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HouseEngine Manual

Contents

Introduction

HouseEngine is a plug-in that generates new melodies, basslines, hooks, and riffs from your MIDI chord progressions automatically.

The concept is simple:

  1. Import your MIDI chord progression.
  2. Check if your chord progression was imported correctly:
    • Press play in your DAW to listen to the chords.
    • Right-click on a chord to change the bass note if needed.
    • The plug-in will suggest a fitting scale for you. In most cases, this scale will be correct, but you can also set your own choice here.
    • Press OK when everything is alright (in most cases you won't have to change anything).
  3. You can see a big list of presets now. Select a preset, then press play in your DAW for a preview.
  4. Use the search options to find nice presets. You can change the pitch and the swing of the generated output with the sliders.
  5. Do you like a preset? Drag and drop the MIDI field to your DAW. The plug-in will copy the MIDI data to your DAW then.

Setup

Simply download the installer and install the plug-in on your system. Then open your DAW and add HouseEngine to a track.

Importing MIDI chord progressions

HouseEngine comes with a selection of factory chord progressions and several different chord progression generators. But you can also import your own MIDI chord progressions.

Your MIDI file should look like this:

  • Contains only chords, not melodies.
  • Contains only one MIDI channel with data.
  • All notes are quantized to 16th.
  • Recommended: Dedicated bass notes.

Example:

Good chord progression

If your chord progression doesn't contain dedicated bass notes (the lowest notes of the chords), then HouseEngine will guess some good bass notes for you.

Editing chord progressions

When you import a MIDI chord progression, you can preview and edit it on a special page.

Listen to the chord progression to check if everything sounds good. You can right-click on a chord to change the bass note or modify the chord if needed.

The key/scale setting will only affect some of the patches. It does not transpose the chords when you change it. The key/scale setting is important for HouseEngine to take the musical context of the progression into account. In most cases, the plug-in should guess the correct scale. However, if it detected the wrong scale, you can change it manually here.

Loading and saving chord progressions

You can save a chord progression to your hard drive or to the clipboard:

  1. Go to the chord progression edit page.
  2. Click on "More".
  3. Choose "Save chord progression" or "Copy chord progression to clipboard".

To load a chord progression:

  1. Go to the main starting page.
  2. Click on "Load chord progression...".
  3. Choose "... from file" or "... from clipboard".

Generating chord progressions

HouseEngine contains several chord progression generator algorithms. Simply click on "Generate chord progression" on the starting page and choose a fitting algorithm.

The plug-in will generate a first progression and display it on the chord progression edit page. You can click on the dice icon to generate another variation. Click on "More" and activate "Lock scale (if generator is compatible)" if you want to lock the generated progressions to the "Associated scale".

Tip: If you want to generate a chord progression for a specific scale, do this:

  1. Go to the main starting page.
  2. Click on "Generate chord progression" and pick an algorithm.
  3. Make sure that "More -> Lock scale (if generator is compatible)" is active.
  4. Pick a fitting tonic for your song ("Associated scale" area).
  5. Click on the dice symbol to generate a new progression.

Please note that not all generator algorithms will generate chord progressions for all scales. Some generators will only work with Minor scales, others support both Major and Minor. If a generator is not compatible, it will keep the tonic, but replace the scale.

Working with presets

As soon as you import a chord progression, HouseEngine generates a list of presets for you. Select a preset, then press play in your DAW for a preview.

On the left side, you can find a search bar and a tag browser. Click on a tag to see only presets with that tag. You can select multiple tags as well.

Exporting presets

You can find a MIDI preview area on the right side of each preset. It displays the notes to give you a quick overview of the generated notes.

You can drag and drop this MIDI area to your DAW to export the preset as a standard MIDI file. If your DAW doesn't support drag and drop, you can drag the MIDI file to an open Explorer window (Windows) or Finder window (macOS).

Not all presets will have the same length as your original chord progression. Some might be longer because the preset needs more time for melodic changes, modulations, or embellishments. The generated output will have the same meter as the original chord progression.

Routing MIDI output to another synth

If you use the VST version, you can route the generated notes to another synth via MIDI.

You can find instructions for different DAWs here:

https://feelyoursound.com/chordpotion-manual/#setup (simply use HouseEngine instead of ChordPotion ;)

Attention: The AU version doesn't support this feature. AU components can either operate as an audio plug-in or as a MIDI plug-in, but not as both.

The demo version generates a small melody every few seconds that is only audible in the MIDI output.

Frequently asked questions

Will HouseEngine melodies always sound the same?
You can read more about this here: https://feelyoursound.com/will-houseengine-melodies-always-sound-the-same/

On how many computers can I use my license?
You can use your license on as many computers as you like (as long as these computers belong to you). No need to uninstall anything when you switch to a new computer :). You can also use the same license for both macOS and Windows.

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