If I play a barre A maj at the 5th fret into the audio detection, I can’t find any way to make scaler choose/display the notes used in that fingering. It starts off playing notes in the 4th octave. Then I’ve tried the ‘voice-grouping’ button at the top, and the ‘voicing’ in Section B. I’ve also tried using the octave and inversion settings in the ‘Edit’ panel. I can get it in the correct octave, but not utilising the exact notes I’m fingering.
What I end up doing is going to the ‘chord’ panel and entering (with mouse clicks on the fretboard) the notes which match my fingering, note by note from scratch.
Am I missing something?
I also made this related feature request, because the fretboard doesn’t just highlight the exact notes you input in light brown - it highlights all the unison notes across the fretboard, which is not very helpful if you’re trying to look-up your original fingering.
It sounds like you’re just starting with Scaler? Scaler’s audio detection is very good to excellent for getting the chord type correct, but the exact vocing may not be right. Also, at times Scaler will find the “right chord” but give it a different name. Chords can be synonymous with each (Cmi6, A-7b5, etc.) and Scaler picks what it hears according to the scale in use and perhaps other programming factors.
If you want the Exact Vocing of Bar Chord A Major at the 5th Fret I’d suggest you first record the basic chord or chords, then Edit for exact vocing and chord name if necessary. The Fretboard display is great for guitar chord edits. After you get the vocing you want, you may use the mouse – RMC – to “Extract Vocing” and then Apply Vocing to other chords.
It is possible to save chord sets, but I usually just import a track from a previous project rather than saving lots of chord sets.
I’d suggest you first record the basic chord or chords, then Edit for exact voicing
OK, so I’m not doing something stupid - the given voicings aren’t really intended for guitar fingerings.
The Fretboard display is great for guitar chord edits
Yes, it’s ok. I’ve suggested a couple of improvements in the feature request forum.
It’s a shame that I have to enter chords by mouse clicking, instead of being able to use my guitar for inputting notes. I guess that’s too complicated to implement for stringed instruments. But voicing is very important - it changes the whole tonality and feel of the song. So I guess I’ll be doing a lot of clicking.
Once you’ve built a set of vocings you like, you’ll be doing fine.
Scaler does provide a set of standard guitar voicings. Note, that the drop voicings are pitched higher so as not to clash with key switches in some popular Guitar VST-is. So, you may have to drop them an octave, but they are correct, good guitar voicings. There’s some good video tutorials that covers some of this, but, as always, experience is our best teacher.
Quoting from OM Scaler 2.5, p. 19
Drop 2 / Drop 3 / Drop 4 / Drop 2 & 3
Classic guitar voicings where the 2nd (3rd or 4th) voice is dropped (lowered) by an octave.
Extracted Voicing
After extracting the voicing from a chord you can use Voicing Lock to preview other chords as if they were played with the same voicing.
Scaler automatically adapts the source voicing onto the chord matching the playing
position and minimizing the distance between each voices. Try creating your own preferred voicing by editing a chord, extracting its voicing and applying it to all chords.
I asked that Drop 2/4 be added to the list and there seemed to be some interest in doing that. We’ll see if it arrives with the next iteration of the program.
Give it time. The Scaler learning curve is pretty fast for the basics, but there’s many workflows possible.
Once you’ve built a set of voicings you like, you’ll be doing fine
I don’t quite understand how the export/import works. I saved a whole session, which is listed under ‘user’ on the main screen. But when I load it, the current pattern in Section C is overwritten. So that’s no good.
I also saved an individual chordset, but that does not list under ‘user’, even after clicking ‘refresh list’. So I haven’t been able to test whether or not importing a chordset overwrites the current pattern as well.
But anyway, I think inputting chords into the fretboard note by note from scratch, is probably still quicker than looking for the same chord somewhere within a library of saved chordsets?
There are good tutorials on youtube that cover some of the Import/Export functions. The User Guide also covers this in detail. Those are better at explaining these things than I am. I just kind of mess with stuff until I develop a work flow that gets me from points A to Point B.
There’s many ways to work with Scaler. Building chords on the Fretboard and then using “extract voicing” and “apply voicing” is a very strong feature.
Try this, too. Edit in a close spaced 7th Chord, like A7 or whatever and then assign the Drop vocings and observe those. I keep meaning to do a post about it but never seen to find the time. The Drop vocings are great and with “inversions” you get just about every playable guitar chord you could think of. Add tensions and you can get some great Allan Holdsworth-type chords and every unplayable chord spanning seven frets with nose playing F# on the 6th string from Ted Greene’s Chord Chemistry.
Have fun with the process and do explore the many good tutorial posts on the forum. Let us know what you come up with.
