There are chords and there are STAC Chords

There are chords and there are STAC Chords.

Chords are the sounds you hear when someone plays the piano or a guitar. We typically hear on a piano a few notes at a time maybe more, and on a guitar, up to 6 strings strummed at a time (or 6 notes). Those notes are closely spaced. It has a distinct sound. A typical and traditional sound. A nice sound. A wonderful sound.

...and there are the STAC Chords.

Chords which build upon the traditional chords where up to two octave ranges have always been heard, but now extending this range to 6 octaves of harmonized sound takes it into the symphonic zone for piano and keyboard sounds.

There is a reason that the orchestra was invented. So many wonderful notes playing at the same time, harmonized with each other, some duplicated to add volume for the "mix" and others playing different harmonized notes to give that symphonic sound! A wonderful invention, for a reason.

There's a reason that musicians layer multiple tracks in a recording.
There's a reason that bands have multiple instruments to cover all the bases live both musically and harmonically. Its to get that "bigger" sound.

The STAC turns ordinary synthesizers into SYMPHONIC machines with just one pass. One player can do so much more now. Put two STAC players side by side and one can cover the stringed instruments, and another can cover PAD sounds or synthesized or sampled brass. With a third STAC covering vocals (either synthesized or vocoder direct), it is possible with only three people to generate a huge, live, symphonic sound that approaches what orchestras do. But each player would have the individual option of choosing which of the harmonic notes they want to play, adding to the spontaneity of the event.

www.stacsounds.com

Customer Feedback Positive

FRANK THOMAS of Washington DC says:

"I hooked it up and it works great. I'm running it thru Cubase5 on my Mac G5. The great thing about Cubase5 is that its easy to set up the MIDI instruments. All I have to do to change what MIDI instruments talk to the software is just select them in the Cubase5 interface and then change the connections with a click. I can have the Chord Board controlling all of the instruments at the same time if I want.

What you've created is wonderful. I'll soon make some music to let you listen to what it can do thru my vocoder.

The instructions are very easy to understand. I'm a Mac user with very little experience with Windows and after following your instructions for about 5 minutes I had the Chord Board singing. Thank you so much.

Frank Thomas
Washington DC

P.S. You can quote me.

Done! and thanks for the feedback and glad you are having fun with this making music.

We Are The People COVER

I had some fun in the LAB yesterday, dissecting a super catchy tune (actually a contemporary BIG HIT on the radio and internet) into the chord progressions using my STAC System. Just for fun I made this video, and Stephanie and I put some vocals on there too (sorry in advance we are not Luke Steele), but the video also shows the chords in their progression that makes up the whole song. The video also shows how to play it on the STAC, and which notes are used to get the right sound of each chord. Check it out, this was fun!

So this video represents a milestone of sorts for me, as up to this point I had focused my creative efforts with the STAC on my own original ideas and concepts. Never before had I attempted to do a cover tune for what is out there in the commercial realm. Now I have proven to myself that its not only possible to play popular music on the Chordboard STAC, but it actually improves my ability to play it right, play it well, and play it better than any keyboardist because of the symphonic range I get in one pass. It would have taken me "forever" to learn all those technical chord progressions using my piano skills (which are pretty good but not THAT good). I mean, I sight read well, and all that, I play the organ and piano for church functions and all that, but I would have had to practice and practice to get it right enough for this recording. There is no comparison to the STAC. This effort took only less than an hour to get totally comfortable with playing the chord progressions as played in the song (there is much LESS to memorize, its focused on the chord progressions), and then play them with some style on the STAC. What a burden lifted! What a boon to just getting AT the music as fast as possible, and getting into the structure of music!

