I’d love it if there was a way for Scaler 2 to automatically recognize and fill an entire Chordset / Pattern Pads (8 per pattern) without having to capture it… it should be easy enough to do (especially given midi that’s comprised entirely of block chords) and would make importing chords from different software (Sibelius, Band in a Box, Studio One’s Chord Track) a lot easier.
having to play through the midi file seems a bit like a waste of time
also would be helpful if there was a way to easily create a midi file who’s entire purpose is switching chords - i.e. starts on C1 and goes up a note every time there’s a chord change.
Currently manually doing these jobs isn’t too bothersome, but it builds up to time wasted…
anyways keep doing the great work you’ve been doing with scaler, it’s phenomenal.
Can I just clarify the first issue: you want to import midi files without having to use the detect option.
I have just successfully dragged a midi file into Section A and it was detected (Scaler 2.6, Windows 10). It will not import them to Section C but simply lassoing the chords in Section A and dragging them to Section C will populate the blocks in Section C.
I don’t know if you can drag midi directly out from any of the products that you have listed as I don’t have any of them.
On the second point you can again lasso the chords in a pattern Section C and drag it to a midi track in your DAW. Unfortunately, if you have more than one pattern you will have to do this for each pattern. But with multiple patterns if you lasso the patterns then capture the midi using the capture button you can then drag the complete midi to your DAW.
Dragging MIDI straight into scaler2 worked splendidly, thanks a lot!
BiaB exports midi as a multi instrumental file, so you need to first seperate the blocked chords part of it into it’s own MIDI, then export that file and that MIDI file will load in scaler 2 perfectly.
as for my second point - I meant that it’d be nice if there was a way to create a “playback” midi file - as in, a midi that goes one note up the C scale every time a chord switch happens (so that you can playback and record performances / different voice groupings easily).
It’ll probably be a more DAW based solution though, 'cause the way I see it, scaler 2 is less about timing and recording the timing of chord switches… that said, by using the chord-block-midi file and reducing it to one note I’ve found a way to cut back the time it takes me to create such a midi track.
For now I still need to manually cascade the notes up the C major scale, though…
I’ll try conjuring some macro to help with it, thanks for the help
Sorry I misunderstood your second point, but glad to be of help.
You are correct that Scaler is all about identifying a chord sequence. If you want to alter the timing of chords you need to look at Playback Timings on the EDIT page.
Having said that you may want to look at this topic on Using Midi Clips to Control Scaler, which is my preferred approach to controlling Scaler. I think this is what you may be looking for as you can control Scaler either from a midi clip or from a midi keyboard.
After finishing your Band in a Box composition, make sure you DAW is set to the same Tempo/Time Signature as BiaB.
Save the .mid file (make sure Preferences->OutputCh has “Output Chords ?” ticked and Chord Types set to “complex chords”).
the .mid file has many tracks, so make sure to extract the Chord Track from it and save it as a new .mid file.
import the mid file into Scaler2 - make sure it shows the correct chords, delete the random lead in chords if there are any.
in Scaler 2 settings - press the “-” in Bind Midi until the chord set starts at “C -2”, and set set Active Bind Keys to “ALL”.
import the mid file into a new track - delete the lead in chords in it as well if there are any.
make sure the new track has Scaler2 as an input.
Select all the chords and using a macro choose one note per chord (Filter → Select - Lowest Notes should do the trick). Press down/shift+down a couple of times, to make it easy to select the other notes. Delete higher other notes. You should now have one note per chord change.
Use a macro to transpose all the notes to the same pitch (Pitch → Transpose → Same Note.
Select all the notes and move the to C-2.
Change the number next to “Loop” to the number of chord changes you have. it can be easily calculate by 12 * + num of added keys.
run the AutoHotKey script. Pressing Ctrl+I will run the script.
Quantize all the notes to make sure they trigger at the exact, correct time. (most likely set to 8th notes).
Make sure you select 1st note (leftest, first chord trigger).
Now scaler is completely in sync with the chord changes of Band in a Box, and you can use it to enhance your production.
the script (on a chord set that has 79 chord changes):
^i::
Loop 79
{
send {Right}
send {Up %A_Index%}
}
(save it as a .ahk file to easily compile and run it)
I used it in conjunction with Band in a Box, but come to think about it - it helps shortening the time it takes to make Scaler 2 work for you whenever you’ve got a chord set that you want to enhance. Studio One has an option for a Chord Track that also easily lets you create a Block Midi chords track, as I’m sure Cubase and other DAWs do.
Hope this helps someone setting to do what I did, though I’m sure it’s a pretty niche ordeal…
