The settings dialog contains the following options: click “apply” to operate the profile and re-load the analysis:

Analysis Mode

Choose the fundamental approach for analyzing your music:

• Event-based (recommended): Detects actual musical events like chord attacks and changes. Provides the most musically meaningful analysis.
• Time-segment based: Divides music into regular time intervals (half-beats, beats, or bars) and analyzes all active notes in each segment. Useful for studying harmonic density over time.

Include triads

This setting allows users to include or exclude triads from the analysis. (Because, in drive analysis, triads are considered to have a weaker sense of drive than most seventh chords, users may not wish to include them in the search).

Include anacrusis

In pieces which commonly have an “up-beat”, this option may be useful. It joins the upbeat to the subsequent chordal analysis.

Arpeggio searching

Where chords are commonly constructed as arpeggios (i.e., the notes are not literally all present at the same time), turn this option on.

Neighbour notes

This option records both passing notes in the melody and any neighbour notes that resonate with a recognisable chord in the harmony. Be warned, this can lead to a heavily populated graph.

Remove repeated patterns

In music with significant repetition, it can be desirable to reduce the chord progressions to show patterns only once. For example, when selected, this option will reduce a pattern of events ABABA to ABA. It will, however, allow ABCAB.

Include non-drive events

Where four-pitches that do not produce a common chord are found together, this option registers only the bass note. This is only recorded at moments where there are no other common chords present. Thus, the pitches c, c#, d might yield the result: “no recognisable drive (bass C)”, put the pitches c, c#, d, g, b would still record “G” as a triad.

Sustain Pedal

Simulates piano sustain pedal to create richer harmonic analysis:

• Every Beat: Pedal lifts at each beat boundary
• Strong Beats: Pedal lifts on beat 1 and the halfway point of each bar
• Half Bar: Pedal lifts at bar starts and exact bar midpoints
• Every Bar: Pedal lifts only at bar boundaries
• Auto: Intelligent pedal simulation using harmonic shift detection, mass note endings, and bar boundaries

Duration Filter

Enabled: Excludes notes shorter than the specified duration (32nd notes, 16th notes, 8th notes, or quarter notes) to focus on structurally significant events.
Disabled: Analyzes all notes regardless of duration.

Event Change Sensitivity

Controls how events are grouped and merged:

• Record all variations: Captures every harmonic fluctuation as separate events
• Capture small changes: Detects subtle differences between similar harmonies
• Default: Balanced approach for most musical styles
• Focus on clear changes: Merges similar events, emphasizing significant harmonic shifts
• Show only major shifts: Aggressive grouping, displaying only the most important changes

Drive Strength Configuration

Opens advanced dialog to customize individual chord type strength values (affects priority and color coding) and harmonic priority hierarchies.

Show Grid
The scrollable grid shows detected musical events. Time flows along the x-axis, showing every recorded event; the y-axis represents the circle of fifths. Tetrachords are shown in circles; triads are shown as triangles (upward pointing = major; downward pointing = minor).
The grid has three optional parameters:

Show resolution patterns

This produces arrows where drives move to their related local “tonic”. Assuming no global tonic, the option simply shows patterns of local V-I or II-V progression. It only considers the root, and does not consider the modal quality of the chord.

Colour-code chords

When checked, this codes the chords in terms of their strength. The strongest chords are rendered in black; the weakest in white or light grey. Strength is determined by 8 variables; the inner-workings of this formula can be examined by clicking "show entropy" and exploring the grid contained there. You can change these values in the settings.

Show entropy

This is an advanced feature, following the method of calculating entropy shown in this video. In brief, the feature calculates the tonal “randomness” at any given moment. The strength of each chord within a complex is modelled and returned as a probability score, essentially asking the question: “if any one of these chords is going to resolve; what’s the chances of it being this one?” This is then fed into Claude Shannon’s formula for calculating “entropy” or “information” (measured in bits) and plotted on a line graph beneath the main grid. The individual variables used to calculate the probabilities (strengths) themselves are shown on a list at the foot of the pop-up window table of information.

Save as pdf

This option produces a beautifully rendered pdf version of the scrollable window.

Save / Load
Save as a text file; Load a text file. Useful if you have particular settings that you want to keep, or you want to edit the results yourself later on.

Keyboard
This opens a keyboard window in which users can either (a) click the keys with the mouse, or (b) play live using a midi-device if available. Playing this keyboard does not affect, or draw from, the main analysis; it’s just a place to noodle around and play chords with a display that shows the drives present. Have a play around below!