So, I purchased Scaler today - working through the course. First, obvious, issue - On my Mac Sonoma, Reaper setup - using a Yamaha DGX670 - playing, for instance, a C4 - it is registered by Scaler as a C3. Not terribly helpful.
How do I sort that out?
Cheers,
Hi @mikecb. Are you saying that when you play the note C3 on your MIDI keyboard, the notes C4 in Scaler is being played?
I can’t think of anything is Scaler that would be causing this. Are you sure the MIDI notes from your Yamaha keyboard aren’t being transposed up an octave? Possibly an octave up setting on your keyboard? I don’t know if Reaper has a MIDI input monitor like Logic Pro does to tell you which notes are being received, but you can download MIDI Monitor to check, to make sure you are sending Reaper the note C3, not C4. snoize: MIDI Monitor
Had to re-register (mikecb). No, when I play a C4 - Scaler shows on its keyboard a C3.
I have sorted this, I think. I used the octave setting for the keyboard in Scaler and shifted it up. Now my midi input is shown correctly by Scaler.
I am unable to play the notes in the correct Octave. So, I have a track in my daw (can’t say which - it got marked as spam for some reason) with Scaler 2 assigned to it. I play a C chord (C4, E4 & G4). Scaler inputs that one whole Octave lower (C3, E3, G4). that makes no sense to me.
Playing a simple progression just using my midi connection (no scaler) - all the notes are recognized and recorded in the correct octave.
For some reason, my efforts at getting help withy new purchase are marked as spam. I’ll try again. On 2 different daw on my Mac - midi input is identified correctly and recorded in the correct Octave. Using scaler, midi input is recorded a full Octave lower. Not much use when working on chords,progressions, melodies, etc. Which, of course, is the whole point of Scaler
Hi @cbmike there has been a big spike in spam here in the forum so security has been tightened. Apologies if this has been flagging your posts as spam. We try to keep an eye out for this kind of thing.
Regarding your MIDI issue, again I cannot think of any reason why Scaler would be transposing your notes. In my experience Scaler always successfully identifies the MIDI notes it receives.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with Scaler’s binding system where if you bind one of Scaler’s sections e.g. A,B,C using the link icon on the right, MIDI notes received within the highlighted octave range on Scaler’s keyboard panel are used to trigger chords from the bound section. So you may trigger a chord in a a different octave to the note you played. However this is very different from transposing all your notes down one octave. So perhaps this isn’t what you’re experiencing.
But to rule this out I would make sure that no sections are bound by clicking any link buttons that are lit up. And no articulations/expressions are active, so make sure the word Perform is not flashing at the top of the screen. If it is, click Perform to disable it. This way Scaler is simply playing whatever MIDI notes it receives.
None of the things you mention are in play here. I have, simply enabled midi capture. I play a few notes; as I play the piano roll shows everything as being an Octave lower.
Dragging the notes into a daw confirms the drop in Octave. Therefore, putting together progressions and different sections and moving them to a daw results in a lot of work to get it to sound as, actually, played.
I can change the Octave in section C and, then drag to the daw; that results in a score that is correct but, it still remains that while playing progressions in Scaler, I am not hearing the sound I am trying to achieve.
Cheers,
Hi @cbmike could you also make sure Voice Grouping is disabled? When enabled (Voice Grouping flashing at the top right of the screen), this will change the voicing of all your chords when they are played, and also when they are dragged to your DAW. This can move notes to lower octaves depending on the profile selected, but I don’t think any of the profiles specifically move all your notes down one octave.
Voicing is not enabled. Scaler, simply, does not reflect what I am playing. I must not be understanding it correctly. I reset everything. In detect I capture midi = all notes down a full octave.
I have videoed what I am playing and what Scaler is recording - unfortunately, I can’t upload them to this post.
HI @cbmike
You may find this article interesting as it may explain the discrepancy given you are using a Yamaha keyboard - effectively Yamaha have chosen to transpose the keyboard (BTW I think the Yamaha DGX key-bed is brilliant together with the included sounds)
This might also explain the issue.
In this article it states that Yamaha keyboards follow the Acoustical Society of America standard which labels middle C as C4. Reaper also labels notes according to this standard if teh Midi octave name display offset is set to 0.
I believe I may have a work around, set the Midi octave name display offset to -1
which then follows the Midi standard that middle C is C3 (Scaler is obviously following this standard).
Changing the Midi octave name display offset does not affect the pitch of the note, only how the piano roll is displayed.
This is most likely a Yamaha issue. They like to use a different value for Middle C than almost every other manufacturer does. If the keyboard has buttons to shift the octave. Just use those.
As I tried to explain above when numbering keys the Acoustical Society of America count octaves starting with octave 1 so their lowest C is C1. Middle C is generally defined as the C in the third octave so in their nomenclature middle C is C4. This is the way that Yamaha number keys on their keyboards. The Midi standard, however defines the lowest C as C0 so middle C is C3. Both C4 in the Acoustical Society of America and midi C3 play sound at the same frequency - 261.63Hz.
The problem is that there are two conventions for numbering keys (see this article).
Yep, I’ve read up on that before. But in the end, the result is that Yamaha keyboards are often off by an octave in the MIDI data that is transmitted. So the simple solution is to just shift the keyboard up an octave if it has the buttons. This also assumes that you’re not using any built in sounds it may have.
While I appreciate the why it happens, I was simply trying to offer a simple and easy fix. 
Middle C is midi note value 60. On the Yamaha keyboards middle C is named C4 under the Acoustical Society of America naming convention whilst under the Midi standard it is C3. The midi data that is transmitted from a Yamaha keyboard C4 is midi note 60 so it is not an octave off.
I don’t remember the DGX series keyboards having octave buttons (they are 88 keys) so in the absence of being able to transpose the keyboard then if you want to name this note C3 in the midi editor in Reaper a solution is to
