01
Init
Neutral starting point — Natural Minor, All Genres, default deck. A blank slate to build your own key/scale/genre combination.
Audubon · Plugins
VRY-001
·
Released v1.4
Genre Chord Deck
Veery.
One key, one chord.
A chord-playing instrument. Pick a key, a scale, and a genre — the deck fills with every chord that fits, your parameters shrink it to a playable set, and the survivors are dealt onto your keyboard. Every key you press fires a full chord through the built-in 64-voice synth, out as MIDI, or both.
Under development · v1.4.0
$39
01 — Overview
Play chords like a deck
dealt onto your keys.
Veery is the Audubon family's first instrument. It receives MIDI and plays full chords. Choose KEY, SCALE, and GENRE, and the Harmony Engine assembles every chord that belongs — then your Complexity, Slots, and Fit controls trim that pool to a hand you can actually play. The survivors are dealt one-per-key from a START note, so a single finger triggers a complete, in-key voicing. No music theory required to sound like a record.
A Cthulhu-style chord player: one key, one full chord — always in key, always in genre.
Under the hood sits the Raven Harmony Engine's salvaged library — a 50-chord dictionary, 38 scales with real interval and degree data, and 33 genre chord-sets plus an unfiltered All Genres mode. For every combination the engine deals a fresh deck onto your keyboard: press a mapped key (or click an on-screen pad) and Veery plays that chord through its polysynth, streams it to your DAW as MIDI, or does both at once. Voicing, strumming, and a guidance layer turn the deck into a playable, theory-aware sketchpad.
02 — The Harmony Engine
Fill the deck, deal the hand.
The engine is pure music theory — no audio yet. On any change to KEY, SCALE, GENRE, FIT, COMPLEXITY, SLOTS, DEAL, MAPPING, or START it rebuilds the whole deck on the message thread and hands the audio thread a fresh snapshot. Every emitted chord is guaranteed to fit the scale you chose.
Candidates & Fit
For every scale degree crossed with every chord in the 50-chord dictionary, the engine runs a fit test. Strict keeps only chords where every tone lands in the scale. Borrow allows the root in-scale plus at most one colour tone outside it — that's how brostep and flamenco reach a 7#9 or 7b9 without leaving the key behind.
Genre Filter
Each of the 33 genres carries a characteristic set of chord symbols. Pick Neo Soul and the deck fills with maj9, m11, 7#9 colour; pick UK Drill and it collapses to sparse minor triads and add9s. All Genres applies no filter. A built-in fallback guarantees the deck is never empty for any key / scale / genre combination.
Complexity & Slots
Every chord has a rank — power chords at 0, triads at 1, up through 11ths and altered dominants at 5. The COMPLEXITY knob sets the highest rank admitted, and it's monotone: turning it up only ever adds chords. SLOTS then caps the deck to 12, 24, 36, 48, or 60 keys, keeping the strongest survivors — anything past the cap moves onto the next bank, paged with the ‹ › arrows above the deck, so nothing is ever thrown away.
Deal & Map
DEAL orders the survivors — Cycle round-robins the degrees at rising complexity so adjacent keys walk the scale, Stack groups every chord of degree I, then ii (classic Cthulhu style). MAPPING then lays them onto keys from START: Chromatic uses every semitone, White Keys uses white keys only so you never hit a blank pad.
03 — Voicing & Strum
Shape every chord as it fires.
Voicing is applied at trigger time, not baked into the deck — so you can reshape how chords sound without rebuilding a thing. Incoming velocity carries to every note of the chord.
A — Register
Octave, Invert & Low Root
OCTAVE (−2..+2) transposes the whole chord. INVERT (−3..+3) rotates chord tones — positive lifts the lowest notes up an octave. LOW ROOT drops the chord's root an octave below everything else for an 808-friendly foundation. Together they place a chord exactly where it sits best in the arrangement.
B — Spread
Spread
SPREAD (0–100%) opens the voicing deterministically — it progressively lifts the second-from-top, then fourth-from-top tones up an octave, a drop-2 then drop-2&4 style. At 0% the chord is close and compact; higher settings give a wide, pianistic open voicing without changing which notes are played.
