How to make Harmonimo work for you.

Harmonimo is an expressive MIDI chord generator plugin that transforms single notes into full chords with genre-specific voicing. It is designed for producers, composers, and performers of all levels who want to create complex chord progressions quickly. Play one note, get a full expressive chord with proper voicing, extensions, and musical intelligence.

Harmonimo is perfect for:

• Producers who want fast chord workflow without deep music theory knowledge
• Live performers who need one-handed chord playing
• Neo-soul, jazz, gospel, and lo-fi producers wanting authentic extended chords
• Anyone wanting to explore harmony quickly and musically
• Beginners learning chord progressions in context

Harmonimo is supported on:

• macOS 10.13 or later, with both Intel and Apple Silicon supported
• Windows 10 or later (64-bit)

Harmonimo is available as:

• VST3
• Standalone application

Harmonimo automatically comes with both VST3 and Standalone versions for the platform of your choice.

macOS
Extract the ZIP and place Harmonimo in your Applications folder and Harmonimo.vst3 into /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/.

Windows
Run the installer and Harmonimo should be ready to use.

Smart Voicing is an intelligent system that automatically enriches your chords with tasteful extensions. It considers:

• Key (C Major, D Lydian, and more)
• Harmonic function (tonic, subdominant, dominant)
• Progression context (detects ii-V-I, V-I resolutions, and similar movement)
• Chord degree in the current key
• Genre preferences
• Tension level

When Smart Voicing is on and you have not manually selected extensions, Harmonimo automatically adds 7ths, 9ths, and other extensions that sound musical in context.

The chord panel contains both chord types and chord extensions. Press the chord type and extension you want to try different sounds and voicings.

Chord extensions can be combined to create more chord types.

The chord panel works automatically with Smart Voicings turned on, but will override them if you choose to select manually.

We advise connecting these to MIDI pads for the best control.

Hotkeys
Chords: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Extensions: Q, W, E, R, T

Keyboard
The visual keyboard shows you the current played note, the chord being played, and the available notes in the current selected scale.

Key and genre selector
Select the key, mode, genre, and tension to set up Harmonimo for the style and sound you are after.

Tension controls the spread of the chord to create different feelings, and Auto can modify the value based on the degree or progression context.

Expression controls give you finer control over the expression and voicing of your chords.

Inversion
Rearranges the chord so the lowest note is no longer the root, creating a different sound while keeping the same core notes.

Octave
Changes the octave relative to the played note, useful for smaller keyboards.

Bass
Moves a single bass note relative to the chord. Turn it all the way left to turn it off.

Humanise
Adds subtle random variations to timing, pitch, and velocity for a natural, human-played feel.

Spread
Dynamically adds notes in bass and treble registers to make voicings fuller.

Harmonimo includes three modes for different playing styles:

• Chord Mode: instant chord playback with optional strum
• Arpeggiator Mode: 10 patterns with adjustable rate, gate, and octave span
• Pattern Mode: rhythmic sequencer with preset patterns and custom steps

Chord Mode
Instant chord playback with optional strum, direction, swing, and octave movement.

Arpeggiator Mode
Direction, rate, gate, swing, skip chance, and octave span let you reshape the same harmony into motion.

Pattern Mode
Use built-in rhythmic templates or custom hold steps to turn a chord idea into something more sequenced and percussive.

You can install and use Clayworks Harmonimo like any other VST. If Live does not detect it immediately, rescan your plug-ins from Live's settings.

On macOS, place the VST3 in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/. On Windows, run the installer and keep the default VST3 path unless your setup uses a custom directory.

Mapping Harmonimo's parameters to a MIDI device is a great way to unlock much more expressive play styles. We love having at least inversions and strum mapped to dials.

Because Ableton Live compresses incoming MIDI into a single channel for many plug-in workflows, we support two routes:

Map inside the VST

1. Open Harmonimo inside Ableton Live.
2. Click the settings icon in the top right.

3. Click New Mapping to enter MIDI learn mode.

4. Click each parameter you want to map, then move the matching control on your MIDI device.
5. Press Exit Learn Mode when you are done.

We recommend mapping the chord and extension buttons to pads, and expressive parameters to dials for the most control.

If your pads and keyboard interfere because of crossed channels, consider using Harmonimo Standalone or Ableton Live's own MIDI mapping.

Map with Ableton's built-in MIDI mapping
Expose the device parameters and use CMD + M on Mac or CTRL + M on Windows.

Harmonimo should work with all major DAWs, including:

• Ableton Live 11 and 12
• FL Studio 21+
• Logic Pro 11
• Cubase 13+
• Reaper 7+
• Bitwig Studio 5+
• Studio One 6+
• Pro Tools with VST3 support

If a DAW workflow gives you trouble, you can also use the Harmonimo standalone app to send MIDI through a virtual bus.

Use a virtual MIDI bus to route MIDI from Harmonimo Standalone into your DAW.

Mac

1. Set up a virtual MIDI bus.
2. Open Harmonimo and navigate to Harmonimo > Settings from the menu bar.

3. Set your MIDI output to the virtual bus and click apply.

4. In your DAW, set a track's MIDI input to the same virtual bus.

Play notes in Harmonimo and your DAW receives the chords. This lets you use the standalone app while your DAW handles the sounds.

A virtual MIDI bus lets you send MIDI between apps on the same computer, like routing Harmonimo's output to your DAW.

macOS
Use the built-in IAC Driver:

1. Open Audio MIDI Setup and choose Window > Show MIDI Studio.

2. Double-click the IAC Driver icon.

3. Enable the device and rename the port if you want to keep things tidy.

Windows
Windows does not include a virtual MIDI driver, but free options like loopMIDI work well for this workflow.

You can set up a virtual MIDI network to stream MIDI note, control change, and clock data between computers or devices.

macOS

1. Open Audio MIDI Setup and choose Window > Show MIDI Studio.

2. Choose MIDI Studio > Open MIDI Network Setup.

3. Create and name a new session so it becomes visible to other computers on the same network.

4. Enable the session and allow others to connect.

Windows
Tobias Erichsen's tools are a solid route for network MIDI on Windows, including cross-platform sessions with Macs on the same network.