how to play chords with one finger

I'm still pretty new on this forum but I've been here before with questions....well I was watching youtube today and I found an answer to a question I posted back when I first purchased my ren. It was regarding using a midi plugin called tone space. The plugin generates midi chords with one finger. I was told that the ren was not capable of this action until I saw this video of shizz beats doing this on a mac, now I know it's possible. My question is could someone help me figure how to do this using Windows 7. I would post a link to the video but I don't know how. The video is on YouTube...just search the name "shizz beats" the video is on his channel it's titled playing chords with one finger...he is doing this with the mpc ren...please can someone help me do this with Windows 7. Thanks

i'm very interested in doing this and am on windows 7, so if no one else gets back to you i'll try to get it running tonespace today or tomorrow, and i'll post back with info if i get it running

Okay I got it working, kinda.

First thing to note - in shizz beats video he is triggering ToneSpace using an external keyboard (arturia minilab). I couldn't get it to work any way using the MPC Ren pads.

Second thing to note - Shizz Beats uses a Mac midi function to route the ToneSpace output to his Ren. For windows you will have to use a program to internally route the midi to achieve the same result. I use this program: http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html - you should install it


So if you have a controller separate to your Ren you can trigger ToneSpace using it. First you want to open ToneSpace as a standalone and then go Settings > Midi Settings and then make sure the box next to your controller name is ticked in Input and the box next to LoopBe1 is ticked in Output. Close that window and in the Tonespace main window select your controller as your midi input, and LoopBe1 as your output. Change the Trigger setting from Mouse click to Midi Triggers Note.

After that all you need to do is select LoopBe1 as a midi input within the MPC software settings and it will work. Single note hits on the external midi controller will trigger chords within the MPC Software depending on how ToneSpace has been set-up.

I'm excited to keep using this program ToneSpace so if i find any other tricks or tips i'll post them in this thread.

thanks to image line its easy now to do in any Audio software.... gotta sign up for their forum and then download their Minihost Modular software. If you messed with FL Studio its like their patcher inside Fl studio but runs in vst or au mode. Grab Midichords Vst or Xfers Chutlulu (or chord player u like). Open minihost in mpc software then inside of minihost you open your chord player software and then whatever instrument vst, connect them and done....

That's awesome! Thanks for the tip, a VST minihost would be super useful!

or do it the oldschool way and sample a chord and played via 16level tuning

Thank you fdodds and gatez, I will try both. Question...do I need loopbe to be set up for the mini host modular to work and how do I get my plugins inside of the mini host modular...sorry if I'm sounding all slow.

minihost is just like any other vst plugin... install it in the same place as all your other vsts and it'll show up in the software just like any other instrument. Then inside minihost its jus like your software it has preferences where you point it to your vst folders and jus like the mpc software it scans your folders and your vsts are located and you can choose them from the list in minihost. Jus look up videos on FL studios patcher, it works exactly the same way.

Thanks for all your...I will look up the videos.

I checked out the videos and its pretty simple to setup...but wonder when I use tone space to trigger chords will they show up as chords on the piano roll or just single notes.

pretty sure if you use mini-modular it will record stuff as single notes in the mpc piano roll. if you use tonespace + loopbe it will record the correct chords into the mpc piano roll, as the midi is being converted from a single note from a separate keyboard/controller to a chord before it goes into the mpc software.

Im gonna set up both when I get home. Loopbe seems a little difficult but I will follow your instructions and try to set it up...thanks for all the help.

thank tried this on both my Mac and PC it works like a charm......great!!

I tryed the mini modular set up it works great. But I can't figure out the loopbe setup maybe I'm doing the steps wrong.

I'm using karnu 1 as an arpeggio plugin the mini modular but it's not on tempo with my mpc rens metronome...how do I get karnu in time with the ren.