Scaler 2 | All the Little Things Video

Excellent! Is there a single location where these instruction videos are available ?

An excellent video - some really valuable nuggets of information in this - thank you!

Maybe I am missing something, but I’m not able to replicate Davide’s workflow in Ableton as we don’t have the Midi FX device.

I know how to route Scaler Midi to another track. But, what if I want a different expression for each instrument channel. Do I have to create as many (Scaler) Midi channels as I have instruments?? So doubling the number of channels/track!

I bought Scaler 1 a little over a month ago, updated to Scaler 2 which is 100 times better. I have already used Scaler as my initial composer in 10 out of the last 16 songs I have composed since. I never have used a single plugin so many times in such a small period of time and had the results that I am getting with Scaler in composing and the satisfaction of its results! I also must say that I have used less than 2% of the plugins package of tools doing so! The potential that is packed into this plugin is phenomenal.

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@phil71Unfortuantley Ableton doesn’t support third party Midi FX at this stage so yes you are correct in that you have to create midi channels and instruments. Still it would work exactly the same as my videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalY1MVygB3kWz5O6EZr1xA/featured

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@davide Awesome video!! So many cool lil nuggets. The View setting still seems kinda finicky. I’m still having issues with Reason. It seems the only resolution it likes is the 1000x700 res. Nothing else is “remembered” the next time you open scaler. Hoping this can be fixed in future updates. :slight_smile:

John, I think there is a bit of a trick (workaround). Try adjusting the size manually by pulling down on the handle on the lower right side of the GUI window. Then go into preferences and set the “custom” size as the default and it should then remember what you set.

I’ve actually tried that already. The app screen opens up weird regardless, unless I only choose the 1000 resolution.

Happy to say version 2.0.8 has solved this issue. Thank you. :slight_smile:

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I wish Scaler would add midi files from popular artists. Eg. Hooktheory has a couple thousand.
Thx.
Anthony

Welcome @ahendriks
Hooktheory doesn’t ‘have’ a couple of thousand, it has referenced a couple of thousand! We could do the same thing but the difference is our artist chord sets are bespoke, exclusive and specifically written for scaler and its ecosystem. We aren’t here to rehash the vast resources of what is commonly available online.
Hope that makes sense.

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No. Sorry. Disagree. The point is that there is a reason top artists are popular. One of them is that the chord progressions they use are generally, good. We can learn by copying those progressions. I don’t see Elton John, Adele etc. offered in Scaler. That to me is a big gap. I don’t know half the names offered in Scaler. Maybe I’m a luddite, but I would love to see more popular artists.

I must be missing something because I don’t understand what you are disagreeing to. The chord progressions you are referring to are ‘borrowed’ from real songs and commonly available across thousands of sites online. You want them in Scaler? Drag and drop or import and you’re done. We didn’t design scaler to be an almanac of commonly available chord progressions including ones from released music, there are literally hundreds of chord based programs such as Hooktheory which already does that. We designed Scaler to be different and to empower you to create your own. I feel we have struck a nice blend.
Thanks for the feedback.

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Okay…thanks.Will need to play with Scaler more.
A.

Thanks a ton for making these available Davide. There are so many easter eggs in Scaler 2 I wouldn’t have understood or even discovered without this video. It would be lovely if at some point you could elaborate on some of the deeper features that you mentioned, but couldn’t fit in… Seeing features in context can make a huge difference in understanding their intention or a use case that’s sometimes hard to grasp strictly via a manual…

Cheers…

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Thank you and you’re welcome. I plan to keep making them. Stay tuned.

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I agree with this point of view, Davide. Music and all art is multi-personality. It is different and sometimes on similar grounds. The best results are achieved when it is representative of a unique outcome, not a copied outcome. Such is the palette of colors and tools used that are created, as in this case, a plugin such as Scaler. The tools are the unique personality of its creators. The way it is used is the unique personality of the artist who uses it. If all plugins were nearly identical in design, it would produce less of a favorable outcome and a narrowed field of art.

The identical replication of artists is a recipe for boring music. It’s been already made, no use trying to replicate it, it should serve as a tool to learn and be inspired by. Scaler is simply another great tool with colors to use as inspiration and learning and creating. While I understand that many artists these days see only as far as being a cover artist, the future of music and art needs new creators.

I have always used this thought to people and club owners who swear by the dj and cover band booking movement instead of putting original artists first and on the biggest draw nights:
If the music scene had only dj’s and cover bands for the next 10 years only, then the majority of people will get bored and all of the music scene would die. Why? Because the dj and cover band industry is based on fresh music mostly. They need the new material, they thrive when there is new original music, fresh inspiring, melodic and thrashing, danceable and relaxing, memorable and in the moment music.

I believe the designers of Scaler and other plugins and tools available are best put to use when creation is made anew. I know there are many great tools to learn other people’s music is just as worthy, but it should not be at the forefront of musicians tools and goals. If the music and the arts are to survive and move forward, it must always be with the first and foremost goals of inspiring and creating, not imitating and repetition of what has already been created. Many popular artists are deserving of their recognition because of their ingenuity and wonderful creations, but then there is the over saturation of those who are redundant in trying to duplicate that success which is stifling the industry in an unnecessary way.

I truly try to support all musicians regardless of their end goal, but at the same time I have my own personal opinion on how things need to be supported and structurally criticized to make constructive progress to make the music and arts more sustainable and fun for all involved. With the growing availability of more tools and platforms, we all must be aware of how it can impact the overall growth or otherwise stifling of the creative process and what is true success. A large part of the music industry has been a hidden understanding to most musicians. The pictures and ideas of success are just a mirror of illusions.

Creating music is within ourselves. With the additions of great tools like Scaler, musicians have a larger opportunity to explore creativity with greater ease. With these kinds of tools, the joy of making music to share and excite others with is a greater true success. While this is my opinion, I also welcome the opinions of those who can contribute to the conversation also, bringing that unique personality to the community. In wrapping up, I still put forth the recommendation of more musicians to explore their own unique footprint to add to our ears, rather than pursuing the cover music road. The last couple decades was a good run for that, but we need more new inspiring material right now. I hope that I, along with others, will enjoy listening to that more often in the near future.

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Nice thoughts and I agree with your sentiments. I like to think of Scaler as enabling people whom ordinarily wouldn’t or couldn’t for the purpose of achieving exactly what you are implying.