what is tonespace?

• it's a different, more intuitive music keyboard, combined with a chorder
• It supports over 50 different grids, 14 scales, 18 keys, 30+ chord types and 10 chord voicings
• it can function as a VST or Audio Unit plugin, processing incoming MIDI events and/or generating outgoing MIDI
• you don't need to use MIDI though: there is also a standalone executable which contains its own little synth for a fast start
• download

what can you do with it?

• you can play and visualize chords while you move the mouse around in a grid-like space
• you can learn how musical scales and keys work, and how chords relate to these, using the simple octave-based spaces
• you can visually discover how chords map onto surprisingly simple geometric shapes in the more advanced spaces
• you can use the chord-generation algorithm to generate chords from these simple shapes in the advanced spaces

New in v2.5.554

• Some interface improvements and optimization
• Various bugfixes

New in v2.0.361

• No longer a 'beta' - this is a full release version
• Updated manual with information on features added since public beta 2.0.294

Build 2.0.354 (beta):

• Fixed: mode 'MIDI triggers note (modulated)' transposed some notes an octave too low.
• Fixed: some slight factory preset tweaks.
• New: added 'Monads' chord filter option, making it possible to use the chord fitting assist modes also with single notes.

Build 2.0.353 (beta):

• New: 'trigger' parameter replaces the 'on MIDI' parameter and controls when and how cells are triggered (either by mouse and/or by incoming MIDI notes).
• New: MIDI triggering offers several variants, including triggering on mouse clicking, mouse hovering or by incoming MIDI note as in tonespace 1.0.
• New: triggering by MIDI notes can optionally transpose/modulate incoming MIDI notes from CMajor into the selected scale/key (allows to play 'white keys only' and still generate chords that are in key).
• New: 'on click' parameter replaces the 'mouse' parameter and controls whether chords are released on mouse-up or held until next click.
• New: 'assist' parameter offers new chord assist modes, including a mode for fitting chords to a scale/key instead of to the space.
• New: with chord fitting to scale/key: when more than one chord is possible you can either take the best one, cycle through all, or pick a random one for an arpeggio-like effect.
• New: 'chord filter' parameter allows to restrict the types of chords that are used by chord assist algorithms. Select between 2, 3 and 4 note-chords. This also reduces the number of chord assist parameter modes, as they longer have to select the chord size.
• New: 'voicing' parameter has been extended with new inversion types and open/close modes. The old open/open+/open++ modes are now called spread/spread+/spread++.
• New: the currently hovered and/or clicked root cell is now also highlighted, so you always know where you are in the grid, even when using chord voicings with a different root note.
• New: last played and estimated next chord names are displayed.
• Fixed: slow startup of the tonespace UI on OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard.
• Fixed: Logic revalidating tonespace AU component every time during start up.
• Fixed: 'none' chord displayed in balzano 3-shape.
• Fixed: note was not released when mouse up on disabled cell.
• Fixed: hold notes until next click did not work as users expected.
• Fixed: crash in Ableton Live on Windows when closing VST gui while tonespace help/about dialog still visible.