Chordio vs Roland Chord Director

Chordio is a music composition and theory app for iOS and macOS, with workspaces for composition, scales, modes, sheet music, music theory and lessons. Its library includes more than 40 scales. Connect a USB, MIDI or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard and it identifies chords in real time, naming them on the grand staff. Harmony Explorer finds matching scales and suggests diatonic and borrowed chords, secondary dominants and tritone substitutions. Progressions can be dragged into Logic Pro, Ableton Live, FL Studio and other DAWs as MIDI; MIDI chords can also be imported for re-harmonization. Sheet Music includes tempo adjustment, looping, separate-hand practice, transposition and PDF printing. Lesson Packs let users play pieces in any key and at any tempo. The free download includes built-in sounds, an on-screen keyboard and every workspace. Full Unlock costs $14.99 as a one-time purchase and includes Mac, iPad and Vision Pro, plus lifetime updates. The iPhone version is purchased separately, and there is no Android app.

Roland Chord Director is a free companion app for Roland’s GO:KEYS 3 and GO:KEYS 5 keyboards. It supplies additional ready-made chord patterns that can be loaded into a connected keyboard with a touch. The touch interface also lets users change keys and edit chord patterns, or create new patterns from their own chord progressions. The app links to the keyboard through Bluetooth and is listed for iOS and Android through the App Store and Google Play. Roland describes it as a way to use chord patterns for favorite songs and new compositions with a full-band sound. A free Roland Account is required to access pre-made patterns. Roland says GO:KEYS 3 and GO:KEYS 5 added support in system program version 1.11. Product questions go to Roland’s Knowledge Base, with product support handled through BACKSTAGE. Google Play reports possible collection of personal information, app activity, and device or other IDs; it also reports encryption in transit and deletion requests.