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Chordlight 88 $24 $48

New Version 2.0 · free for everyone who owns 1.x

Chordlight 88

See every chord you play, then record it and make the lesson video in one step.

Chordlight 88 sits beside any MIDI keyboard and shows the chord name, the Nashville number and the sol-fa for whatever your hands are playing, with all 88 keys lit on screen. Version 2.0 records the take and draws a 1080p lesson clip for you.

Watch it in 42 seconds

$24 early bird price on 2.0, full price $48 · Version 2.0.8 on Windows, 2.0.7 on Mac · one licence for two computers

Listen · 1 min 20 s · Stephen on what Chordlight 88 does, and what is new in 2.0.

A pianist plays a digital piano while Chordlight 88 on the monitor above names the chord F major 9 and lights the keys he is holding

New in 2.0.6 and 2.0.7

Three Instruments, and Setup in Tabs

A free update for everyone who owns Chordlight 88. Open Amanorsac Hub on Windows or Mac and it will offer it to you.

Windows: Video No Longer Restarts the Window

New in 2.0.7. On some graphics drivers, pressing Video took the window down and reloaded it. Chordlight now asks for the screen again when it records the computer's sound, as it did before 2.0.4. If a computer ever does it again, it happens only once: Chordlight switches that clip to Inputs and tells you.

Setup, in Four Tabs

Play, Sound, Clip and Look. Everything that was in the long drawer and its Advanced row is still there, sorted into four tabs, and Chordlight remembers which one you were on.

Attack and Release, by Hand

Under Setup › Sound. Release sets how long a note takes to fall silent after you lift the key; wind up the attack and the note fades in, which is how you get a swell out of a piano. The built-in instruments also hold about a third longer than before.

Built-In Sound Only

Keyboard input can now be switched off, so a clip made with Grand, SP or EP carries just the instrument and nothing of the room.

Grand 1, SP Natural and Soft EP 1

Amanorsac Studio's own sampled instruments, chosen on the title bar beside the note labels: Own, Grand, SP or EP. They play from your keyboard and go into every clip, WAV and Chordlight file, with the pedal, 96 voices and a limiter so big chords never distort. On a Mac the Grand is on from the first run. On Windows the sound starts off, because a DAW is usually making the sound there.

Mac: Video No Longer Blanks the Window

Video works the same on both systems, because Chordlight draws its own frames. On a Mac a clip gets its sound from the built-in instruments and your audio inputs, such as your keyboard's line out or a microphone through an interface. The one sound source that is Windows-only for now is System, which records whatever else the computer is playing, such as your DAW. It comes to the Mac in 2.1, and the crash it caused is gone.

If the Window Fails, It Comes Back

Should the recorder or the encoder ever fail, the window reloads itself with a message instead of staying blank, and writes a small log you can send in from About › Logs.

The Chord Display That Teaches While You Play

Chordlight 88 is a desktop app for Windows and Mac that reads the MIDI coming from your keyboard and shows you exactly what you played, the moment you play it. You get the chord name, the Nashville number in the key of the song, the Roman numeral and the sol-fa syllable, with every note lit on a full 88 key stage. Play harder and the keys glow brighter. Hold the pedal and the ringing notes stay lit.

That makes it useful in a lot of places. A piano teacher can put it on a second screen so students see the chord and the number appear as each one is played. A worship keys player can read numbers in the key of the song from a small pop-out window. And anyone filming keyboard lessons gets clean footage of the keys and the chords without a camera hanging over their hands.

Version 2.0 goes further. Press Rec and Chordlight saves the take. Press Video and it draws the lesson clip itself. If you already own Chordlight 88, the update is free in Amanorsac Hub and your key carries over.

Chordlight 88 with six notes lit across the 88 key stage, named Fmaj9, numbered 4maj9 in the key of C, with IVmaj9 and Fa underneath
Six notes down. The chord reads Fmaj9, the number reads 4maj9 in the key of C, and the keys are lit by how hard each one was played.
88keys lit as you play, brighter the harder you play them
3ways to read every chord: letters, numbers and sol-fa
1080plesson video drawn by the app, or 4K at Best quality
2computers on one licence, moved by you whenever you like

New in 2.0

Record the Take and Make the Video

Until now a chord display could only show you what was happening. Chordlight 88 version 2.0 keeps it. Press Rec and the take is saved as a standard MIDI file, as 24 bit WAV audio, or as a .chordlight file that reopens later with the lights and the sound in sync. If you forgot to press anything, the Keep button rescues the last five minutes you played.

Press Video and Chordlight makes a finished lesson clip ready for YouTube, WhatsApp or a course platform. Here is the whole thing in 42 seconds.

The live readout, the Advanced panel, and a clip the app drew itself.
Chordlight 88 playing a recorded take back, with the transport and timeline along the bottom

Three Ways to Save What You Played

MIDI gives you a standard .mid file of exactly what you played, ready to drop into your DAW or your notation program.