C — Strum
Strum
STRUM (0–60 ms) staggers chord onsets low-to-high through a sample-accurate scheduler — events can land in later processing blocks for a natural, guitar-like roll. Release is never strummed, so chords cut cleanly. At 0 ms every note fires together as a block.
D — Latch
Latch
The LATCH pill on the deck turns a tap into a toggle: press a pad or key once and the chord sustains, press again to release. Hold a chord hands-free while you reach for SOUND, TONE or INVERT, or just sit on it and read the glow — built for sustained-pad genres and for anyone working mouse-only. Gliding across the keyboard strip and dragging a pad out as MIDI both stay momentary on purpose, so an export gesture never leaves a chord stuck on.
04 — Guidance
Follow the glow to the right chord.
The guidance layer only marks pads — it never plays, orders, or writes notes for you. Someone with no theory training can stumble into progressions that sound like records; a trained player gets a fast, theory-aware sketchpad. Changing a guide never rebuilds the deck.
A — Progressions
14 Progression Guides
The PROG selector holds 14 classic degree patterns — Pop Axis 1-5-6-4, Lament 6-4-1-5, Doo-Wop 1-6-4-5, 2-5-1 Jazz, House Vamp, Synthwave 6-5-4-5, EDM Anthem 1-6-3-7, Trap Lift, Epic Minor, Andalusian and more. They're positional, so they read correctly in any key, scale, or genre. Member pads wear a step badge; every other pad dims but stays playable.
B — Good-Next
Good-Next Glow
After each chord you play, the pads that "sound right next" breathe aqua. With a progression active they're the next step(s) in the loop, wrapping at the end — just follow the breadcrumbs. With no guide, a functional-harmony flow table lights the tasteful successors (I → IV V vi ii, V → I vi IV, and so on) for free-roaming with taste. Running underneath both is the gold ⌂ home pad — a permanent landmark on the tonic that never dims, and pulses when the chord you just played is pulling back to it, so you always know where a phrase can land.
C — Voice Lead
Voice Lead
Turn on VOICE LEAD and, at trigger time, the engine auditions every inversion and keeps the one whose centre of pitch lands closest to the chord you played before — consecutive chords stop leaping octaves and start sounding like a real player. Manual INVERT is ignored (and greyed) while it's on; the first chord after silence uses the plain voicing.
05 — Polysynth & Output
Sound out of the box, MIDI when you want it.
MODE routes every triggered chord to the built-in synth, straight out as MIDI, or both at once. It defaults to Synth so Veery makes sound the moment you load it — no routing required.
A — Synth
64-Voice Polysynth
A gate-based polysynth with 64 voices and six sounds — Saw, Piano, Pad, Pluck, Sub, and Strings — each rebuilt from the Raven recipes with its own ADSR and a one-pole low-pass whose cutoff follows the TONE knob. Saw, Pad, and Strings get a subtle dual-oscillator detune. Fixed per-voice gain with a soft-clip guard means no pumping as chords stack. Sustain pedal (CC64) is held.
B — MIDI Out
Reference-Counted MIDI
In MIDI Out or Both mode, chord notes are emitted on the chosen CHANNEL (1–16). Note-offs are reference-counted per pitch, so two held keys sharing a note never cut each other off. CCs, pitch bend, and aftertouch pass through. THRU optionally lets unmapped incoming notes pass instead of being dropped.
C — One Path
Pads Drive Everything
The on-screen pads and the mini piano strip inject presses through the exact same lock-free path as hardware MIDI — so clicking a pad also drives the MIDI output. Rebuild the deck, change channel, or reset transport while notes are held and Veery fast-releases its voices and flushes matching note-offs, so nothing hangs.
06 — Capture & Export
Played it once? It's already MIDI.
New in v1.2 — every chord you trigger is remembered, named, and one drag away from living in your project. No recording pass, no piano-roll transcription: the exact voicing that sounded is the file you drop.
A — Drag a Pad
Any Pad Is a MIDI File
Press a pad and it plays; drag off the pad and it exports. The chord leaves as a standard .mid any DAW accepts — voiced exactly as it would sound right now (Octave, Invert or Voice Lead's pick, Spread, Low Root), one 4/4 bar at your session tempo, with your STRUM roll baked into the note timing.
