Hello!
I purchased Scaler 2 and it’s really great.
But I wanted to have one more tool to help me, mainly during the moments when I am creating melodies. I wanted one more “composing assistant”, let’s say.
So I thought on both InstaComposer 2 and Melody Sauce 2. But I am wondering what’s the best between both.
Some of you own some of the above plugins and have thoughts, ideas and impressions to share? Also about the usage of them together with Scaler 2?
Thanks in advance.
You can also use Scaler to make melodies. Either use ready-made melodies or come up with melodies yourself over the chords. You can use different scales and aids.
Hum, that’s really great. Thank you so much.
Maybe I need to see a few Scaler tutorial videos.
Hi @EWSG
Welcome to the forim.
It all depends on what you are trying to do, and your level of knowledge or experience.
I have InstaComposer 2 and, quite frankly, am not overly impressed by it, but I do use it occasionally. There is no midi import so if you generate a harmonic sequence in Scaler 2 then you will have to manually enter it into InstaComposer 2.
It does have the advantage of generating bass and melodic sequences from a harmonic pattern but in my experience the algorithms used tend towards electronic music (not necessarily a bad thing, just a limitation).
If you decide to swap the workflow around and generate a song in InstaComposer 2 then drag the midi from the verse, or harmony into Scaler, then you can use Scaler to generate substitute chords for those originally generated in InstaComposer 2. This can be interesting as you can then create a second scene in InstaComposer 2 with the new harmony and then generate a new bass line, melody etc. As InstaComposer 2 supports 8 scenes each of which may be up to 32 bars long this does raise some creative possibilities.
I have no experience of Melody Sauce although again I think it may be oriented towards EDM.
My preferred tool for generating melodies and bass lines is ChordPotion, but again this takes some effort to learn as it is not intuitive (the pattern editor is different) but does have many good features that have to be discovered.
For an introduction to using Scaler’s in-built melodic phrases try Introduction to Using Playback Performances to Give Interesting Melodies.
There are many tutorial videos on YouTube on the School of Synthesis channel.
There is also a very good online Scaler Course from The School of Synthesis.
Finally, I believe that Scaler 3 may be released later this year and and I am hoping that it will include some further developments on the melodic side. Certainly there have been suggestions in that area.
Hope this helps
Hi @ed66 ,
Thank you very much.
And also thanks for the detailed explanation as well as for the included links. I’ll check them out.
Well, I didn’t know ChordPotion. I saw its page and it seems to be nice.
But it seems that I don’t need a secondary assistant, once I already have Scaler 2, isn’t ?
Well, you can also create melodies with your own hands, using Scaler as an aid to keep notes in tune with scales… 
I find this workflow way more rewarding and enticing than using precooked melodies
Another approach is to use a probability sequencer such as Stochas (now open source). If you create a harmony in either a minor or major scale in Scaler then load Stochas onto another track, set the scale in Stochas to a pentatonic scale ( or any scale you like) in the same key as Scaler), route the output from Stochas to a synth and let it play.
Or
again just improvising on a pentatonic scale.
I assumed you wanted something to generate melodies as you originally asked about InstaComposer 2 and Melody Sauce 2. ChordPotion can be used to generate melodic ideas just like these other tools. I just think it is less restrictive in its use, but it is still a step-based tool.
I understood. Thank you very much, guys!
Really great. I’ll take a look on all those tools, as well as try to improve my usage of Scaler 2.
Another suggestion, all Scaler-based:
1 - Set a routing like this one
2 - Put all the 3 Scaler in sync
3 - Use a different pattern in any of the 3 Scalers
the result is better than ant sequencer IMHO
I use all of these, InstaComposer, Melody Sauce, Chord Potion and one which I prefere because it gives more control than either of these. It is PhraseBox (Venomode). It allows up to 12 phrases, created randomly (or not!), volocity setting, transpose, etc. You can also use the keyswitches to change phrase.
You can see demos on Phrasebox web page.
It is my first choice for arpegiator, just before Chord Potion.
I like it more than InstaComposer while Melody Sauce does not always produce a nice melody and I believe it is more useful for EDM than for other styles.
ChordPotion does all of these, but I think the interface on PhraseBox is more easily understood.
One thing that is easy to do in ChordPotion is to generate 3 part melodies. I don’t know if this can be done in PhraseBox.
Hey friends,
Many thanks for all your help and kindness. I am putting all the suggested tools on my favorites/notes.
I also did not know PhraseBox, it seems to be very interesting. That suggestion regarding Scaler 2 and Ableton Live (I think) certainly is great, I’ll just have to adapt it for FL Studio.
I bought Harmony Bloom today. It makes very nice evolving melodies.
Well, if you find a plugin able to create harmonies like the Genesis Tony Banks ones, please let me know 
I said nice melodies…
Seriously, I’ve got every generative melody plugin there is, but this is something different.
https://marionietoworld.com/
I totally agree with you about this. Initially I thought I can do this with Stochas, but I was wrong, or maybe Spiral (a Reaktor assembly) but I was wrong. And at EUR29 it is a bit of a steal. I am going to be playing with it this weekend as it is raining.
Yes, I’ve found it very good at repeat patterñs that evolve gradually. Gonna try using it to trigger chord padsnonna slow loop.
Just got it
I’ll try to do something in the Genesis style
well, useless for that, but very useful to make complex and dreaming textures
and I think it can be very useful for games and cinematics
And it can also be used to drive EZDrummer for instant percussion
Apart of that, it becomes quickly boring just like ANY kind of arpeggiator with dices if I try to drive the Hammond or the Moog
IMHO, arpeggios and scales are all boring if it’s a robot that does that
You need variations, BUT brain-driven not math-driven (dices, randomizers)
And you should put your hands on the keyboard to do something enticing, and I think that this couple of articles tell that (and other useful things)
