Chord Alchemy 3.3

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: CNET Staff

This very handy program provides a comprehensive database of guitar chords and scales. Chord Alchemy's interface initially appears crowded and intimidating, but you can choose from two other display modes if the default Advanced look is over your head. The application gives you just about every piece of chord information you'd ever need to know. You can choose from many tunings beyond standard, including stalwarts such as Drop D and Open G. After you choose the chord root, you select different degrees and modes, including a wide variety of sevenths, ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. Scale options include everything from the standard blues-based pentatonics to odder ones such as the flamenco scale. You can add bass notes, remove certain notes, and specify whether the app returns complete chords or only ones with tonal essentials. No matter what kind of chord or scale you're looking for, the application returns tablature diagrams and plays them with a simple mouse click. We really like the reverse-lookup tool, which tells you what that wild chord you thought you made up actually translates to in music-theory speak. In our analysis, just about any guitarist will benefit from Chord Alchemy if they spend enough time learning how to navigate the interface.

Publisher's description

From Tonal Alchemy :

ChordAlchemy offers a rich, robust set of capabilities for looking up chords, determining what chords you are playing and hearing, and how they sound. Chord variations are easily handled by Chord Alchemy s powerful, Advanced Chord Theory and Chord Diagram Engines. Coupled with an easy-to-use interface, you can generate chord diagrams anywhere on the fret board, in any tuning, across any number of strings, spanning two to six frets. The application's abilities include superior chord lookup for any chord, an interactive instrument fingerboard, predefined or custom tunings, and a powerful and easy-to-use chord generation interface. It also has real-time, dynamic chord formula modification, outstanding chord diagram creation control, the ability to create chord collections on chord pages, advanced reverse chord lookup capabilities including no root and added bass. It also supports notes, intervals, and scales.

Version 3.3 features the ability to save chord diagrams as bit maps; instrument specific support for 14 instruments including guitar, mandolin, five-string banjo, ukelele, bass, tenor guitar, baritone ukelele, and four-string Banjo. A left-handed diagram is supported.

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