B — The Played Lane
Your Last 8 Chords, Captured
Every chord you actually trigger lands in the PLAYED lane as a chip — consecutive repeats collapse, so a jam reads back as a progression. Hold a chip to audition the exact voicing that was recorded; drag it out for that one chord, or grab the ☰ MIDI grip to drag the whole lane as one progression, one chord per bar at host tempo. SAVE writes the same file through a dialog; CLEAR starts a new take.
C — See the Theory
Chord Inspector & Scale Lens
The keys panel reads out what just sounded — symbol, the inversion that was actually applied (including Voice Lead's auto pick), and the exact pitches. The keyboard tints every in-scale key, marks the roots, and brightens the precise notes sounding right now — spin INVERT while holding a pad and watch the notes physically walk. The spell line writes your key out in full (C Natural Major · C D E F G A B), and INVERT reads ROOT / 1ST / 2ND / 3RD, the way players say it.
07 — Controls
Every parameter, one page.
Twenty-four parameters across the deck, voicing, guidance, and output. Everything the engine reads is here — nothing is computed in the UI; the C++ engine is the single source of truth.
Key
C – B · default C
The root of the scale. Twelve choices, one per pitch class. Sets the tonal centre the whole deck is built around.
Scale
38 scales · default Natural Minor
From Major and the seven modes through Harmonic/Melodic Minor, pentatonics, Blues, the diminished and whole-tone families, exotic and world scales, out to Bebop. Every deck chord fits the chosen scale.
Genre
All Genres + 33 · default All Genres
Filters the deck to a style's characteristic chord vocabulary. All Genres applies no filter and shows every fitting chord.
Fit
Strict / Borrow · default Strict
Strict: every chord tone in the scale. Borrow: root in-scale plus at most one colour tone outside, unlocking altered dominants and idiomatic tension.
Complexity
0 – 100% · default 55%
Sets the highest chord rank admitted, from dyads and triads up to 11ths, 13ths, and altered chords. Monotone — raising it only ever adds chords to the deck.
Slots
12/24/36/48/60 · default 24
Caps how many chords are dealt onto keys. Fewer slots = a tight, focused hand; more slots = a wider palette across the keyboard.
Bank
page 1 of N · default 1
When more chords survive the filters than Slots allows, the overflow is paged into banks. Step through them with the ‹ › arrows above the deck; the bar hides itself when everything fits on one page.
Deal
Cycle / Stack · default Cycle
Cycle round-robins degrees at rising complexity so adjacent keys walk the scale. Stack groups all chords per degree — the classic Cthulhu layout.
Mapping
Chromatic / White Keys · default Chromatic
Chromatic deals onto every semitone. White Keys deals onto white keys only, so you can play without ever hitting an unmapped pad.
Start Key
12 – 84 · default 36 (C2)
The lowest MIDI note the deck is dealt from. Keys above 127 are dropped. Move it to place the deck where your controller or clips live.
Progression
Off + 14 · default Off
Overlays a positional degree pattern as pad badges and drives the good-next glow. Display-only — never rebuilds the deck or writes notes.
Octave
−2 .. +2 · default 0
Transposes the whole triggered chord by whole octaves.
Invert
−3 .. +3 · default 0
Rotates chord tones; positive values lift the lowest notes up an octave. Ignored (and greyed) while Voice Lead is on.
Voice Lead
On / Off · default Off
Auto-picks the inversion whose centroid sits closest to the previous chord, for smooth, player-like voice motion.
Spread
0 – 100% · default 0%
Deterministic open voicing — progressively lifts inner tones an octave for a drop-2, then drop-2&4 style.
Low Root
On / Off · default Off
Adds the chord's root an octave below the voicing — an 808-friendly bass anchor.
Strum
0 – 60 ms · default 0
Sample-accurate low-to-high onset stagger. Release is never strummed. 0 ms fires the whole chord as a block.
Latch
On / Off · default Off
Turns a tap into a toggle — a pad or key press sustains the chord until you press it again. Keyboard-strip glides and drag-to-export gestures stay momentary so they never leave a chord stuck on.
Mode
Synth / MIDI Out / Both · default Synth
Routes triggered chords to the internal synth, out as MIDI, or both simultaneously.
MIDI Channel
1 – 16 · default 1
The channel chord notes are emitted on in MIDI Out and Both modes.