I was first turned on to the Empire of the Sun's Walking On A Dream album a few weeks ago by a business contact, and I had never heard of these guys, Nick Littlemore or Luke Steele before, or their musical projects (they are platinum in Australia and in Top 10 on charts over there). But after I really checked out the music, I thought, this stuff can be played on The STAC and so I played some symphonic chords according to the chord progressions of the song in the Key of G and a short key change to Key of D and back again a few times. The Key of D offers the "accidental" in music notation which takes the song into a really really cool chord that is so catchy as to be addicting. That's what a super cool chord transition can do. That's what this song did. And that's what I was able to recreate on the Chordboard STAC, and learned it, played it, etc., in a short time frame. Most of my time here was spent making the video (they take about 8-10 hours of time to produce, more time than the music recording).

Their album can be found in lots of places, is for sale, and here is a link to that albums website: Empire of the Sun Walking On A Dream

How to BUILD the STAC SYSTEM

The following video was created to show how the STAC is built, and how the various pieces fit together to create the STAC System.


Built to the music PHATnCRAZY © 2009 Grant Johnson

A little more explanation may be in order

While many people understand what is going on by watching the various videos, some still have said things like "I don't get it." Let me explain.

The Chordboard is an idea that sprang from a dream and turned into a patent. Implementing it has been a huge challenge because it is a revolutionary musical idea. The idea that chords on a piano keyboard can be much more accessible, and not in a simplistic and inflexible way, but in a very meaningful and NEW way.

Strumming a chord autoharp in elementary school was an interesting concept, but it is so simplistic, to merely press the right chord button and then strum the strings! I lost interest real quick as a kid, because it was too simple, too basic, and got old fast.

The Chordboard STAC is very different. There are no buttons to push. You have four keyboards worth of notes to play, 84 keys to be exact, all instantly accessible, and all instantly reprogrammable to another key or style (at the press of a key). All the notes are organized into seven banks of chords (because there are 7 chords in any key signature). Although the STAC resembles an organ with multiple registers (the rows of keys), that is not what is going on. Ideally, the Chordboard would be a single box with much smaller keys more closely spaced together. But that implementation of the invention doesn't exist due to cost prohibitions, and we have found that utilization of four off-the-shelf MIDI controller keyboards is a much cheaper solution for everyone, and it works fine! If the Chordboard sold as a standalone box (keyboard) it would have to sell for much more than the MIDI keyboard controllers (many of which can be had for only a hundred bucks). This is because of tooling, and there are no tools or manufacturing factories that make the parts yet. As an inventor, I struggled with wanting to make the box, even working with teams of engineers to design the box, but the realities of the market place are that you need to have a lot of money to do something like that (spelled MILLIONS).

What I have been able to prove is that the current configuration of the Chordboard in the STAC is fully functional, and is probably a little better of a transition in the mean time (since players will use the familiar feeling piano type keys which they already know how to play), and much cheaper on cost. Those three things are what gives a green light to production of the Chordboard STACSOUNDS software, which is what is needed to make this work. Four regular MIDI keyboard controllers, and the software to run on Windows Vista. You also need a sound card or a sound module (keyboard or box) to play. The MIDI keyboard controllers typically don't have any sounds as they are designed to play your computer's sound card or an external sound device like a keyboard of some kind.

Hear latest songs at MYSPACE MUSIC

Hear Latest Songs at MYSPACE.COM/STACSOUNDS




Hear Latest Songs at MYSPACE.COM/STACSOUNDS

Grant Johnson's Profile | 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf - CREATE

We each have a desire to create. I thought on the words of this Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and could not help but think about how true it is, and since I have been creating music lately I can agree with what he says, that, "the more you trust and rely upon the Spirit the greater your capacity to create..."

song: Over The Top © 2009 Grant Johnson

1 MONTH, 7 SONGS!!

OK, it may not sound like much, but for me, for me! My last album of original music was 20 years ago, and I had only 10 songs on the TAPE (no such thing as a CD back then). It took a couple of years in my spare time to create the songs on my Yamaha DX7, and another 4 months every night after work to finalize and mix and master on my 4 track tape deck synced to a MIDI system of keyboards. So 7 brand new songs in less than 4 weeks is pretty good for me. I realize they are just of good demo quality right now, but with today's tools, and more especially, with the STAC interface I am able to get the chord progression bed created real fast.

