Ranger will reharmonize MIDI notes from any source in real-time. There are lots of ways to control the process and you hear the results as you tweak. You can reharmonize a live performance, sections of a MIDI track or an entire track in one shot. You can enter chords/scales directly from Scout or manually from any MIDI controller. You can even send it chords prerecorded on a MIDI track.

You can select modes and inversion points, transpose the new notes to any range +/- three octaves, and even transpose the input for some very interesting results.

Ranger has some very versatile grace note handling abilities. Grace notes are reharmonized relative to scale tones and can then be inverted and/or transposed separately. Or, convert grace notes to scale tones, and still be able to independently invert or transpose them. This gives you the ability to completely rework melody and bass lines with a few clicks. Turn "Mary Had A Little Lamb" into a steroidal funk groove or hypno transcendental cacophony.

There are four reharmonization modes.

• Linear Scale reharmonizes up or down to the target scale, preserving the melodic structure of the incoming notes. You can select any mode of any scale.

• Wrap Scale does wrap around inversions at a user set point. This keeps the new notes in roughly the same range as the originals, but also changes the melodic structure.

• Linear Chord works much the same as Linear Scale, but confines all notes to the selected chord. You can adjust chord placement and shift-algorithms.

• Wrap Chord is the chord version of Wrap Scale with the added ability to create random patterns, which can be frozen and saved.

The chord modes operate much the same as algorithms found in pattern based accompaniment sequencers, but with more control and a few nice twists.

The scale modes, with their extensive grace note handling, allow you to reharmonize entire tracks but still preserve the structure, or, ---- mix it all up.

With all this control, you can do a straight chord, scale or modal shift, create total melodic mayhem or anything in between.

There are many ways to utilize Ranger, but the general procedure is select a track from your sequencer and route it to Ranger. Adjust the controls till you get your desired results. Send the results back to your sequencer for recording, either as MIDI or audio. You can even take the new track (MIDI), treat it as the original, and reharmonize it, with unlimited morphing potential.

There is virtually no limit to the harmonic and melodic variations you can create quickly and accurately. It's easy just sit back, click and listen. The hard part is making a decision when every click brings up something new. Fortunately you can save your settings as presets so you can always find your way back should you get lost in harmonic heaven. Save them in banks of 10 for instant recall. Presets can be triggered in any order with any timing to create "Einsteinian" jazz progressions or "Zappatonian" marimba meltdowns.

Ranger even comes with its own note sequencer. It has limited editing abilities and is, by no means, meant to replace your main sequencer. But, you can do instant bounces of reharmonized tracks so that you can experiment and morph between 10 sequences, all within Ranger. You can sync-start it to another sequencer for recording and playback. This comes in handy for doing short sections especially when your main sequencer's tracks get crowded.

To really get into how Ranger works, get Harmatrix Manual. It is a free download. Please choose a download format ... PDF(900K) or SIT(800K) or ZIP(800K)

Harmatrix complete with Ranger and Scout is $39.95 (download).