Could you direct me on how I can save a Chord Set in Section C that has more than 8 chords such that if I import that chord set in Section A, all of the chords (i.e., more than 8) will show?
Within Section C, I can save the patterns as individual chord sets (which would only save 8 chords max) and if I save the entire session, when I import that Chord Set session, only 1 of the 2 chord set patterns shows up in Section A.
At the end of the day, I want to be able to load a chord set in Section A with more than 8 chords.
There are several reasons. For example, a user may have a list of favorite chords that they want to save, easily access and experiment with. There are a lot of possible chords so that list could easily be more than 8 chords. With that list, the user may want to test out possible combinations and add them into a blank pattern in Section C. That user may also have an existing chord pattern in Section C and want to see whether any of that user’s favorite chords fit within the existing chord pattern in Section C.
Within Scaler, there are presets such as “ABC DU BEATMAKING 10” and under community presents, “JADED–>LUSTER” that load more than 8 chords into section A. This shows that this use case can be supported. Putting the question of “why” to the side for the moment, it’d be great to get a clear answer on “how” this can be done.
Section A was designed to hold chords detected to then be moved to section C. “A” can hold dozens of chords but because they are held in a linear way that makes them hard to easily access. There are a few posts complaining about that. In any event Section C is the working section. Maybe your ideas will be incorporated in some revision down the line. I was just pointing out how it works now. And the why was because it seemed counter intuitive to my understanding of Scaler so I wanted to better understand why you wanted it. Nothing more then that.
Cheers.
I’m of the same school as sfgiants on this issue. I have a formal music education and the required background in theory. I want to explore this software for getting outside of my own box with composition rather than what’s under my fingers all the time. For me, I’d like more than 8 chords in the C section as well to utilize short passing chords into longer progressions. Think of a structure like a jazz standard for example with an AABA form such as Bye Bye Blackbird, Have you Met Miss Jones or a million others. A is sometimes 16 bars long or maybe 12. B, might be 8, 12, 16. Or think of a jazz piece in the style of Giant Steps by Coltrane. There’s a change on every two beats mostly, which adds up 21 chords in 12 bars! Please consider allowing C to include more than eight changes. As I write this, understand I haven’t considered or explored key switching or linking patterns yet in the manual. But like sfgiants, we think of songs in sections of x bars: AABAA, ABACA, AABCAA, etc. I hope this makes sense–again, Coltrane’s composition is Pattern 1, 12 bars long with a 3 bar coda and 21 chords. Pattern 2 is his coda. Scaler 2 could be where electronic styles meet jazz and R&B. This is a fine piece of software and you’ve done a good job but don’t let the software limit this to a certain group of styles. It’s really got potential! Thanks for reading this.
his has been discussed in a number of posts so I am sure that the team is considering the request. However in the meantime I suggest you do explore midi binding and key switching which can mitigate the limitation of 56 blocks. Also remebr you can group patterns together by lassooing them, so that you are not restricted to playing 8 blocks and then stopping.
And to add to what @ed66 is describing, remember that you can also have multiple instances of Scaler in parallel, which can all be synced to one another. If you have their MIDI bindings coordinated across a large (88) keyboard, you can address even more than 56 chords from one keyboard. I personally use a 8x8 pad controller (Maschine Jam, but Novation Launchpad or Ableton Push can work also) to address the different Scaler instances and their respective max. 56 chords. Takes some getting used to, but IMHO does not hinder my creativity.
There are many strategies or workflows possible with Scaler. You can work within Scaler and use the performance lengths to subdivide measure – it’s a juggling act for sure. If you work totally within Scaler you have to work out fractional parts of the beat and so on. I sometimes begin that way but often find it easier to work within the DAW using Bound Notes to create harmonic rhythms.
I’d suggest you use Pad Mode for longer structures. In Pad Mode you have up to eight patterns each with eight chords. If you need more chords than that you can add another instance of Scaler.
I also suggest using the Bound Notes as Chromatic Tones to save space.
You’ll develop your own best practices for working with Scaler. The basic learning curve is pretty fast, but there’s complexity when you start to consider the different ways Scaler can be integrated into how you create songs or other kinds of music.
I rarely find Scaler to frustrating to work with but it can get complex.
Coming back to the original issue raised here, saving and loading multiple patterns, if you are not already aware this is now possible in Scaler 2.7.2.
