MIDI Chord: build a voicing, then give it a strum
Chord adds notes at chosen semitone distances from each incoming note. The useful question is not how many slots you can enable, but which intervals and attacks help the phrase say something clearer.
Start with a single-note phrase, not an already dense chord. Each incoming note becomes the root of its own voicing. Six numbered slots can add shifted copies, while the original remains. The numbers on the buttons enable slots; moving a disabled Shift knob alone does not add its note.
A broken-note phrase becomes parallel major triads
Interactive MIDI example
The third does more than another octave
This original broken-triad MIDI phrase feeds Chord, then a triangle-wave Synth. Shift 1 is +4 st and Shift 2 is +7 st, making a major triad on every incoming note. The first input is MIDI 60, producing 60, 64 and 67 together. Enable Bypass to hear the single-note phrase, then disable it to restore the harmony.
Change Shift 1 from +4 to +3 st. The middle note of the first chord moves from 64 to 63, changing a major third into a minor third. Leave Shift 2 at +7. Compare several roots, then return Shift 1 to +4. One semitone in one slot can change the harmonic character more than adding several extra octave layers.
These are parallel intervals, not automatic diatonic harmonization. When the input moves from C to E, the major-triad setting builds E–G♯–B, not whichever chord belongs to a presumed C-major key. That may be exactly the colour you want. If it is not, revise the voicing or consider a later Scale stage in a full project; the example itself contains only Chord followed by Synth.
Balance the added notes before spreading their attacks
Select Velocity to expose the ratios beneath the Shift controls. Slot 1 starts at 80% and slot 2 at 65%, keeping the source note prominent. The first input velocity is 76, so the added velocities are 60.8 and 49.4. Fractional values can survive in the internal note stream; they are not a percentage reduction of the entire audio output.
Raise slot 2 toward 100% and listen to the fifth becoming more assertive. Restore 65% if it makes the voicing top-heavy. How much velocity changes loudness or timbre depends on the receiving instrument. Select Chance to inspect the alternative slot fields; both are at 100% here so each enabled harmony appears consistently. Turn off a slot when you need it reliably absent.
Strum delays slot groups, not a sorted piano chord
Set Strum to +100 ms. For the first 275 ms input note, the root starts at 0 ms, Shift 1 at 100 ms and Shift 2 at 200 ms. Their note durations become 275, 175 and 75 ms: the delayed notes retain the original note-off position rather than receiving a fresh full-length gate. Listen for a rolled entrance with a particularly short final note.
Try −100 ms. The slot-group order reverses: Shift 2 starts first, Shift 1 next and the source last. It sounds like a downward roll for this ascending voicing, but the implementation follows enabled-slot order, not a general low-to-high pitch sort. Rearranging the interval numbers changes that relationship. Restore 0 ms for simultaneous attacks.
At +200 ms the second added group would start at 400 ms, beyond the 275 ms source gate, so it is dropped. This is not a failed instrument voice. Inspect the transformed notes, then shorten Strum to restore it. Tension is not a useful way to reshape these timings in the current implementation; its effect is confined to an exact note-off boundary case. Crescendo makes only a small velocity adjustment. Use explicit slot velocities for a clearly audible balance change.
Why more slots do not always mean more notes
Identical pitches at the same start time merge rather than becoming extra unison voices. A later note-on can also shorten an already ringing note of that pitch. Applying this device to input chords can therefore create collisions that obscure the simple slot count. Start with one-note input when learning a voicing.
Shift ranges from −36 to +36 semitones; pitches beyond MIDI 0–127 clip to the boundary. Added notes inherit source expression such as slide, not an independently composed performance. Reset parameters restores the original two-slot voicing and the Synth settings. Keep the instrument quiet enough that a fuller chord does not win the comparison only by being louder.