Scaler’s new Multi Voice Output (aka Multi Out) is absolutely incredible and IMHO one of the most creative features the team has ever delivered. It opens up countless unexpected paths through the musical content contained within the Scaler system. And while there are many ways to utilize this feature driving true multi out players like the free Kontakt player or the free SINI player, where individual instruments sit w/in a host and are addressable via midi channels, some of the associated midi routing/channel setups can be a bit …shall we say finicky.
Another approach is to use Scaler Multi Voice Output (which I will now call MVO) to drive individual instances of external VSTs and select the midi (voice) channels in the instrument inputs on your track. This is a particularly easy way to tap into all kinds of interesting synth patches (especially sequences) and instruments you forgot about or could never figure out where to use. Hello Labs.
Lastly, and the focus of this post is just having Scaler drive other instances of Scaler and using Scaler’s MVO to redirect the notes into those instances (or even the same instances).
As a refresher, Scaler’s MVO feature (aka Multi Out) lets you direct the individual notes of a Scaler Chord to different midi channels where they can be used by other instruments. I say Scaler Chords because you must use chords that appear in the Scaler interface (stock or custom). You cannot “free hand” a chord from individual notes and expect MVO to reroute them. So for example, if you wanted to create a custom CMaJ13 chord that has 10 notes in it, you would be able to channel the 2nd G (note 10) using midi Channel 11, Not sure why, but you could. I’m I’m thinking it might be an interesting Key Switch hack but not sure)
As a reminder, in Studio One Tracks, the 1st line is the processing instrument and the 2nd line is the midi source for the processing instrument (in our case a Scaler instrument)
In the example below:
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I have 4 Scaler instances spread across 5 tracks and I’ve renamed them Scaler A - D.
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Tracks 1,2,3,5 have individual Scaler instances while track 4 is just a duplicate of track 3 (Scaler C)
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Tracks 2 -5 are listening to other Scaler instances on various MIDI channels (labeled MIDI Output# where the # is the desired note from the Scaler Chord (1 = all notes, 2 lowest…n highest) I think of these as “note channels”
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If you start a simple chord progression in Scaler A (with no sounds in A but sounds in all the other Scalers), and you listen to tracks individually as you change the MIDI Output channel from 2 to n, you will hear the different notes played that are based on the chords that are playing in Scaler A. (Remember, a simple C maj chord will only have 3 available notes but a C7 Chord will have 4 and so on)
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You can now change instruments, perform modes, playback speeds, note channels, chord duration, etc., in all the different instances of Scaler to see what you can find… Try doing this in real time as a progression is played. It is awesome albeit a bit awkward to record but that is another post.
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Note that Tracks 3 & 4 are both running Scaler C but set to different note channels.
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You might notice in track 5 that I’m driving Scaler D using the #3 notes that are being played by Scaler C. In this case I’m running them through a Bass Perform pattern.
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And as a final suggestion, use the full chord channel (1) minimally at 1st until you get a sense of what the progression or performance(s) are doing across the instances… There can be a ton going on and frequencies can get crowded pretty quickly. FWIW, I found some of the orchestral patches were great instruments to experiment with.
Hope you stumble onto something cool and share it if you do.
