Posy

A chord generator for Ableton Live, built as a VST3 MIDI plugin. Version 0.3.2.

Posy plays one chord at a time out of a set of twelve, one per key of the octave, and sends it on as MIDI: straight, strummed, held or arpeggiated. Put any instrument after it and play pads, keys or plucks with one finger. It makes no sound of its own.

The Posy panel: a searchable chord set list, twelve chord pads, and voicing and arpeggio controls

What it does

158 chord sets: Pop, rock, jazz, neo soul, gospel, funk, house, techno, synthwave, film, ambient, game music, flamenco, Celtic, klezmer, samba, the modes, baroque and more. Each set is a palette of twelve chords that belong together, and in sets 101 to 158 every pad's lowest note is its own key, so the C pad plays something over C.
Search: Type to filter. Words match genres (house, bossa), chord names (Am7, F#m9, sus4) and set numbers. Every word has to match, so Dm7 G7 jazz finds jazz sets with both chords in them. Flats and sharps are the same thing. Star the sets you keep coming back to.
Twelve pads: Laid out like an octave of a keyboard, sharps above. Click to play, drag sideways to move between chords, play higher on a pad for more velocity, and drag up and down on a held pad to change it as you play. A MIDI keyboard on Posy's track plays the same chords, and the mod wheel, pitch bend and sustain pass straight through.
Voicing: Transpose by semitone or octave, rotate the inversion, spread the voicing close, open or wide, double the bass an octave down, hold shared notes across chord changes with LEGATO, and strum up to 200 ms in either direction. Turn any of it while a chord is sounding and the chord re-voices on the spot.
Arpeggio and hold: Eight arp modes including converge, random and a chord mode for rhythmic stabs. Rates from 1/1 to 1/32 with triplets, one to four octaves, adjustable gate. The arp locks to Live's grid while Live is playing and free-runs at Live's tempo when it is stopped. HOLD latches whatever is sounding so you can keep working.
Your own banks: Press EDIT, click a pad and play a chord on your keyboard: when you let go it lands on the pad, named, and the next pad is ready. Fix notes by clicking the on-screen keyboard, rename pads, then save the bank. Your banks sit under MY SETS next to the factory sets.
Drag into a clip: The TAKE strip collects the chords you played, in order. Drag it onto a clip slot in Live and it lands as a MIDI clip, one chord per half bar, bar or two bars.

Every knob and button is a host parameter, the chord set included, so set changes can be automated in an arrangement.

Video

Walkthrough video — not up yet.

Documentation

Getting started (PDF) — wiring Posy to an instrument in Live, finding a chord set, a tour of the panel, and getting chords into a clip.

Every control is also described in the project README.

Download

Builds are on the releases page. Every archive includes the getting started guide. VST3 only — there is no Audio Unit build, so Posy will not load in Logic.

Installation notes are on the front page.

Source

github.com/taddeimania/posey — C++ and JUCE, AGPLv3.