Obelisk makes it easy to write chord progressions and explore new harmonies for your melodic lines. This plugin converts every MIDI note you play into a harmony that (optionally) matches the key and scale of your track.
Knowledge of music theory is not required. The harmony structure is created by selecting intervals on the right side of the GUI, or by loading one of the many chord presets. By hitting a few notes on the keyboard, you can create a harmonic base for your new track. Obelisk works with any of your synthesizers or samplers. Just set up your DAW to send MIDI from the Obelisk to your synthesizer.
Chords – For convenience and to get you started, the Obelisk comes with many chord and scale presets. Choosing chord presets is a quick way to try different harmonies and let your ear decide what works.
Unique Scales – Obelisk can be tuned to constrain notes to a specific key and scale. When this option is enabled, you have many options for which scale to use – besides the major and minor ones. For example, blues, arabic, or pentatonic scale variations can be selected. Exploring unusual scales can take your music to unknown places.
Turn a note into a chord – Every MIDI note you play in the Obelisk triggers the creation of a chord based on that note. The structure of this chord is determined by the Chord Picker, which is located on the right side of the GUI. This chord picker represents the harmonies relative to any input note. For example, if “0: Unison” is selected, any note played will pass unchanged. However, if you also select option: 7: Perfect 5th, Obelisk will add a note seven semitones above any input note. Now if you add a major 3rd, Obelisk will create a major triad chord based on any note played.
Within Key … – Using only one type of triad for your chords may not sound very good. It is more useful to use both the major and minor triads that match the scale you are using. For this reason, Obelisk has a limiting algorithm that intelligently shifts notes to match a given key and scale. This limitation occurs after the chord is generated – as in the process described in the previous paragraph. The received MIDI is then sent to the synthesizer of your choice.