MIDI Thru
On / Off · default Off
When on, unmapped incoming notes pass through instead of being dropped.
Sound
6 sounds · default Pad
Chooses the synth voice: Saw, Piano, Pad, Pluck, Sub, or Strings — each with its own envelope and character.
Tone
0 – 100% · default 70%
Scales the one-pole low-pass cutoff on every voice — darker to brighter across all six sounds.
Level
−24 .. +6 dB · default 0 dB
Output level of the internal synth. MIDI output is unaffected.
08 — Library
50 chords, 39 scales, 34 genres.
The salvaged Raven Harmony Engine library, verified against the shipping code. Every genre carries its own characteristic chord vocabulary; every scale carries real interval and degree data the fit test reads directly.
Genres — 34
Style Chord-Sets
Neo Soul · Lo-Fi Hip Hop · Jazz / Fusion · Gospel · Soul / Funk · Modern R&B · Dark Trap · Bossa Nova · Melodic Techno · Deep House · Progressive House · Tech House · Future Bass · Trance · Ambient · Drum & Bass · Liquid DnB · Afro House · Hyperpop · Brostep / Riddim · Melodic Dubstep · UK Bassline · UK Garage · Salsa / Son · Flamenco · Samba · Reggaeton · UK Drill · Synthwave · Acid House · Downtempo · Psytrance · Amapiano — plus All Genres for no filter.
Chords — 50
The Dictionary
From power chords and triads through sus, 6ths, quartal/quintal, the full seventh family, extended 9/11/13 voicings, and altered dominants (7b9, 7#9, 7b5, 7#5, 7#11, 7b13) out to specialist colours like maj9#11, m6/9, m7add11, and dimMaj7 — each placed into the genre sets where it's idiomatic.
Scales — 39
Modes & Beyond
Major · Natural Minor · Dorian · Phrygian · Lydian · Mixolydian · Locrian · Harmonic & Melodic Minor · Pentatonic Major/Minor · Blues · Whole Tone · Diminished · Lydian & Phrygian Dominant · Super Locrian · Lydian Aug · Dorian ♭2 · Half-Whole & Whole-Half Dim · Harmonic Major · Hungarian Minor · Double Harmonic · Hirajoshi · Iwato · In · Insen · Yo · Persian · Enigmatic · Prometheus · Tritone · Neapolitan Major/Minor · Spanish Phrygian · Bebop Major/Dominant — plus All Notes, the full chromatic: every chord in the dictionary becomes reachable, with flat-based numerals on the pads.
Progressions — 14
Guide Patterns
Pop Axis 1-5-6-4 · Lament 6-4-1-5 · Doo-Wop 1-6-4-5 · Anthem 4-5-1-6 · Jazz 2-5-1 · Rock & Rap 1-4-5 · House Vamp 1-4 · Synthwave 6-5-4-5 · EDM Anthem 1-6-3-7 · Festival 1-7-6-7 · Trap Lift 1-6-7 · Epic Minor 1-4-6-5 · Melodic Dub 1-3-7-6 · Andalusian 1-7-6-5.
09 — Factory Presets
Thirteen genre postcards.
Most presets ship with a matching progression guide and Voice Lead pre-armed, so the very first pad you click already steers you toward a musical next move.
02
Dusk Writer
Lush m9 pad territory with a Melodic Dub guide — the plugin's namesake twilight sound. Wide, songwriterly, and immediately in-key.
03
Neo Keys
Neo-soul extended voicings over a 2-5-1 guide. Rich sevenths and ninths that sit under vocals or Rhodes.
04
Brostep Dark
Sparse, aggressive minor and altered colour with a Trap Lift guide. Built for heavy, tension-forward drops.
05
Deep House Rhodes
Warm maj7/m9 house vocabulary over a House Vamp two-chord shuttle. Endlessly loopable.
06
Trance Anthem
Big, bright mainstage motion on an EDM Anthem 1-6-3-7 guide. Made for supersaw stacks and festival leads.
07
Lo-Fi Loops
Dusty maj7/m7 lo-fi hip-hop colour on a 2-5-1 guide. Instant boom-bap chord beds.
08
Future Bass Stack
Bright add9/sus supersaw stacks dealt in Stack order over a Pop Axis guide. The signature future-bass chord move.