How many chord progressions are there? Yes, its infinite. The STAC gives more options, lays it all out there in front of you and that's why I like it.

Yesterday when I created this new song, "Over the Top" and played it for my family on my laptop computer, my 8 year old daughter Emily says "you made up another song? So many! I want to make up a song on the Chordboard!" (that's the STAC). And she was so sincere, catching the vision of what is going on here. She sees that I am cranking these out. She believes that she, an 8 year old, can get on there and start creating music! Such faith! Such positive mental can do. I think that's fantastic. And I am going to set one up for her to play in the studio...because I think she can!

I created a new song on the STAC and created a slide show video in honor of those soldiers who have served and the many who have gave their lives for the cause of freedom.

Below is a link to the Myspace Music STAC Sounds site where all recent music can be listened to in a music player...
MORNING CALM © 2009 Grant Johnson

(Click on link above)

I uploaded a new song last night, created on the STAC, and captured in my DAW: Logic Pro 8 (a recording program). I really like it a lot, there are a lot of elements and themes in the song from brass to marimba to Korean vocals, and ethereal sounds. Click on link and listen to the song on the player there... and let me know what you think. Thanks!

This video shows the chord progressions created for this song, and shows how the music is constructed. It is very interesting to watch the actual chord information being shown in real time as the song plays. It also shows the piano keys at the bottom of the screen that would have to be played by four hands in order to replicate that the STAC is doing so capably with only two hands playing.

It's like a goose that lays the golden eggs

Now I know this sounds like hyperbole, but yesterday I had such an awesome musical experience in the Chordboard lab while listening to Stephanie play a hymn on the STAC (yes, a hymn). She was playing "I Need Thee Every Hour" and it still was the same hymn (written in key of G), but the phat chord combinations that she played using the STAC were so musically awesome that I wanted her to just stop and play a certain bar over and over again. Every time I HEARD that chord combination, it was so sweet, I said "play that again!" It was a hook! I have rarely experienced a chord hook like that, but these are chords that people just aren't doing common-place on a piano or in music in general. The chords sound so good as to make you want to rewind it, to hear it again. Some chords just sound so phat! And with a hymn, well, this just made me feel like I was in a gospel choir with the chordboard STAC driving a realistic leslie organ on the Motif XS. Talk about being in the driver's seat of something neat! Nothing short of an awesome music experience. I video taped the screen so I could see later how Stephanie played it, what chords she used, the combinations, etc., and then I was able to play it later in only minutes. Pretty cool. What a short learning curve it has.

If you are curious on what chord combinations struck my fancy, read on.

The "hook" was transitioning from a full I major G chord to the lower notes on a iii minor B combined with the upper notes of the I major G chord (V / iii), then moving to the IV major C chord. We call it the "reverse X-Factor." What an awesome transition, and I am thinking it's only possible to hear what I heard when playing the STAC. We went over and tried this on the Motif XS directly, and even Stephanie could not do it. There are too many notes and separated to far apart. It sounded lonely by comparison.

Other awesome chord combinations were:
the lower notes of the V major D chord combined with the upper notes of the ii minor A chord, then transition to V / iii, then back to V / ii again, then move both hands to play the I major G chord again. Those transitions are just so sweet to the musical ear! I feel like I am playing professional gospel music and it is a boatload of music fun. No hyperbole here. I truly AM experiencing this as I go along, discovering this new musical instrument. The more I learn about it, the better it becomes.

I Will make a video about this experience very soon. Stay tuned.

Studio Tour of Chordboard Labs STAC equipment

A one minute tour of our key equipment in making our new songs: STAC Sounds. As you will see, its all pretty basic stuff and can be easily obtained at a local music store.

