OKTONIK

Harmonic performance instrument

By Skerry Vibe.

Play chords, melody and bass together on Ableton Move through Schwung. Explore harmony with your left hand, play melodies with your right, and route each part to a different instrument. OKTONIK generates MIDI, not audio.

OKTONIK 0.2.0

0.2.0 adds clips and recording to the live instrument of 0.1.0.

• Eight clips each for chords, bass and melody, with their own length, rate and quantize. Record live, overdub while Move plays, undo and mute parts.
• Step sequencing as on Move: hold a step for length, arrows to nudge, Copy + step, Loop + step for clip length. Shift + step shortcuts in Move's layout.
• Count-in and metronome, twelve extension profiles, editable modifier pads, PENTA/BLUES melody palettes, right-hand bass pads and a strum menu.
• Voicing: CLOSE, OPEN or WIDE spread, with LEAD OFF, CNTR or FREE.
• Co-run: Shift + Track opens a Schwung chain while OKTONIK keeps playing.
• Focused on live playing; tempo follows Move.

See the release notes and the installation notes.

Illustrated user guide · Report a problem

Requires Ableton Move, Schwung 1.6.2 or newer (0.2.0 was tested with 1.7.3), and a receiving instrument. Shift + Track 1-4 opens a Schwung chain while OKTONIK pads keep playing. Back returns through the chain views to OKTONIK. This is a Tool, not a MIDI FX.

Install

Download the Public installation archive from Releases.

Upload oktonik-module.tar.gz through Schwung at move.local:7700. Do not extract it. Restart Move and select OKTONIK. Back up projects first.

On first open, OKTONIK copies valid schema-7 Chord Pilot state for the same project only if its own file is absent. Original files remain untouched. There is no ongoing synchronization. Keep the old installation until imports are tested.

See the illustrated user guide for a first jam, modifier examples, Bass Gesture, melody, recording, clips, steps, Shift + step shortcuts, sustain and MIDI routing.

Help shape the instrument

Try chord changes, modifiers, Bass Gesture, melody and sustain with your own instruments. For bug reports, include the OKTONIK version, Move/Schwung versions, MIDI routes/channels and steps to reproduce the problem.

Credits

Created by Skerry Vibe. Developed with assistance from OpenAI ChatGPT and Codex. See NOTICE and MIT license for inherited attribution. Independent project, not an official Ableton product.

GitHub: skerryvibe/oktonik.

In development

We are exploring richer harmonic suggestions, expressive strum and playing patterns, and ways to capture musical ideas. These are not features of this release and have no promised release date. The priority is a reliable, playable live instrument.