Hi, not sure if this has been suggested previously, so ignore if it has.
With scaler 2 you can now drag and drop midi from scaler to your DAW, which is super. But I was wondering if it would be possible to have a feature that allows you to separate the melody line from the chords, without having to do it manually?
So I have the two midi patterns instead of one that combines everything.
Reason being, I might like the melody to be on a different instrument to the chords and I could also adjust the melody in my DAW without messing up the notes in the chords.
I think this is similar to the other idea a few of us have asked which is to pull out the bass line as well without lots of fiddly slicing of midi. Fingers crossed!
You can play keys lock and mute the chords, there’s also something on the roadmap which will help here. All good stay tunes and thanks for the suggestions.
Not to question the request, but having had a similar desire, I figured I can have multiple instances of Scaler 2 daisychained (MIDI in/out flow within Ableton slots). One driving the main chords, and subsequent ones picking their part off the chord line from the prior Scaler instance.
That’s an interesting idea Bernd, I could use the import export feature to have the same chord sets on each version and then just have one on melody. Nice.
@rockshamrover, I was actually thinking about feeding the actual chord progression MIDI data directly from the root Scaler 2 instance into subsequent instances (trying to adhere to the new convention of avoiding the old “master/slave” scheme in technology) .
Meaning, you setup your chord progressions in your Scalar root instance, without expressions. Then subsequent Scaler instances, one for melody, one for baseline, perhaps one for pads etc. will receive the chord MIDI data from the main instance and interpret it with their individual expression settings. This works fine because Scaler’s expression settings will apply to any incoming chords, they don’t have to be configured in Scaler as a chord progression (such as via “Detect”, or the “Scales” features). You can literally just press a chord on your keyboard (or have it played from DAW piano roll) in a Scaler instance and it will automatically express it via the expressions (arpeggios, strums, or performances, phrases, rhythms - you know, the Italian names).
So if you route the MIDI from the Scaler root instance to the subsequent Scaler instances configured with expressions, they will interpret the incoming MIDI chords in their unique expressions as configured. Let’s see if I can visualize this better…
(on a side note, as a data scientist, I have to continuously correct my instinctive attempt to spell the music theory plugin not like that: “ScalAr” - even the Forum’s auto-correct criticized my proper product spelling
Here the screenshots in an attempt to explain visually. Snapshots taken in Ableton. I also have FL Studio, if someone wants to see it in FL, let me know.
Setup three different Scaler 2 instances, one as chord root, one as Melody and one with Rhythms respectively (either of the last 2 without preconfigured chords)
The Melody Scaler instance just “listens” to the MIDI output from the ROOT instance, no chord progressions configured in itself. Just configure your desired expressions there. Incoming notes will be expressed by its local expression config highlighted/marked red…
Interesting and thanks for sharing very useful. I also use record trigger notes to trigger the chords but have chords muted in scaler settings so it only plays the melody in my right hand. Much like in my workflow making an entire track video
Great post, thanks. I’m working in Cubase Pro and have adapted a very similar workflow.
I also find it helpful (and sometimes confusing) to simple Zero the faders of the Scaler Tracks. I’m also finding that I can put the Scalers on their own Bus (Group Track)…
So many ways to do it.
Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to create a very useful post.
