Roland Verselab MV-1: Chord Mode, Chords, and Intervals 

Thank you. Things are semi-stable in my life for the moment, so more videos should be coming soon. Thanks for the encouragement. 😊

😢 Thank you for the encouragement.

That would be pretty great, but, unfortunately, there's no way to edit the chords in chord mode except through the EDIT+PAD system. There are a whole lot of ways that chord mode could be improved, and this would definitely be one of them.

Unfortunately that's incorrect. If you change the key of the project, it won't affect chord mode. In fact, it doesn't affect anything EXCEPT clips you import after you change the key of the project (and the clips have to be saved with a key). Definitely try it out, changing any key or scale won't change the error on the root note on chord mode.

Good eye! This is a bug with the verselab. When you change the scale, say from C to G, the chords change correctly on CHORD mode (meaning the pads are PLAYING the correct chords), but the LABELS on CHORD mode don't change to match. As an example, if you change the root of the scale to G, pad 1 will be Gm and pad 9 will be G, but if you try to edit the pad, it will still say the root of the chord is C. Incidentally the chords in CHORD mode follow pattern based on what the root of the scale is. Pads 1-8 are the triads, in order, of the minor key (with pad 8 being the i chord, an octave up), and pads 9-16 are the triads, in order, of the major key (with pad 16 being the I chord an octave up). So, if you want to play the major progression I-IV-V-I, you'd play pads 9, 12, 13, 9. Pads 1, 4, 5, 1, would be the same progression in the parallel minor (i-iv-v-i).

@@LeRoy3rd Thks a lot ! I'll send an email to Roland to fix this bug (I don't expect the problem to be solved quickly ;-) ) but in any case your answer solve partially my problem !

Yeah, this is a known bug that's been around since the verselab was released. There are a bunch of other bugs that Roland just ignores. I highly doubt they'll be fixed any time soon, if ever. I always recommend that people make note of the errors, and find ways to work around them.

No, chord mode is kind of its own thing, and (as far as I can tell), can't be triggered by an external controller. You'll have to use the pads directly on the verselab. That being said, a lot of external controllers have chord functions, and typically those will send midi data of the notes from that. So, for instance, I have a Keystep 37, and a Launchkey Mini mk3. Both of those will allow you to make a chord, and then it will play and transpose that specific chord and voicing to any key you press... unfortunately you have to make several passes at recording unless you only wanted one chord type (for example, if you're using a dominant 7 chord, and playing blues, that may be useful). All that being said, I mostly use chord mode when I take the verselab with me, and don't have room for a keyboard controller. It's very difficult to get wide chord voicings using only the pads in NOTE mode, but using CHORD mode, while taking a bit of time, is super useful, in that regard. And the ability to play the chords you've created (or use the defaults) live, OR put them into the step sequencer makes this really useful, honestly, when using it standalone, I think this is one of the most useful, and underrated, features of the verselab.

@@LeRoy3rdah bummer! Yea ive been trying to find a way to play one note chords using a midi foot controller for self accompaniment . Lots of controllers will do one chord shape, substantially fewer will do them to scale (CM Dm Em ect) and the few that do dont seem to respond to an external midi source. The search continues! Thanks for the vid and the reply!

@@fletcherstevens3165 Hmmm, that's an interesting idea. 🤔 Here's a path of inquiry that may yield some results... I know you can get midi pedals (they look like pedals on an organ). I assume, by default, they play a single note, so you could use it to trigger a sequence, etc... but perhaps you could route that midi signal into a device (like your computer), to trigger chords? Oooor, how about this, make samples of the chords you want to use, then put the samples in a kit track... then when you trigger the pad on the kit track, it will play the chord that is on the pad? Takes a bit more work, but this could be a useable workaround.