09
Drill Sparse
Minimal minor triads and add9s with an Andalusian cadence guide. Dark, spacious UK-drill harmony.
10
Ambient Drift
Open sus, quartal, and add9 textures with no rigid guide — free-roam with the functional-harmony glow. Endless pad beds.
11
Indie Anthem
Bright major triads and add9s on a Doo-Wop 1-6-4-5 guide. Nostalgic, radio-ready pop motion.
12
Synthwave Nights
Retrowave triads and sus colours over a 6-5-4-5 loop. Neon, driving, unmistakably 80s.
13
Liquid Roller
Smooth m9/maj9 liquid DnB voicings on a Melodic Dub guide. Rolling, emotive, dancefloor-ready.
10 — Workflow
How to play it.
01
Load it as an instrument. Veery is a VST3 instrument, not an insert effect. Add it to a MIDI/instrument track and route your keyboard to it. It starts in Synth mode, so it makes sound immediately with no extra routing. To use it as a chord generator for another synth, switch Mode to MIDI Out or Both.
02
Set key, scale, and genre. Pick your KEY and SCALE, then choose a GENRE to shape the chord vocabulary — or leave it on All Genres to see everything that fits. The deck rebuilds instantly and every pad shows its symbol, name, and roman-numeral degree.
03
Shape the hand. Use COMPLEXITY to admit richer chords, SLOTS to cap how many land on your keys, and FIT (Strict/Borrow) to allow borrowed colour tones. DEAL and MAPPING decide how the survivors sit on the keyboard — White Keys mapping keeps every playable key mapped.
04
Play from START. Press a mapped key or click an on-screen pad — Veery fires the full chord. Move START to place the deck under your controller. Watch the mini piano light up mapped keys in aqua and held keys in orchid. Turn on LATCH and a single tap sustains the chord until you tap again — handy for holding a pad while you reach for other controls.
05
Turn on the guides. Choose a PROG pattern to badge the pads and light the good-next glow, or leave PROG off and follow the functional-harmony flow. The gold ⌂ pad marks home — where a phrase resolves — and pulses when the chord you just played is pulling back to it. Arm VOICE LEAD for smooth, player-like transitions. None of this rebuilds the deck — it just steers you.
06
Voice and print. Dial OCTAVE, INVERT, SPREAD, and LOW ROOT to place the chord in the arrangement; add STRUM for a natural roll. Pick a SOUND and set TONE and LEVEL for the internal synth — or send the chords out as MIDI to your favourite instrument and record them in.
07
Drag it into the project. Jam until it sounds right — your last 8 chords sit in the PLAYED lane. Hold a chip to hear it again, drag a chip (or any pad) into your DAW for one chord, or drag the ☰ MIDI grip to drop the whole progression as a .mid, one chord per bar at your session tempo. SAVE does the same through a file dialog.
11 — Specifications
Everything, on one page.
Format
VST3 Instrument (Synth) · Windows 10 / 11 · macOS 10.13+ (Universal — Apple Silicon & Intel) · 64-bit
MIDI
MIDI input (played) + MIDI output (chord notes on channel 1–16, reference-counted note-offs)
Synth
Gate-based polysynth · 64 voices · 6 sounds (Saw / Piano / Pad / Pluck / Sub / Strings) · CC64 sustain
Chord library
50-chord dictionary · 39 scales (incl. chromatic All Notes) · 33 genre chord-sets + All Genres · 14 progression guides
Deck size
12 / 24 / 36 / 48 / 60 slots · overflow paged across banks · dealt Cycle or Stack · Chromatic or White-Keys mapping from START (12–84)
Voicing
Octave −2..+2 · Invert −3..+3 · Voice Lead · Spread 0–100% · Low Root · Strum 0–60 ms (sample-accurate) · Latch
Fit / Complexity
Strict / Borrow · Complexity 0–100% (monotone rank gate)
Output
Mode Synth / MIDI Out / Both · Tone 0–100% · Level −24..+6 dB · MIDI Thru toggle
MIDI export
Drag-out from any pad or the PLAYED lane (last 8 chords) · Standard MIDI File format 0, 960 PPQ, host tempo, one 4/4 bar per chord, strum baked in · SAVE dialog fallback
Latency
Zero added latency (Strum optionally staggers chord onsets by up to 60 ms)
Presets
13 factory · user presets saved to Documents
Version
1.4.0
12 — Fine Print
Documentation.
