README from GitHub, MIT
ATLAS
A MIDI Key-Aware Chord/Strum/Single and Dual Arpeggiator instrument for the Ableton Move, built as a Schwung overtake module.
Twenty pages of harmony on the pads — triads, sevenths, blues, secondary dominants, the circle of fifths, ninths, elevenths and thirteenths, altered dominants. Plus an arpeggiator, a strummer, two bass lanes and a chord library you build as you play.
Read this first
ATLAS sends notes over USB. Plug the Move into a computer and it appears as a MIDI device — DAW, softsynth, whatever you like.
It cannot play Move's own internal synths. (Currently) Not a bug in ATLAS: the function that would reach them runs and delivers nothing in the current Schwung release 0.12.1,a later fix in the works, Shift+Mute turns on that second route — it's already wired up and off by default.
So: USB works, internal doesn't. Set your DAW or External Synth up before you wonder why it's quiet.
Install
Drop the folder into your Schwung modules directory:
scp atlas-module-P8.7.tar.gz ableton@move.local:/data/UserData/
ssh ableton@move.local 'tar -xzf /data/UserData/atlas-module-P8.7.tar.gz \
-C /data/UserData/schwung/modules/overtake/'
Then pick Atlas from Schwung's Overtake menu.
The one idea that makes it click
Matrix pads Left and right changes which chord. Up and down changes how thick it is.
Every page is eight columns by four rows. Columns are the chords — I, ii, iii, IV and so on. Rows are how much you're stacking on top: a plain triad at the bottom, sevenths and ninths as you climb.
So sliding sideways moves through a progression, and sliding up the same column reharmonises the chord you're already on without changing what it is. Once that's in your fingers the whole thing opens up.
The colours tell you the job. Green is home, blue is the pull away from home, amber is the tension that wants to resolve, magenta is borrowed from somewhere else. Each page shifts the whole palette a little so you can tell at a glance where you are.
Getting a sound out
- Plug into a computer or USB-A out to your Synth.
- Press pads. You're on TRIADS-6 by default — the full major scale.
- Turn K2 to change key, K3 for major/minor.
- Turn the jog wheel to browse pages; the name blinks until you click to commit.
That's most of it. Everything below is depth.
The pads
| Press a pad | that column's chord, at that row's thickness |
| Slide up a column | same chord, richer |
| Up / Down | move the chords an octave |
| Shift + Up / Down | move the bass an octave |
| Shift (tap) | jump to the relative minor |
| Undo | panic — stop everything |
Panic matters here: some things ring until you stop them deliberately.
Four ways a pad can play
The four track buttons across the top:
| Mode | What a pad press does | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ADDED BASS | the chord, plus its root two octaves down |
| 2 | CHORD | just the chord — the default |
| 3 | ARP | one note at a time, in time |
| 4 | STRUM | rolled out like a guitar |
ARP needs the transport running — press Play, or nothing happens. Press track 3 again to cycle nine directions: up, down, up-down, down-up, converge, diverge, random, the order you pressed the pads, and all-at-once.
STRUM cycles four directions on its button too: forward, reverse, and two
humanised versions — RANDT varies the timing only, RANDX also swaps the
odd neighbouring note. A real hand is uneven, not out of order, which is why
they're separate.
Holding things
| Button | |
|---|---|
| Loop | fire the last chord again, in the mode it was played |
| Copy | LEGATO — every chord rings until the next one. Blinks while armed |
| Undo | stop everything |
The sixteen step buttons
| Steps | |
|---|---|
| 1–8 | the bass notes of the key. 1 and 8 are the root, in red |
| 9 | silence — somewhere neutral to land |
| 10–13 | notes from the chord you just played — 3rd, 5th, 7th, ♭7 (if present) |
| 14–16 | two-note figures: root+3rd, root+leading tone, root+5th |
Both lanes sit an octave under the chord.