Its about the music

I have received a lot of reaction to the Chordboard over the years. One of the most noteworthy was from a conductor of orchestras, who before the STAC was even a working product (back when the Chordboard was just a concept and a picture of a new keyboard printed on large poster board) pored over the poster board laid on his breakfast table and muttered "phenomenal" four times in two minutes. I counted 'em. When a man of that knowledge did this, I knew I had something, although I couldn't prove it at the time. True, he was a music geek, but he understood the magnitude of what such an instrument would offer to the world of music. Another associate/friend with money and means to launch the project, pored over the poster/picture laid on his coffee table, and after several minutes said "I don't get it." He was not a musician. And he didn't help. The burden was on me to provide more education, more proof, but at that time it was not possible.

Fast forward a decade and we now have a working product. Something you can touch, play, hear. In ways that I could never say with words, I can demonstrate the power of the STAC with music and put into MP3s and videos on Youtube. The message is going forth now and I can prove that the Chordboard is not only a playable musical instrument, but engenders unique creativity (as witnessed by the few videos and songs I have created and published in the last few weeks). This is a very exciting development, the validation stage.

With validation comes opposition as well. The skeptics. What motivates a skeptic? Negative energy? Lack of understanding? Certainly. Its been hundreds of years since a classical musical instrument such as the piano was invented, and nearly 200 years since the accordian! So it is to be expected that a new musical instrument would be met with skepticism and pause by those who are advanced in their craft. Something that seems to make music easier may not be well received by a few of those who make a living on performance based music. But this is a mistake, because the STAC is not a replacement for piano, or even a competition to it. Any more than the dozens of drum and cymbals and bells for a drummer compete with each other. The STAC is nothing more than other options for making sounds, making music, like any other musical instrument. Modern technologies are bound to bring us alternatives to how we have normally done things, and for the better. Music included.

Witness the DOS prompt now replaced by a mouse or voice commands, all while watching a graphical screen of pictures and video. The cell phone replacing the rotary phone. Automobiles the horse and buggy. Internet and email replacing newspapers and snail mail. MP3's taking over and making CD's obsolete.

In a rapidly changing world anything is possible. Even new musical instruments ie The STAC.

Irving Berlin, one of the greatest composers, would have LOVED the Chordboard

We know that Berlin boasted of his ignorance of music. As early as 1915 he said that since he knew little about the rules of songwriting, he was free to violate them, "and the result was [often] an original twist." Berlin said in 1962, "The black keys are right there, under your fingers. The key of C is for people who study music." He played almost entirely on the Black Keys (key of F-sharp). It is much easier to play the black keys without hitting wrong notes. And there we go, a segue into why the Chordboard is a composers dream.

Berlin had limited skills as a pianist. Transposing is very difficult, and he needed a "transposing piano" which allowed him to experiment with other key signatures while playing the same keys. The Chordboard goes much further than this! Not only can you change key signatures on the fly while playing the "same keys" (the white keys in this case), but you can mix chords in ways that would not be possible on just the black keys. Thus, the Chordboard would be a dream for composer Irving Berlin. He would have loved it for all of the new ideas it would have given him, and instead of just 3,000 songs composed (making him one of the most prolific American songwriters in history), surely there would have been even more.

Roller Coaster STAC sounds Bleecoaster © 2009 G. Johnson

http://www.chordboard.com for software to run chordboard.



Our 5th new song created for the Cruisin with the Chordboard series. This one is named BLEECOASTER and harmonizes playing of several MOTIF presets in a song performance that shows off what the Chordboard is capable of doing for playability. All tracks were played on the STAC. I especially like the flute track because of its random and offbeat performance, all done on the STAC.

While playing "BleePad" (a Motif XS sound) on the Chordboard, I was inspired with an entirely unexpected combination of syncopation and chord progressions while choosing the Key of A on the STAC. Starting on the IV and V chords things just started "happening" you know, that magic when you are getting a song. That's how this stuff is coming, very quickly, because the Chordboard is creating inspiring new combinations of sounds and notes: STAC SOUNDS. These are new treatments of notes, delivering them up in ways that are atypical. Honestly, I have never heard them before, and I certainly have not played them before. So its new.... and it inspires a musician. It did for this musician.

