I like to D&D random midi melodies into Scaler which often results into something totally different and unique. So I thought…A few times I got similar or close to similar results with different midi files.
Is Scaler using its own presets if a midi file is hard to detect or is it a coincidence? I got some great melodies using this method, but if they are presets from Scaler then this method is not as excited as I thought.
Welcome Wonderbar
Short answer, no midi presets are not likely impacting your workflow…but they might be. Midi D&D with Scaler is powerful, and I use it a lot. For a deeper dive, read on…
It helps to understand a couple of things.
1st thing, not all DAWs behave the same when it comes to midi D&D, so people’s experience can vary.
As you know, if you drag a midi sequence into Scaler, it will clear the current state and it will detect the chords and notes. .
There are no “midi presets” associated with dragging into Scaler, just detection / conversion so understanding your settings when you drag out is important
Now dragging out of Scaler is a different story. Clicking on and dragging chords directly out of Scaler and into a DAW (that accepts it) or file store will carry all current midi playback settings associated with the chord or chords.
If you enable Midi Capture, and play chords, it will capture exactly what you play, including certain playback settings. Now when you drag the Drag button, you will get everything that was played.
Here is where it can get confusing for some. If you enable Perform and you choose Basic Perf1 for example, and then drag chords out to your desktop or into a DAW, you will have all the midi associated with that chord being played as Basic Perf 1. If you drag it back into Scaler it will try to detect the chords, but it will get all kinds of midi that was not there if Perform was not enabled when you dragged it out.
This can also confuse people when they drag midi into a DAW that can play the midi directly. They will enable a Perform mode with Basic Perf 1), drag to their DAW and drop it on the Scaler track. They will then have Scaler play it back. If Perform is still enabled, it will feed the Perform midi into the Perform engine and the results will vary.
This last scenario, where you feed Scaler perform midi back into Scaler can create some very interesting sequences. I did a post a long time back with the term “Recursive” in the title if interested.
Sorry to be so verbose and but hope this helped a bit. A lot to explore in Scaler!
Thank you so much for the clarification and tip about recursive. I’ ll pay attention to the Perform mode when drag and dropping midi.
No worries at all. It can be a ton of fun. One of the posts on the recursion topic is: When Scaler inspires itself....or fun with recursion
If you do something fun, please share!