and Second inversions.

The pitches of the chord are output in the P1-P6 outputs. Since the chords outputted by the module consist of 3 or 4 notes, the 'Repeat Note' context menu entry which allows the user to iterate through how the module treats the 'empty' outputs. The notes of the chord are repeated started from the root note of the chord, either an octave lower, the same octave, an octave higher or randomly choosing octaves.