The piano interface can be so technical, just ask Irving Berlin, the most prolific song writer in history...he used a special transposing piano and only played the black keys. Mixing the white keys with the black keys on the piano takes a ton of skill. With the STAC you are free of this complication, free to just think about what you are playing/hearing, rather than HOW to play it, so it frees you up to improvise more...to get more inspiration. That's what happened today.

MIDI Primer 4 Chordboard, Brit Piano Pop ©2009 G.Johnson

http://www.chordboard.com

A new short song, Brit Piano Pop to listen to while understanding the brief MIDI Primer for the STAC on Chordboard. MIDI cable primer, and STAC primer, as well as STAC layout and Chord assignment, etc. What stands out about this song, to me, is the super-fast syncopation and chord comping that takes place, which I do not think is even possible with the traditional piano interface. I have studied the piano key movements in the Chordboard software, and yes, there is no way that anybody, even two people at once, could ever play that.

When a musician can do that, and do it LIVE, that is a very exciting and exhilarating experience, musically. I had that today.

Piano Keyboard Bypass Device Chordboard on Yamaha Motif XS new song: THRUST ©2009 G. Johnson

A

new song created in the Cruisin with the Chordboard series song creation month. This one is named CX10 THRUST and harmonizes playing of several MOTIF presets in a song performance that shows off what the Chordboard is capable of doing for playability.

I used the Thrust preset on the Motif XS, and played the Chordboard in a few different keys, and was finally inspired with a jazzy composition of keyboard and brass and saxophone sounds the other night. The inspiration came very quickly because, playing the Chordboard, was able to just concentrate on the harmonic notes.

Mayan Eyes, © Stephanie Arter, Enoch for Chordboard

© Stephanie Arter, Enoch Band for Chordboard

This is the 2nd installment in a new series of Chordboard exclusive original music, one song every two or three days. This song, like the first one, Riverpark, was created using the Chordboard MIDI controller to get that unique Chordboard "sound" and a Yamaha Motif was used for the sound source. Enjoy.

The Chordboard software is in final beta edits, and will be available in March 2009.

Song Composition: Riverpark

OK, I decided to publish one of the songs I created using the Chordboard, among many I have already created. This one is called RIVERPARK and I made it up a couple of days ago while getting back into music using my CHORDBOARD. It seems that maybe one of the testaments of what is possible with this new instrument is what can be created with this new instrument. This song inspired me to also put together a video to go with it (me driving around cruising), and while I'm at it, to film the Chordboard software screen to give an exact communication of the notes that are being played in the musical bed. Piano notes are represented at top of screen (you can't play that live on a piano, that's the point), and chordboard notes actually played are shown at bottom right. Not uncommon to have 10 notes played at a time, five for each hand.

Real Music Happening...

Ever since we got the CHORDBOARD STAC hooked up to our sound equipment (Yamaha Motif XS and Kurzweil and Roland sound keyboards) and our Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) LOGIC PRO 8 Studio by Apple, we have been making tracks and composing lots of music. This instrument is awesome and branches out into new territory. Bigger chords. Fatter chords. Rock chords, jazz chords, phat chords. Classical chords. It makes new music that has never been accessed in this manner before, so logically.

The CHORDBOARD has Genres of musical styles built in and at the touch of a key to change from one kind of chord voicing to the other. Instant, just like key signature changes are instant on the fly while playing. You can't do that on an ordinary off-the-shelf multi-thousand dollar keyboard made by Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Kurzweil, or Akai. None of them can do this. You have to stop. You have to go to the Utility menu, choose a value there, but not on the fly. CHORDBOARD lets you choose ANY key signature on the fly. Why? Because in many complex and beautiful songs, you have to change keys. It just makes for some wonderful sounding musical transitions, to change keys. We made a video on transpositions (key signature changes) while scoring the Pirates of Caribbean movie, but I guess Disney made Youtube take it down??? That's a stretch, a reach, to think that we were infringing to play along with a one minute scene??? I'll repost later, it was a good demonstration.

grant