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Message: [QUOTE="Bombastus, post: 91865, member: 2178"] AMI-Polychaos gives its HARMONY control two modes, with CHORD using chromatic transposition of the held chord and TONAL using one shared scale. The distinction sounds small on paper, but it changes what your fingers contribute to the generator and what the four voices are allowed to treat as harmonic material. With CHORD selected, the notes you hold remain central to the result because the plug-in transposes the chord structure chromatically as the chaotic process moves. TONAL takes a broader route. Its voices draw from a shared scale, so the held input stops acting like a rigid chord template and becomes part of a wider tonal field. The [B][URL='https://goldmidi.com/community/threads/dr-zoppa-brings-ami-polychaos-to-macos.77255/']AMI-Polychaos harmony control[/URL][/B] therefore deserves more attention than a simple mode switch. CHORD is useful when the voicing under your fingers already contains the color you want to preserve. TONAL makes more sense when you want the generated lines to move more freely without losing a common scale. [HEADING=2]CHORD keeps your voicing in charge[/HEADING] Hold a minor seventh voicing in CHORD mode, and its interval structure remains the important harmonic object as the generator moves it around. The process can place that structure at different chromatic levels, but the relationship inside the held chord is what gives the output its recognizable harmonic fingerprint. Your input choice matters immediately. This makes CHORD a strong fit when the source voicing is deliberate. A close minor ninth, an open fifth with an added sixth, or a plain triad each gives the generator a different packet of intervals to work with. Change one note in the chord, and you are not merely changing a root. You are changing the structure being carried through the process. Chromatic movement also means the generated material is not obligated to remain inside one diatonic scale. This can be useful when the track already tolerates outside notes, planed harmony, or brief shifts that would sound too polite if every pitch were forced back into one key. It can also expose clashes quickly when the bass or another instrument is holding a strict tonal center. Use CHORD when the voicing itself is the idea. Keep the rest of the arrangement sparse at first and listen for where the transposed structure creates useful friction rather than assuming every generated event should be retained. A dense source chord can become very busy once four related voices begin moving through it. [HEADING=2]TONAL gives the voices one shared boundary[/HEADING] TONAL mode replaces chord-based chromatic transposition with a single shared scale. The four voices can still separate through SPREAD, STAGGER, rhythm, and the chosen chaotic map, but their pitch choices remain tied to one tonal collection. This usually gives the result a more stable pitch vocabulary even when the lines themselves become active. A shared scale does not mean every generated note becomes a chord tone. Scale membership and chord membership are different constraints. In C major, D and A belong to the scale even when a C major triad is sounding, so TONAL can produce passing or neighboring tones that CHORD mode would approach from a different structural logic. This difference is useful for melodies, ostinatos, and moving inner parts where forcing every event to reflect the exact held voicing would make the texture stiff. The scale gives several lines room to travel while still keeping them inside the same pitch environment. You get more melodic latitude without opening the door to unrestricted chromatic movement. Research behind AMI treats pitch, rhythm, and dynamics as symbolic musical data that can be generated and organized algorithmically, rather than as fixed audio material. The [B][URL='https://doi.org/10.5216/mh.v24.78922']published AMI algorithmic music research[/URL][/B] helps explain why a control such as HARMONY can sit between a generative process and a musical constraint. The algorithm supplies motion, while the harmonic mode decides how that motion is translated into usable pitches. [HEADING=2]Switching modes changes what you should play[/HEADING] A useful comparison starts with one sustained chord and leaves every other control alone. Listen in CHORD mode first, then switch to TONAL without touching SPREAD, STAGGER, tempo, or the chaotic map. The generated rhythm and trajectory remain comparable, which makes the harmonic difference easier to hear instead of burying it under several simultaneous changes. Try the reverse experiment next by changing the held voicing while staying in one mode. CHORD should make those voicing changes more structurally obvious because the chord itself is the transposition material. TONAL is more interested in the shared scale, so changing the input can have a different weight than you might expect from a conventional chord-following device. Arrangement context should make the final decision. CHORD can work well when a section needs recognizable harmonic shapes that travel, while TONAL suits passages where several generated voices need freedom to weave through one key area. Neither mode is the safe setting. Each one decides which musical information gets protected and which information is allowed to move. [/QUOTE]

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