Fluid Chords 2: Chord Bending Plugin for MPE Synths

The core of Fluid Chords 2 is a chord bending engine. Pitch Innovations says a new voice-leading engine is designed to make bends more musical. Each chord can be set to bend with the Glide Time control, which sets how long the auto-bend takes, and the Glide Curve control, which shapes the feel of the movement from smooth to sharp.

The Strum setting staggers the bend so that each note moves one after another, adding a more natural, expressive motion. The Flow setting determines how chords resolve: notes can move close together, spread further apart, or cross each other in between.

For performance, Split & Play mode assigns chord bends to one key, letting your left hand trigger bends while your right hand plays melody. Up to 16 chords can be mapped chromatically from C1 to C3, so each chord has its own key.

The Harmony Engine generates chord progressions from a key and genre you select, which is useful when you need a starting point for a progression. The Fluid Sound Engine is a hybrid of a wavetable synth and an MPE sampler. You can blend between organic and synthesized layers. It includes a gater, reverb, delay and compressor.

Real-Time Mode lets you bend chords on the fly with a MIDI controller, and Pitch Innovations notes that no sustain pedal is required. The plugin can also host MPE-compatible synths and samplers, so you can route chord bends through your own instruments. Some hosts, including Ableton Live and Omnisphere, require additional setup to work with MPE, according to the compatibility list.