WAV records 24 bit, 48 kHz audio from the keyboard and your microphone, mixed the way you set them.

.chordlight keeps the MIDI, the audio and the title together in one small file. Send it to a student and when they open it in Chordlight they see the lights and hear the audio exactly as you played it.

A frame of a recorded Chordlight clip: the chord C and the number 1 on readout plates over the lit keys, with the lesson title above

Video

A Lesson Video Drawn by the App

Chordlight does not record your screen. It renders every frame itself at 1080p, or 4K at Best quality, so the clip looks clean no matter what else is open on your computer. Your lesson title sits at the top, the readout plates keep the chord readable, and the last four chords climb away from the keys as you play.

Your audio inputs and the built-in instrument are mixed in on both systems, and on Windows the sound your computer is playing too. You get an MP4 where your system supports it and WebM where it does not, and the app tells you which.

A Chordlight clip with a large lesson title over a picture backdrop

Your Title and Backdrop

Set the lesson title in the font, size and colour you want. Put a picture, a looping video or a tint behind it, or use chroma green or blue when the editing happens somewhere else.

Three clip layouts with the keys at the top, the middle and the bottom of the frame

Keys Where You Need Them

Choose from three layouts so the keys sit at the top, the middle or the bottom of the frame. The readout plate keeps every chord name easy to read over any backdrop.

The Clip Preview panel showing the clip as it will be recorded, next to the Advanced settings

Live Clip Preview

The Clip Preview panel shows the video exactly as it will be recorded while you set it up. That way the first take is usually the one you keep.

Talk Over the Keys

Chordlight has a microphone input next to the keyboard input, each with its own meter. When you speak, the keys automatically duck under your voice and come back up when you stop, so a lesson sounds like a lesson without any editing. There is also an audio offset to line up the sound when you use Bluetooth or a slow USB interface.

Two keyboard players side by side on a church stage during rehearsal, wearing in-ear monitors

MIDI

It Shares Your Keyboard

Most chord display apps on Windows grab the MIDI port for themselves. The moment they open, Kontakt goes quiet, your DAW stops receiving or the keyboard shows up as busy. So the tool that was meant to help you play stops you playing.

Chordlight 88 never opens a port exclusively. It listens alongside everything else, so your DAW, your sampler and Chordlight all hear the same keyboard at the same time. It can listen to every input at once, virtual cables show up like hardware, and a keyboard plugged in halfway through a session appears without a restart.

Readouts

Letters, Numbers and Sol-fa

Most chord displays only name chords in letters. But a huge part of the keyboard world reads music differently. Worship and gospel players, choirs and a lot of music teachers work in numbers and in sol-fa, so Chordlight reads all three at the same time from the same hands. Switch between them with one click, or show all three at once in pop-out windows.

Chordlight 88 in sol-fa mode: the key labels read Do, Mi, So and Ti, and the readout reads Do maj7 for a Cmaj7 in the key of C
Sol-fa mode. A Cmaj7 in the key of C reads Do maj7, and a triad on the fourth reads Fa major.

Set the Key Once

Tell Chordlight the key of the song and every chord after that reads as a number in that key. Fmaj9 in C reads 4maj9, with the Roman numeral IVmaj9 underneath. Spelling follows the key, or you can force sharps or flats.

The Full Sol-fa Ladder

Chordlight uses all twelve syllables, Do Di Re Mo Mi Fa Fi So Si La Ta Ti, so chromatic notes get their proper names and not just the seven of the major scale.

Letters When You Want Them

The letter readout shows the root, the chord quality, any slash bass and the notes that are sounding, with the bass note marked on the keybed so you can see the inversion.

Two Chordlight keybeds with the same chord played soft and hard: the harder notes glow brighter

The Stage

All 88 Keys, Lit by Your Touch

The lighting follows velocity, so a note played hard reads brighter than a note played soft. Students can see the shape of a voicing and the weight behind it at the same time.

Note labels sit above the keys, and you choose the key size and the accent colour.

Chordlight 88 with the sustain pedal down: the held notes stay lit and the readout counts four ringing

The Pedal Is Shown Too

Put the sustain pedal down and every note that is still ringing stays lit, while the readout counts them. That makes it easy to show a student why a passage sounds muddy, or how a pianist is building a sound across the pedal.

Built for a Camera

Windows That Stay Where You Put Them

The chord, the number and the keys can each detach into their own always on top window, so you can put them on a second screen, a projector or a stream overlay, then dock each one back when you are done. The readout area never changes size, so a two letter chord and a nine letter chord take up the same space and a recording never jumps when the chord changes.

