A list of requests!

Scaler 3 Feature Requests
1

Good morning everyone!
Sorry for making a single thread, but these are some thoughts after using Scaler 3 continuously.
These requests are mainly about using Scaler 3 in Ableton Live, but I think they could also apply to other DAWs:

  • Easy save chord sets as presets.
    Right now it’s quite complicated — you have to create subfolders to keep things even slightly organized.
    I have about a hundred House/Trance/Synthwave progressions, and it would be amazing to import MIDI and save “Session A” as Trance 01 in a Trance folder without having to go through multiple options every time.

  • Remove duplicate chords.
    This was a lifesaver feature in Scaler 2 — please bring it back!

  • Dynamic strumming for more realistic performances.
    When a pianist plays, both hands add expression to chords and melody. It would be great to have more natural or realistic performance patterns.

  • Generative MIDI for melodies.
    It would be fantastic to have a button to randomize MIDI performances — combining existing articulations/patterns in new ways.

  • When trimming articulations/passages etc in the Arrangement view, keep the current MIDI position instead of restarting each time.
    For example, if I only want the ending of a passage, it would be convenient to have an option so I don’t need to delete notes or manually shift the pattern rotation.

  • Ability to record or import the rhythm applied to chords.
    Usually, I record my playing in Live. After creating a pattern, I drag it into Scaler, but then I have to manually recreate the rhythm by adjusting note lengths. It would be great if Scaler could capture or import that rhythmic pattern.

  • Use keyswitches to modify articulations/performances, like in Kontakt.

  • Better MIDI routing.
    I own an Akai MPC One+, which has an internal MIDI driver with its own ports.
    I can open Scaler 3 in standalone mode, use the Akai driver as output, and in Live use the same driver for inputs on different MIDI channels — but I can’t get proper sync between the two programs.
    It would be amazing if Scaler had its own dedicated MIDI port, so we could manage MIDI outputs without having to create tons of extra tracks in Live (since I’ve basically given up hope that Live will ever have true separate MIDI outs :)).

Sorry for the long post — and apologies if some of these features already exist and I just haven’t figured them out yet.
Thank you so much, and have a great day!

2

Hey @RobFuture Always inviting valuable feedback so thank you!

We are making some improvements here in 3.2. Just also forwarding this point to @Steven

On the roadmap but won’t make 3.2. Will be in 3.3, Q1 25

Yeah that’s a difficult one as when I need to do this I cut, we have an ability to continue or restart phrase so implementing this would kill that! I get it but not that straight forward

This is one of our users most requested features since introducing Scaler 3 - We have to work out what is a chord and what is a melody and implement it in a way that works with and triggers the sync’d tracks. As a start we have a fully recordable user track where you can record chord triggers, keys lock etc internally. That will come with 3.2. From there we have a better foundation to implementing a ‘import chord rhythm’. Will happen just gotta be right!

Keyswitches in 3.2! From there we will expand their use case (into areas like the one you are suggesting).

Full MIDI control is here in 3.2! I just ran each individual track in Scaler 3 directly to each analogue synth in my studio - directly from Ableton. Users are going to love this. It’s incredible!

3

@davide @Steven The 3.2 improvements that are alluded to, above - they wouldn’t happen to include bulk-importing MIDI chord files, would they? If not, can I make a quick, impassioned plea?

I am convinced it’s a bigger omission than it may at first appear - mainly because of my experience with an alternative plugin that I’ve been using for a few years …

In many videos I hear @davide enthuse about how Scaler helps users discover wonderful chord progressions and add colour to songs - and while that’s very true, I’ve found that many of the best progressions I’ve come up with over the past few years have come about using the method described below:

A while ago I purchased a big pack of chord presets for Xfer Record’s plugin, Cthulhu, and since then I’ve come up with some absolutely wonderful and unexpected progressions simply by picking a song at random from this huge pack (very often a song I’m not familiar with), and using Cthulhu in a similar manner to Scaler, binding keys and playing chords at random without knowing what I’m playing, or playing them in the expected order.

Very often it serves as an inspirational jumping-off point. I’m nearly always adding new chords or changing voicings, but even when I don’t, I’ll look up the original song to check mine sounds different enough, and it always does.

Cthulhu is not under active development (I checked with Steve). and it falls short in several key areas (i) it doesn’t suggest complimentary chords outside of those progressions (ii) it does not have features like performances (iii) it doesn’t support bulk importing of MIDI files (there is an alternative called Ripchord, which does, but that’s not a patch on Scaler or Cthulhu).

Scaler is naturally positioned to fill the gap. As you know, there are literally thousands of free MIDI chord files out there (many bundled with packs from reputable sources) and it would be incredible if they could be bulk-imported (ideally sorted easily) and utilised.

The combo of using chords/voicings from any number of excellent songs, and then being able to find suggested alternatives/additions/performances through Scaler’s existing feature-set would be a killer addition. It’s one that I’ve been waiting for, patiently - but, probably because I know just how wonderful this would be, I thought I’d push for it again … with a lengthier explanation this time.

And I’m sure you don’t need a demo, but if you want to hop on a quick Zoom, I’d be happy to try and persude you how much Scaler3 needs this feature :slight_smile:

4

Hi @EricJames
I think what you are suggesting is importing multiple individual MIDI files and for them to appear across one section where you can bind all of those cumulative chords?

5

Hi @davide, no, more simple than that.

  • At its core I’d simply like to be able to bulk-import a folder of .mid files, and have the contents of each file turned into a chord set.

  • E.g. I have multiple folders with names such as “300 Famous EDM Chord Progressions”. Each .mid file contains the chords for a single song.

  • I believe Scaler only allows me to import one .mid at a time, but I’d like to be able to point at that folder and bring in the whole lot in one go so that I have a ton of new chords to play with. Many of these chords sound wonderful (voiced wonderfully & embellished), and prove inspirational

  • As far as I can see it’s only possible to drag a single .mid file onto Scaler3, not bulk import. So importing would take a month of Sundays. In my case the majority of files are .mid (although some are native formats for Cthulhu and Ripchord - would be cool to import those too).

  • And ideally there would be an equivalent bulk export function (back to .mid maybe?) to make it easy for users to share whole libraries of chord sets easily.

When this ability to bulk-import is paired with Scaler’s existing chord-suggestion features, it would be fantastically easy to start creating almost unlimited new or extended sets.

P.S. And yes, per your interpretation - chords for a single song usually only take up 9 slots or less. Therefore Scaler could also offer to merge different chord sets together (even transposing and merging) to give people almost infinite combinations.

1 Like
6

Thank you all for the replies! I’m very sorry for the delay, but I’ve had a connection issue until yesterday.

Thank you so much.

So, full MIDI control :))))))))

For articulations, if you don’t know it, take a look at ChordPoison from FellYourSound. It’s the perfect companion for Scaler.

You can do everything you can do in Scaler, but it has a lot of generative features and patterns that are really easy to set up, and you can play them while you’re playing your chords in Scaler.

Articulations/melodies/patterns can run continuously without retriggering if you want, which makes it sound really natural.

It will be awesome to have this features inside Scaler 3!

A gigantic hug from Italy!