A dark step can't sound. Ask for a 7th on a plain triad and that button is unlit before you reach for it — it tells you rather than playing nothing.
Steps 14–16 play both notes together, except in ARP where they alternate, which gives you a bouncing bass figure.
Timing
Press Menu — the steps become a rate strip and the button blinks. Steps 1–8 are dotted values, 9–16 straight and triplet. Pick as you like; press Menu again to leave.
Click the jog while it's open for dual ARP rates — sixteen two-speed
patterns. The first few notes go at one rate and the rest at another, then it
wraps round. 1/4>1/8 accents the first two notes; 3x8>16 gives you three
slow then a run.
Capture locks the arp to the bar: it plays its notes, then waits for the next downbeat instead of restarting immediately. The button pulses at whatever rate it's quantising. 4/4 only.
Knobs
| Steps to move it | ||
|---|---|---|
| K1 | tempo, 40–240 | dentent friction 5 |
| K2 | key | dentent friction 6 |
| K3 | major / minor | dentent friction 8 |
| K4 | spread — CLOSE, DROP2, DROP3, OPEN, ROOTLESS | dentent friction 6 |
| K5 | inversion — 0 is automatic | dentent friction 6 |
| K6 | strum spacing, 40–100 ms | dentent friction 6 |
| K7 | arp note length, 10–200% | dentent friction 6 |
| K8 | which note the arp starts on | dentent friction 6 |
They're deliberately stiff so you don't knock them mid-performance.
One click reports, it doesn't change. Tempo, strum, gate and offset appear nowhere on screen, so a single click tells you the current value.
K5 at 0 is automatic voice leading — chords step to each other instead of leaping. Turn it up for manual inversions.
The pages
| 0 | POWER | fifths, no thirds |
| 1 | QUAD-ii | IV V I ii |
| 2 | QUAD-vi | IV V I vi |
| 3 | TRIADS-6 | the whole major scale — start here |
| 4 | BLUES | I IV V sevenths and the turnaround |
| 5 | SEC DOM | the scale plus borrowed dominants |
| 6 | CIRCLE | ii–V–I round the circle of fifths |
| 7 | 7THS | seventh chords |
| 8 | TENTHS | the same harmony, spread wide |
| 9 | MELODY | single notes, four octaves |
| A | INTERVL | two-note shapes |
| B | BUILDER | pick a chord quality, root from K2 |
| D | NINTHS | ninths, all in key |
| E | 11-13 | elevenths and thirteenths |
| F | ALTERED | altered dominants and tritone subs |
| G | SUS-DIM | suspended and diminished |
| C | USER | your own — see below |
| H | HELP | this, on the device |
| M | MONITOR | diagnostics |
| P | PALETTE | colour reference |
On ALTERED, columns are the alteration and rows are the root — the opposite of everywhere else. It's the only way to fit both into 32 pads.
On NINTHS, the iii and vii chords have a flat ninth. That's correct theory, not a mistake — it's what the scale gives you — but it'll sound darker than the rest of the page.
Building your own page
Press Record to capture the chord you just played into page C USER. Keep going and you build a set of favourites, from whichever pages you like.
Captured chords are stored as shapes, so they follow you when you change key.
They're lost when the module reloads. Schwung gives JavaScript modules no
way to write files. You can also hand-write pages/user.json instead.
When something seems wrong
| No sound at all | it's USB only — check your DAW/Synth,check the Move native track midi settings, and ensure the Schwung slot settings = Schwung+Move for MIDI FX |
| ARP silent | press Play; it's internally clock-driven at the moment no sync currently |
| A step is dark | that chord hasn't got that note |
| Notes won't stop | Undo. Legato and sustain have no timeout |
| Screen looks stale | check the version on page M matches what you installed |
Credits
Built on Schwung by Charles Vestal. Special thanks to Stephem Mugglin as this is a Chord-map layout inspired by ChordMaps2 IOS app .