Chordlight 88 with the keys stretched to the full height of the window and the readouts above
Key height is up to you, from a thin strip along the bottom of a stream to a keybed that fills a projector screen.
The Setup drawer of Chordlight 88 with the Advanced section open: inputs, mix strips, quality, title, backdrop and plate

Simple Until You Need More

Setup holds the everyday controls: the MIDI input and channel, the accent colour and the key size. Open Advanced and you get everything a clip needs, including the vocal input and ducking, the video quality, the clip title and font, the chord trail, the backdrop, the readout plate and the mix.

There are six accent colours, light and dark themes, and your own tint over any backdrop.

A pianist's hands on a grand piano under a single warm light, a choir in shadow behind

Made for the People Who Play

Chordlight was built on a church stage and in a teaching room, by a keys player who needed it.

Piano Teachers

Students watch the chord and the number appear as you play, and the recorded clip becomes the lesson hand-out.

Worship and Gigging Keys

Read Nashville numbers in the key of the song from a second screen or a small pop-out window.

Content Creators

Get a clean, branded clip of the keys and the chords with your picture or video behind it, or chroma green for the edit.

Self-Taught Players

Hear a voicing you like and see what it is called, in letters, numbers or the sol-fa you learned with.

Private by Design

There is no account inside the app, no analytics and no telemetry. The only time Chordlight talks to the internet is to activate your licence and to check in now and then, and it keeps working offline for 30 days between check-ins. It reads your MIDI input and your microphone and nothing else on your computer.

Tech Specs

Platforms

Windows 10 and 11 (x64).

macOS 12 and later, Apple silicon and Intel.

Format

Standalone desktop application. Windows: a zip with the installer inside. macOS: a zip with the disk image inside. Not a plug-in.

Range

88 keys, A0 to C8, with velocity sensitive lighting and sustain shown.

MIDI Input

Non-exclusive input on every port including virtual cables. One input or all at once, per channel or omni, hot plug.

Readouts

Chord name, Nashville number, Roman numeral, sol-fa, note list and chord quality.

Key Centre

Set once and numbers and spelling follow. Auto spelling from the key, or force sharps or flats.

Recording

MIDI (.mid), 24 bit 48 kHz WAV and .chordlight takes. Keep rescues the last five minutes.

Video

1080p drawn by the app, 4K at Best. Title, font, size and colour. Keys top, middle or bottom. Readout plate, chord trail, picture or looping video backdrop, chroma green or blue. MP4 where available, otherwise WebM.

Sound

Three built-in sampled instruments: Grand 1, SP Natural and Soft EP 1. Sustain pedal, 96 voices, limiter, Sound level. Adds about 110 MB.

Mix

Keyboard and vocal inputs with meters, automatic ducking, and an audio offset for Bluetooth or USB latency.

Windows

Main window plus three detachable always on top pop-outs.

Appearance

Light and dark, six accents, your own tint over a backdrop, adjustable key height.

Licence

One key for two computers, moved yourself with Deactivate this device. Works offline for 30 days between check-ins.

Network

Two licence calls to amanorsac.studio. No account in the app, no analytics, no telemetry.

Updates

Through Amanorsac Hub. Version 2.0 is free for everyone who owns 1.x.

Questions

Does it work with my keyboard?
Any keyboard or controller that sends MIDI over USB or Bluetooth will work, including digital pianos. Chordlight listens to all inputs by default.
Does it make sound?
Yes, since 2.0.6. It has three instruments of its own: Grand 1, SP Natural and Soft EP 1, chosen on the title bar, with a Sound level control. You can also leave the sound off and let your keyboard or your DAW make it, which is how it starts on Windows.
Does it listen to audio to work out the chords?
No, it reads MIDI. The microphone input is for your voice-over, not for chord detection.
What is a .chordlight file?
A single file that holds a take: the MIDI, the audio and the lesson title. Anyone with Chordlight can open it and see the lights and hear the audio together.
Does it record my screen?
No. Chordlight draws the video itself at 1080p, or 4K at Best quality, so it looks the same whatever your other windows are doing. Your audio inputs and the built-in instrument are mixed in on both systems. On Windows the sound your computer is playing, such as your DAW, can be mixed in too; that comes to the Mac in 2.1.
Can I use it on two computers?
Yes. One licence key covers two computers. Deactivate this device in the About screen frees a seat so you can move it yourself.
Does it need the internet?
Only to activate and to check in now and then. It keeps working offline for 30 days between check-ins.
Is there a plug-in or a phone version?
No. Chordlight 88 is a standalone desktop app for Windows and macOS. It is not a VST3 or AU plug-in, and it is not on iOS or Android.
Will it really share any keyboard?
Almost any. The one exception is a controller whose maker ships an exclusive access driver, which nothing can share. In that case route it through loopMIDI and everything after that works normally.
A pianist playing with Chordlight 88 on the screen

Chordlight 88

$24 $48

Early bird price on version 2.0, full price $48 after. One licence for two computers, installed and updated through Amanorsac Hub. Free for everyone who already owns 1.x.

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