**NEW** Pedal Steel guitar application, PSG Compass Release

[Rodrigo1978]

PSG Compass - Chord and Scale Analysis and Voice Leading Tool, including Chord Deciphering.
Hello everyone, I'd like to introduce PSG Compass, a desktop application for Mac and Windows that I've developed over the last 2 years, to help pedal steel players explore harmony, find chord voicings, and work with chord progressions. What It Does:
Chord Finder - Search through over 350 chord types and see every possible voicing across the fretboard for your specific copedent configuration. Results show fret position, required pedals/levers, and can be sorted by easiness (fewest pedals/levers), fret position, or favorites.

Scale Finder - Browse over 120 scale types with visual fretboard diagrams. The app shows you the harmonic context (which chords can be built from each scale) and the melodic context (which scales work over specific chords). You can engage pedals and levers to see how scale patterns shift across the neck.

Chord Decipher - Input your fret position, engaged pedals/levers, and strings played, and the app identifies what chord you're playing. Useful for transcribing or analyzing voicings you've discovered.

Voice Leader - A tool for building chord progressions and generating voice-led arrangements. You create the progression using a measure grid and radial chord menu based on the Circle of Fifths, then the app calculates efficient voice leading paths based on your directional preferences (up, down, zigzag, or random). This gives you a solid starting point that you refine to match your personal taste - it's a creative partner, not an automatic arranger.

Custom Copedent Creation - This is one of the core features. The app includes default copedents (Buddy Emmons E9, Buddy Emmons C6, and GFI 12-String Universal with and without half-stops), but you can create completely custom setups. Define your own tuning, pedals, levers, splits, and even complex mechanisms like palm levers or double-foot pedals with combination logic to model your exact instrument.

Chord/Scale Relationships - The app analyzes the relationship between chords and scales bidirectionally. Find which scales work over a chord, or which chords can be built from a scale.

Personal Favorites Library - Build your own collection of go-to voicings. You can save up to 5 custom variations of each favorite chord (muting specific strings, etc.) and use these in the Voice Leader to create arrangements that reflect your personal style.

Pricing:
Basic License - $35 USD (plus applicable tax based on your location)
Chord Finder, Scale Finder, Copedent Editor

Pro License - $65 USD (plus applicable tax)
All Basic features plus Chord Decipher and Voice Leader

Upgrade from Basic to Pro - $35 USD (plus applicable tax)

10-Day Trial Available - The trial version has limitations Only 12 chords basic triads in Chord Finder, Only the 7 major scale modes only in Scale Finder, 10 searches in Chord Decipher, 4 measures in Voice Leader, no PDF export), but you can still create custom copedents and explore the core functionality before purchasing.

To see more info and download please go to www.psgcompass.com
I built this because I wanted better tools for understanding chord relationships and voice leading on pedal steel.
Happy to answer any questions about features or functionality.
Rodrigo

[psg_software]

Interesting.

I made a web-based version of something similar a couple of years ago for my final project in my degree. I'm actually in the process of getting my project live again since my free Azure plan has expired.

As part of it I did a "literature review" (review the existing existing software solutions) and conducted interviews to ask people what they would want from such a piece of software. I mostly developed the software for myself, so I had a fair idea of what I wanted to deliver, but it was useful to get feedback before and during development.

I found that the main problem with existing solutions was that they were focused on the mechanics of the instrument (what happens when I press this pedal) rather than focusing on the musical question (how do I find the positions in which I can play a Dm7). To solve that, I focused on the idea of "playable permutations" (i.e. you're not going to go pedals down with A + C or engage all 4 knee levers at once - looks like you cover that with your "combination logic") and showing the whole fretboard in one view to reveal useful positions.

Unsurprisingly - given the relatively small community - I found engagement levels fairly low, which is why I was happy to be mainly motivated by my own needs rather than developing something specifically for the wider community. I would be interested to see what uptake is like for paid versions of the app - especially that of a desktop app in the age of ever-present devices.

To be fair it looks like you've gone all in on the features, so well done on squeezing all of that into one app! The existing apps (including my own) aren't as feature packed as yours.

Do you have plans to release a mobile-friendly app? Have you proven that the app is useful - i.e. have you had positive results for either yourself or testers?

[Rodrigo1978]

Interesting.

I made a web-based version of something similar a couple of years ago for my final project in my degree. I'm actually in the process of getting my project live again since my free Azure plan has expired.

As part of it I did a "literature review" (review the existing existing software solutions) and conducted interviews to ask people what they would want from such a piece of software. I mostly developed the software for myself, so I had a fair idea of what I wanted to deliver, but it was useful to get feedback before and during development.

I found that the main problem with existing solutions was that they were focused on the mechanics of the instrument (what happens when I press this pedal) rather than focusing on the musical question (how do I find the positions in which I can play a Dm7). To solve that, I focused on the idea of "playable permutations" (i.e. you're not going to go pedals down with A + C or engage all 4 knee levers at once - looks like you cover that with your "combination logic") and showing the whole fretboard in one view to reveal useful positions.

Unsurprisingly - given the relatively small community - I found engagement levels fairly low, which is why I was happy to be mainly motivated by my own needs rather than developing something specifically for the wider community. I would be interested to see what uptake is like for paid versions of the app - especially that of a desktop app in the age of ever-present devices.

To be fair it looks like you've gone all in on the features, so well done on squeezing all of that into one app! The existing apps (including my own) aren't as feature packed as yours.

Do you have plans to release a mobile-friendly app? Have you proven that the app is useful - i.e. have you had positive results for either yourself or testers?

Hello,
Thanks for your reply, yes, I started this project similarly, for my own and it grew and grew until what it is now, yes I understand what you say about the combinations, I hard coded the pedals and knee lever combinations to be anatomically correct, meaning pedals can only combine with adjacent pedals, and knee levers can only be engaged one knee one side at a time (except the vertical knee levers), so no LKL+LKR, and no RKL+RKR, but yes LKR+RNL+VR+VL for example, even with their pairs, yes, that took me a while to figure out, then came the splits function, when in 1 string 2 or more any mechanisms can be engaged together, what is the end note result, and the option to include it or exclude it in the calculation of chords, then came the custom mechanisms, to be able to include double feet action for advanced players, or palm benders/levers for, or any other mechanism, yes in those are very customizable, where user not only has to define splits but also define with which other mechanisms (pedals, knee levers, or other mechanisms) can combine, so yes a lot of thought put into it my dear friend.

Yes I am also aware of the small community and low level of engagement, and that this is not a million dollar idea lol, but I really think that I ended up with a good product for the part of the community that has an interest on new ways to approach the instrument with the use of technology.

Thank you for your comments about the features, I have put a lot of work on it, the Scale/chord relationship features, the Chord Decipher and the Voice Leading part of it are the ones I am the most proud of.

I do have plans for a tablet version, iPad/Android Tablet for it, but depending on the selling of the desktop version, the conversion is not that easy and deploy is not that cheap on those platforms, if customer and community engaging is big enough I will put on the work to develop it. Yes, results have been very satisfactory for me and for the players involved in the early versions, Liam Bornovski, Dan Kelisher, Alden Oldfield IV (he is uploading a video to his YT channel about the app soon) and Marco Coblenz form the Steel Guitar Forum have been involved with me from early versions of the app.

I invite you to check out the trial version and check it out, I would love to hear your thoughts about it.

Cheers
Rodrigo