If you think 1 Scaler is fun, try 2 - Scaler as a midi effect on Scaler [setup update]

Ok, Tutorial might be a stretch, but if your DAW supports midi effects or you understand how to route Scaler into instruments, have you ever tried driving Scaler with another instance of Scaler? If not, it can produce some pretty interesting sequences and depending on your DAW routing options, you can create some cool “multi-instrument” effects

Some combinations work well, and most do not, but if you like poking around under the covers in Scaler, or you like twiddling settings in a Synth, you might find some fun stuff.

A good place to start is driving Performances with Rhythms Here is a simple example:

The setup:

  • “Instrument version” of Scaler: set the Sound to Substantial and Perform to Performance / Adagio / Breve
  • “Midi effect” version of Scaler: set sound to none and Perform to Rhythms / Adante / Opera
  • Set chord pattern to ABC Du Beatmaking1

[update: I’ve got limited testing on this, but it seems that the ScalerAudio version of Scaler can accomplish the same or at least similar effect. You also get the bonus of having a multi-instrument option. Just apply ScalerAudio as an audio effect on Scaler instead of the “Midi effect” version above) Thanks @ed66 for the inspiration to test this.

Now you can let it play and tweak expression resolution (both), chord duration (both), voicing (on instrument) while the pattern plays.

From there, start playing with the different perform settings as a sender/generator (midi effect version) and a receiver/player (instrument version)

Keep digging…Scaler has much more to offer than “just” Chords

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Just testing now: with a keyboard like AAS Lounge Lizards, all Strummings works well with e.g. all Phrases

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Cool, I’ve been using it as the input for Arturia Pigments 3.5 and Vital wavetable synth and it has just been an incredible experience. This is opening up so many creative doors.

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Glad it is working for you. Pigments is one of my favorite instruments to drive with Scaler. If you’ve not tried using some of its sequence patches, you are in for some fun.

FWIW, you can calm down some of the rowdy playback using Scaler’s Play Quantize & Chord Duration as well as the Humanize/Quantize. It is a bit of an exploration, but worth it when you stumble onto combinations that work. I’ll have some videos out on this workflow soon.

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That beast is quite expensive, and I am not still sure I want pay for a synth

Nevertheless, I am curious to know so I installed an 32bit free plugin that simulates the EL&P (and other bands) Moog, the Minimogue VA: quite funny to pluck :smiley:

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I hear you. I jumped into the Arturia eco system a while back and I committed to investing time in Pigments before I got seduced by all the other cool soft synths out there. :slight_smile:

Pardon my ignorance, TMacD but when you refer to the “Midi Effect version of Scaler” do you mean ScalerControl2?

No worries at all, and sorry to respond with a…probably.

Since I’m not sure how you are using the "ScalerControl2 instance, I can’t say for sure if you are using it as a midi effect. You might want to check your DAW’s docs to see how they indicate a VST as a midi effect (or if your daw supports midi effects at all) For example, my Studio One does not support 3rd party midi effects, my Zen Beats does, and I can’t figure out what my Ableton does. Basically however, if you play something on what might be “ScalerControl1” and you can control it’s playback with “ScalerControl2,” you are in good shape.

If you can’t get midi effects (or some other routing tricks) working, what I usually do is use just one instance of Scaler. I drag midi from Scaler using one Perform mode to my timeline and then play it back through Scaler set to a different Perform mode. The Scaler to Scaler midi effect hack just saves some time (and processing power) and makes it a little easier to remember what is going on. My computers are pretty old so I’m always balancing performance with convenience.

[see update in initial post above for ScalerAudio thoughts]

I’ll have a video out on some this out in a couple days over in tutorials. (Chord Duration Pt. 3)

Good luck!

For those of you using the Arturia Pigments VST, did you know that you can route the Sequencer output MIDI into other synths? I find the Pigments sequencer quite versatile, especially with it’s capabilities toward poly rhythms and aleatoric sequences. So I was quite excited to find that one can use the MIDI output of the sequencer to drive other plugins (as if the Pigments sound engine isn’t already plenty capable enough, but I have thousands of presets in other synths I’d like to sequence)

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Very cool…had not found that yet. I’ll definitely give it a try.

Thanks TMcD, working on this now but it looks as if it does work wth the ScalerAudio

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Actually, I just as often use Vital, a free wavetable synth/VST plugin written by the brilliant Matt Tytel. It has earned a huge following with a very active forum. They use Discourse forum software just like the Scaler musician community, so you would feel right at home finding your way around.

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