New life for your TheoryBoard

New in 2.0

Tested on a board (2.0.8). 2.0 also brings 1.9 and 1.8, not released on their own. Four things from the roadmap and two you asked for, then more:

• Turing pattern (Settings → Arpeggiator → Arp → Turing): the arpeggiator plays a loop of the held notes drawn at random. Lock sets how much of it stays each time round (100 %: the same loop over and over; 0 %: new every time) and Loop its length (2–16 steps). Other notes, a new loop.
• Chained progressions: up to 8 progressions played one after another, for example P1 > P1 > P2 > P3, set in the web editor's Progressions tab. Settings → Progressions → Chain On (or Shift + root button 9) and Play plays the chain; the play screen shows where it is (C2/4 P1 …).
• Chord chance: each chord of a progression plays as written only so often (100 % down to 10 %); the other times it rests, or plays the borrowed chord from the parallel major or minor key. Set in the web editor.
• Presets with their own chord sets (Settings → Presets → Keep chords): Save preset also saves a copy of the chord set the preset plays, and loading the preset brings that copy back, so two presets can use different versions of chord set 1. The editor's Presets tab sets, removes, copies and compares them.
• Copy, paste and move lanes in the editor's Sequencer tab: copy a lane onto another, move its steps one earlier or later, copy and paste a range of steps. On the board the step screen does the same with Shift.
• U3 as Shift (Settings → Buttons → U3 button): the top right button becomes a Shift button, so all 14 center buttons keep their printed functions. A tap is Shift for the next press, two quick taps latch it. Shift + the buttons under the screen do more on every screen (tempo, play, arpeggiator, home, jump to the end, defaults), and the bottom line says what.
• Sleep and Shut down: Settings → About → Shut down darkens the board until you press ● Center (as the original's shutdown did); Settings → Lights → Sleep after darkens it after 5–60 minutes without a touch. Settings → About → I/O test now also shows the buttons you hold.
• The Settings menu, rebalanced (2.0.1): 17 pages, each one kind of thing, the longest 13 items (before: 13 pages, three of 16–17). What moved: Expression (new): Chord AT, Melody AT (from Play), MPE, Glide, Glide time (from MIDI). Effects (new): Note repeat, Repeat rhythm, Harmony, Echo, Echoes (from Play), Mono (from Layout). Chord edits (new): Add 7th/9th/6th, Sus, Strum pad, Sound, Reset chord, Reset all edits (from Chords). MIDI: every channel now, Bass ch, Drum ch, Live ch, Live in (from Layout). Layout: Melody oct (from Play). Sequence is now two pages, Progressions (Play, Chain, Progression, Unit, Record, Clear, Guide) and Steps (Steps, Lane … Rotate, Step pads). Your settings stay as they were; each page's Reset options resets what is on it now. (2.0.4) The pages in a new order: what the pads play (Play, Layout, Chords, Chord edits), how they're played (Strum, Expression, Arpeggiator, Effects; Expression after Strum since 2.0.5), sequencing (Progressions, Steps), Presets, then the setup pages by how often they're changed (MIDI, Pedal, Buttons, Lights, Pads) and About. ▲ Up from Play goes to the last.
• Spread of Bass (2.0.2) (Settings → Chords → Spread of → Bass): every chord keeps its root as the lowest note. The chord stays as the pad, the voicing buttons or Voice lead make it, and the Spread buttons add its root under it (E G C becomes C E G C); Spread II and III put that root one or two octaves lower. From a user's request.
• More for the step sequencer (2.0.3), ideas from the Deluge, OXI One and Hapax:
  • Fill steps play only while a center button set to Fill (or the pedal, Mode Fill) is held, and Not fill steps rest then: hold it for a drum fill, let go and the beat is back.
  • Nudge moves a step up to half a step early or late. Each lane gets its own Swing and Transpose.
  • Mutate (Settings → Steps, and the editor) changes a few steps of a lane a little, differently each time. The editor also has Randomize.
  • Stutter (a center button, 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16): while you hold it, the lanes and the progression repeat the beat, eighth or sixteenth the press fell in. Let go and they carry on in time.
• The web editor's own USB port (2.0.6): the board shows a second MIDI port, TheoryBoard Editor, and the web editor talks to it, so your DAW keeps hearing the board while the editor is connected. Leave that port off in the DAW.
• Clear preset (2.0.7): Settings → Presets → Clear preset empties a preset, with its own colors, curves, chord set and name.
• The web editor follows the board (2.0.5–2.0.8): a progression recorded on the board, settings changed there, a preset saved, cleared or loaded show in the editor within a second or two, without Reconnect; Reconnect no longer pauses what the board plays. Each message appears next to what you changed and goes after 3 seconds.
• Curves of (2.0.8): the Feel tab edits the board's curves or any preset's own without loading it, and sets the preset's own Chord vel to Custom so its curve is heard when it loads.

More in the manual →