But the C-major scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Why did it display C, d, e, F, G, A#?

@dmstar1956 Which notes is Vocal Tune displaying for the A# loop?

Here is a Vocal Tune screenshot.

Since the first chord entered is C-major, shouldn't all of the subsequent pitches, if arranged in order from 1-7, be the major chords in the key of C-major? What determines what chords or notes correspond to the 7 pitches?

@dmstar1956 

What determines what chords or notes correspond to the 7 pitches?

In the past the chords were usually defined in the BPM.inf text file inside the Soundpool folder, and additionally in the description.xml file inside the Soundpool folder. The program only reads the values inside these files. There could be any value in there.

Since the first chord entered is C-major, shouldn't all of the subsequent pitches, if arranged in order from 1-7, be the major chords in the key of C-major?

No. The pitches should follow the definition in the inf or xml file in the Soundpool folder. But, I recall that nearly all Soundpools use the same pitches, but there are a few exceptions. So you can usually mix loops from different Soundpools and as long as they have the same pitch you shouldn't get clashing notes.

And, of course, you can mix und combine loops like you want, without caring about it sounding "correct". This can be useful to give your compositions some 'spicy' sections.

So what is the relationship then between a key, like C, and its corresponding scale degrees?

C, d, e, F, G, a, A# = C minor scale?

Also had a question about the pitch bar and how it shifts to the right sometimes, seemingly for no reason, as you add loops to a track.

@dmstar1956 C, d, e, F, G, a, A# will give you information about the chord notes used in the loop.

So pitch 1 = C Major means that most likey the notes c,g and e are used in the loop. But the loop can also have other notes as well or only c notes or only c and g notes. It depends.

A pitch 1 loop from another category or Soundpool will also most likely have c,e and g notes. So they will likely sound nice together.

If you have a pitch 1 loop you can play the C Major scale to it without sounding out of tune because it's a C Major chord.

@dmstar1956

Hi

. . . . C-major scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Why did it display C, d, e, F, G, A# . . . .

The difference is due to an incorrect term being used.

C, D, E, F, G, A, B is the C Major: First Position Chord, which does not include semitones.

The C Major Scale has steps (tones) and half steps (semitones) ie C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A

The program is displaying the correct notes.

HTH

John EB

@johnebaker

Hi John,

The C Major Scale has steps (tones) and half steps (semitones) ie C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A

Actually, with the addition of A# and B, that is the Chromatic scale of C.

With reference to the question raised by @dmstar1956 about C d e F G A#: I can't explain why the A# is there but I might speculate it's because the other capitalised letters are the root notes of major chords in C, whilst those with lower-case letters are minor chords in C.

But who knows why Magix chose those "names" to display???

Jeff
Forum Moderator

@emmrecs

Hi Jeff

Thanks for the info.

It is unfortunate that in modern usage the full name gets shortened to 'Scale' just as MP4 is used to represent a video format. 😕

John EB

Hi,

My guess is that the musician wanted the 7th of C. The 3rd and 5th of C# or Bb are in the C scale.

John CB

@browj2

Hi John,

My guess is that the musician wanted the 7th of C. The 3rd and 5th of C# or Bb are in the C scale.

Again wearing my (retired) "music teacher's hat", I fear that is not correct, sorry!

The third and fifth of C# are, technically speaking, E# and G#. (E# = F so arguably is in the C major scale but G#, aka Ab definitely isn't!)

However, for Bb, where the third and fifth are D and F, yes they are both in C major.

Jeff