The mojo of Scaler's Suggester

@matimori asked for a tutorial and here it is
sorry, no video involvedI: I am unable to do it properly :cold_face:

Now, I usually start from a guitar accompaniment, then add drums and bass, and only after I (try to) add some solo, but this time I had a tune that echoed in my mind so I started with a flute intro

Flute - intro.mid (350 Bytes)

This intro was on a A maj blues exatonic mode 3 that seemed fine for a folk-blues tune, so I set Scaler in Keys-Lock to audit chords, then I dragged all chords in Section C to see what chords worked best with my flute

As you see I selected triads inverted that are a new finding for me, so I wanted to test them

After auditing all chords I realized that I liked just the 1st one, so I removed all the others, then I clicked on the SUGGEST button…

And 8 matched chords jumped out

Then I clicked on the first and it seemed OK
Note: to audit you have to click on a chord with the mouse, and with the other hand you must click on those green keys that you see on top of the Artists button

Now, as far as you move the new chord (E min in this case) in Section C, the series of matching chords above changes and so on: you find a proper chord and move it in Section C, then another matching series of chords jumps out, you select the following chord, move it in Section C, then another matching series of chords jumps out, etc. ad libitum

In the screenshot below you see that B7 is yellow circled, and the “-” button on the left of OCTAVE is red circled; this is why the notes on B7 were too high in pitch, so I lovered the chords by 1 octave

Here is the starting routing: I renamed all tracks and I have 1 Scaler instance for flute and one for the guitar; using one Scaler for each instrument is considered the best practice among the Scaler’s forumians :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Note: the 1st Scaler is linked to my PC keyboard so that the flute can loop (if needed) without being disturbed by my piano keyboard that is needed to audit chords for the guitar

And now you see the MIDI Polisher: it is used to stop Scaler chords falling in the AAS Strum-GS 2 area dedicated to Loops; just the Chords area can be hit by Scaler chords, and you undertand it is happening looking those green keys in the white area surrounded by red keys (red keys don’t leave the sound enter)

And here is the 2nd routing, where the 2nd Scaler feeds MIDI Polisher and 2 identical AAS Strum-GS 2 guitars; I use 2 guitars here to make their patterns more interesting and I’ll explain how

I set the Loop in guitar 1 to half speed, then I search for and select a light arpeggio, or a strumming that leaves some empty space; for guitar 2 instead I use the normal speed and I select a strumming; all the process is made by ear so I cannot explain it deeper: just try yourselves and you’ll understand what happens :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

To audit the guitar loops, I need that Scaler for guitar is untouched so I linked it to my PC keyboard, while the flute is linked to the piano keyboard so I can start doing what I love more, that is jamming with the flute over the accompaniment :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :guitar: :heart:

Now, if you jam and are happy with the result, you can go on jamming forever (in my case at least)

But if you are unhappy with the limited choice of notes for solos delivered by Scaler, you have to look at the scale used by Scaler, a B Phrygian Dominant scale in this case

Mmmm, I started with A maj blues exatonic mode 3, and now I have a B Phrygian Dominant scale… YUK!
This is a problem of mine: my workflow is too much impulsive, so I often forget how I created something

Well, doesn’t matter: even if the scale changed, the solo was still in tune with the accompaniment :rofl:

And now change the routing as showed below

And eventually put the same Ableton scale on the flute
Doing that you’ll realize than the playable notes for the solos are more than the ones suggested by Scaler, and above all the notes are all sequential, without gaps or ups and downs between the groups of notes, why?

I don’t know why there is so much difference between DAW and Scaler scales, but I hope that the future release will fix what I consider a flaw, but at the moment I must say that very often I prefer Ableton scales for solos

That’s all and I hope this photonovel tutorial is useful for somebody

I close with a series of Scaler’s states I exported during the process: unfortunately I don’t remember in what exact moment I exported them :cold_face:, but I put here anyway, just in case :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Scaler-State - A.xml (10.6 KB)
Scaler-State - B.xml (16.2 KB)
Scaler-State - C.xml (16.1 KB)

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Great post. I work with Cubase but I think most of this could be adapted to Cubase’s workflows. Thanks for taking the time to share the concepts.

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first really clear advice on the program. I’ve been wondering what those green colors are on Scaler’s keyboards? did you mention any of them, but what is their purpose?

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those are the keyboard keys currently bound to the chords in section A/B/C, depending on which midi bind check box you activated in the corresponding A/B/C section

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Thanks for endorsement
I am happy to see that somebody around still appreciates :books:, compared to :movie_camera:
:rofl:

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Hi @Hulkko

Find a series of chords and put them in Section C, then select Keys-Lock and one of the 2 lowest options in its drop-down menu

Now select the Loop button (red arrow)

Hit the Play button in your DAW and the series of chord will play forerever making your accompaniment

Now hit any of those green keys and the notes you play will be all in tune with all the chords

This seems to be a perfect way to play soloes, but actually I find it just good to abbellish/make more variable the general pattern adding some notes here and there; to be a solo’s feature devs should make it closer to an Ableton scale, i.e. removing the “hiccups” that you have using Scaler green keys