I think it depends on what you want to do. And you’ve received some good advice so far. I have many of what I call the compositional cheat tools. So are you looking for something that generates “original” ideas? As awesome as Scaler is, it doesn’t do that. (at least as of right now) There are melody building tools and they are very useful. The nice thing is I can go into the various performances and if I go to Melody 1 I always get the same thing. That can be extremely useful making it easy to try ideas and always go back to something you tried earlier. With generative plug ins like InstaComposer, every time you press the Go button or whatever it’s called. you get something new, at least in theory. But if you press GO again, then that idea you have a minute ago, it’s gone. Unless you saved it in some way.
I find it largely depends on what type and style of music I am creating. I’ve had to create more pop like tracks for shows I wrote music for and InstaComposer was great for that, especially since I didn’t have a ton of time to make it happen. I also think it’s all in how you use it. I often let it generate some stuff, drag the MIDI into my DAW and then close it and never touch it again. I rarely try to use it like their videos show, to create entire tracks.
Melody Sauce is one of the few of these types of tools that I don’t have. But it is on sale on Audio Plug In Deals right now and I’ve been on the fence if I want yet another one of these tools.
I could be wrong but I don’t think Chord Potion generate original material. It, like Phrasebox or even Scaler if you use it’s performances, modifies your input to it. The other main competition to InstaComposer is probably Captain Plug Ins. I use InstaComposer more but Captain is also useful.
My point is all of these tools are just that. Tools. And like having a variety of paint brushes they all do something better than the others do or work better in certain genres or styles. It all comes down to what you want to try and do and how much time you want to spend figuring out each of them. Some are more simple to use that others.
ChordPotion is a sequencer which will take input from a chord (or sequence of chords) and create melodic lines based on the chords. It is not a generator as you must create the sequences, but it does come with a set of factory sequences that can be easily modified. It does include a function to generate random variations of a sequence (add notes, drop notes, randomise note lengths, randomise velocity, etc), although this is not in real time.
My approach is to create a sequence, copy it to a second page and apply a variation, then repeat to a third page and so on. Then use key switches to switch between pages,
I use Scaler to generate the chords for input to ChordPotion.
So yes @RBIngraham you correct that ChordPotion does not generate sequences, but it is a tool to help create melodies just like any other arpeggiator or sequencer.
In my opinion, and due to my workflow, Bloom is more useful for rhythmical parts: so, not only a drumming/percussion one as I said before, but also an accompaniment guitar
In this case, I used EZBass to send notes to Bloom and to BB
Bloom sends the arpeggio to UJAM Iron through MIDI Polysher to filter unwanted notes
Then I use Scaler to listen possible scales from Iron: this way I can change Bloom own scales every time I like, without having to change scales of the leading tool (EZBass in this case, but can be EZKeys as well)
Then Scaler will send solo notes to Strum GS-2 through the usual Section B trick
By the way it’s not as extensive as it will be in future iterations but Scaler 2.9 has lots of new arp patterns and whilst pretty obvious they work really well and I am loving them. Will have a beta up soon and due for Q2 24.
There is no arpeggiator in Scaler 2.8 and I think that @davide is suggesting that new performances will be added in 2.9 when it is released.
Hopefully an arpeggiator/sequencer type functionality will be released in Scaler 3 (it has been requested as a feature request) but there are no details yet of the Scaler 3 functionality.
In the meantime if you just want an arpeggiator then BlueARP is very versatile and free, but does have a quirky interface which can take some time to learn.
Absolutely right. I have had several individual Arturia instruments and then, wooooosh. Last year I bought V Collection 9 for, I think, 149$. A theft. Rgular price >500 bucks. Dozens of synths, thousands of easily find presets, including Augmented Strings, Augmented Voices, Hammond B-3, DX7, Farfisa, Juno, Jupiter, Pigments, to name a few.
Regarding Pigments alone - it has great sounds, fantastic arpegiator and sequencer that you can route to other instruments, even to shut down the original Pigments one and use its apregiator with, for example, Minimonsta or other of your favorite plugins.
Buy it for 99$. It is not Omnisphere, but nor is its price And with the last update, Pigments became even “lighter” on RAM, what is important for you. Oh, yeah, the upgrades are free. I bought Pigments V3 for 99$ a few years ago, and now I am on V5 and never had to pay after the initial buy.
