Try out the Chordious 2 Preview for Windows

It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here! Time to reveal the first preview build of Chordious 2.0:

If you haven’t been watching the GitHub commits, I’ve been hard at the grindstone, working on the next version of Chordious. There’s still a few major things that need to be done, but I think I have more than enough done to start getting feedback. The app is amazingly functional for just a few months of work.

Let’s see what the new Chordious has to offer!

What’s already working

• Search for chords with the improved Chord Finder (supports custom chord types!)
• Search for scales with the new Scale Finder (supports custom scale types!)
• Add your own custom instruments and tunings
• Save and maintain your collections of diagrams in the new Diagram Library (incomplete, see below)
• Import your Chordious 1.0 ChordLine documents
• Export your diagrams as SVG, JPG, or PNG images (incomplete, see below)
• Rich Diagram Editor (incomplete, see below)
• Quick and easy installer
• Built-in automatic updates!

What still needs to be done

• Importing and exporting of your settings and custom instruments/tunings/chords/scales
• More ways to manipulate the diagram collections in the Diagram Library (import, export, copy, move, etc.)
• Image export technically works, but I have plans for a richer, friendlier experience
• The Diagram Editor is currently the most incomplete part of Chordious. The Chordious engine now supports a myriad of style options and surfacing them all to the Editor is slow work. Expect lots of updates to this.
• Bug fixes and a dozen other smaller things I can’t remember at the moment

Interested in giving the Chordious 2 Preview a whirl? All you need is .NET 4.5 or greater installed (which should work on Windows Vista SP2 – Windows 10). Sorry Windows XP, Mac OSX, and Linux users, but this version of Chordious won’t work for you. You’ll have to stick with the Classic Chordious and wait until I create a new version built on Mono.

So if you’re running Windows Vista SP2 or later, head on over to the Download page and give the new Chordious a whirl. I ask that you keep the automatic updating enabled so that as I keep on working on it you’ll always have the latest and greatest version of Chordious. (Of course, you always have the option of disabling the updates).

If you have any questions, or run into any issues, please check out the Help page, or please, please, send me an email.

Happy diagramming!

P.S. The only warning I’ll give is that at this point Chordious is still beta software. You’ll notice that technically the version starts with 1.9. Until I release the official 2.0, I reserve the right to change absolutely anything about how Chordious works. I’m confident that it’s stable, but I take no responsibility if you configure everything to your liking, fill the Library with chord diagrams, and then something breaks or you lose your work in the official 2.0. I’m doing my best to prevent things like that from happening, but it’s always a possibility when playing with early software.

P.P.S. I almost forgot, here’s some more screenshots!

P.P.P.S. I’m reserving blog posts for major release announcements, not every incremental update to the preview. Instead I’ve added a changelist to the source if you’re curious what new updates include.

About Jon Thysell

Father. Engineer. Retro games. Ukuleles. Nerd.