Operating System
Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) — the editor uses WebView2, which is built into Windows 11 and most current Windows 10 installs. macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later — one Universal build runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
DAW
Any VST3-compatible host — Ableton Live, FL Studio, Bitwig, Reaper, Studio One, Cubase. Load on an instrument / MIDI track and route your keyboard to it. VST3 only — Logic Pro and GarageBand load Audio Units, not VST3, so they are not supported.
MIDI Routing
Plays its own 64-voice synth out of the box. To drive other instruments, set Mode to MIDI Out or Both and point that instrument at Veery's MIDI output — the User Guide has step-by-step routing for Ableton Live, FL Studio, Reaper, Bitwig, Studio One and Cubase. Or skip routing entirely and drag the PLAYED lane straight onto the other instrument's track as MIDI.
Activation
No iLok, no dongle, no always-on connection. Veery activates once with the serial number from your Members Area — type it in, or drag the
.lic file onto the activation window. Activation is stored on the machine, so it only happens the first time. Your download and serial stay accessible in your Members Area. Full steps are in the User Guide.Personal & Commercial Use
One licence covers all your personal and commercial productions. No royalties, no project restrictions.
Terms & Refunds
See the Terms of Service and Refund Policy for full details.
No Redistribution
You may not resell or redistribute the plugin binary. Source code is not included.
v1.4.0 — Update check, from the logo
The Audubon Audio wordmark in Veery’s header is now a button. Click it and Veery asks audubonaudio.com one question — which build is current — then shows that number beside the one you are running, with a link straight to the members area if there is something newer and a plain “you have the current version” if there is not. If it cannot reach us it says so rather than claiming you are up to date. This is the only moment Veery touches the internet, it happens only on that click, and nothing about you goes with it — no serial, no licence, no machine id, not even your version or operating system. The comparison happens on your own machine.
v1.3.0 — Latch & Guided Intro
LATCH: tap a pad or key to sustain the chord, tap again to release — hold a chord hands-free while you reach for SOUND, TONE or INVERT, or sit on it and read the glow. The keyboard-strip glide and drag-to-export gestures deliberately stay momentary so they never leave a chord latched. First-run intro card: a one-time overlay explaining how to read the deck (pads, the glow and the gold home pad, progressions, the PLAYED lane, LATCH), dismissable and re-openable anytime from the ? in the header. No window growth — still 960×820.
v1.2.0 — Capture & Drag-Out
MIDI drag-out: drag any pad, a PLAYED-lane chip, or the whole lane into the DAW as a standard .mid — current voicing, host tempo, strum baked in, one chord per bar; SAVE dialog fallback. PLAYED capture lane: last 8 triggered chords as chips, hold to audition the exact recorded voicing. Chord inspector: symbol, applied inversion (incl. Voice Lead's pick), exact pitches. Scale lens: in-scale key tint, root markers, key spelled out, precise sounding notes lit on the keyboard. Named inversions (ROOT/1ST/2ND/3RD). Window grows to 960×820 for the lane row.
v1.0.0 — First Release
Audubon's first instrument. Raven Harmony Engine library: 50-chord dictionary, 39 scales including the chromatic All Notes, 33 genre chord-sets + All Genres. Deck builder with Strict/Borrow fit, monotone Complexity gate, 12–60 slots with bank paging and same-sound dedup, Cycle/Stack deal, Chromatic/White-Keys mapping from START. Voicing: Octave, Invert, Voice Lead, Spread, Low Root, sample-accurate Strum. Guidance: 14 progression guides, good-next glow, functional-harmony flow. 64-voice polysynth with 6 sounds, Tone and Level; reference-counted MIDI output on channels 1–16 with Thru. 13 factory presets. WebView2 UI.
Full User Guide
A step-by-step guide covering activation, the deck setup and bank paging, every voicing and guidance control, Latch, presets, the synth and MIDI output, the PLAYED lane and MIDI drag-out, and four workflow recipes (one-finger songwriting, MIDI chord generator, genre exploration, and pad layering).
Open User Guide →