Hi
I am struggling with Cubase and Scaler 2 midi detection.
Here is what I want to do: I have recorded a melody with an instrument on a track and I want Scaler 2 to detect the chords of that melody, using midi.
What I do: I add Scaler 2 as a VST effect to the instrument’s track, I activate midi and record and I click “play” on Cubase. Nothing happens. If I use audio it kinda works (it detects things but the results are no so convincing).
I have succeeded detecting the chords by creating a dedicated track with “Scaler 2” as an instrument and copy/pasting the melody on that track. But I find it a bit cumbersome and I’d rather use the track I am working on as the master to drive midi in Scaler 2.
Any suggestions / Help ?
Thanks
Hi @ope welcome to the forum. It sounds as though you are in the right direction as far MIDI detection goes, but for some reason MIDI is not making it into Scaler 2 from your track in Cubase. This may come down to a Cubase specific routing issue, so perhaps someone more familiar with Cubase may be able to chime in here.
If you take a look at Davide’s 2024 beginners guide for Scaler 2 at around 13:00 he has Scaler 2 loaded as an Instrument plugin on a MIDI track in Logic, which should be the same as in Cubase, Ableton Live etc. The MIDI track in Logic contains a MIDI clip with a chord progression, so after selecting MIDI as the detect source in Scaler 2 and pressing record on Scaler’s detect page, pressing play in Logic plays that MIDI chord progression into Scaler 2 where all the chords are detected.
You mention you have a MIDI melody programmed in Cubase which won’t work as well as chords when detected by Scaler 2 (the individual notes will be detected rather than chords) however there should still be something detected in Scaler if all is setup correctly.
As Tristan said, it is a midi routing issue. If you use Scaler as an effect you might have noticed that it only works for Audio and not for Midi. That is the reason Scaler in the FX section is named “Scaler Audio”. Some VST instruments have Midi output, that is routable in Cubase. Many have not. If it is routable you just use the VST’s track as midi input for a dedicated Scaler track. If not you can put your Midi-Data into a dedicated midi track and use it as a input for your VST instrument in midi routing and do the same for the a track where you put Scaler 2 as an Instrument VST. Then everything should work.
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Of course, you can also use Scaler as a VST instrument. Scaler’s midi output is routable to every track in Cubase you want. You can switch off Scaler’s internal instrument for this so that only your intended VST instrument is played. At the same time you can use Scaler for detection.
Hi Tristan,
Thanks for you reply.
In the meantime I have been able to do what I want, and I give the explanation below for those who stumble into the same issue.
The objective is to have a track with a melody and being able to detect that melody with scaler 2 while being able to work on it in Cubase.
Option 1 - Drag’n Drop
1 - Create an instrument track with your melody
2 - Create a track with Scaler 2 as an instrument
3 - Drag’n drop the content of the “melody” track into the Scaler 2 window and scaler 2 will detect the melody notes. However you will have to execute the same process each time.
Option 2 - Midi Routing
1 - Create a MIDI (important !) track with your melody
2 - Create a track with Scaler 2 as an instrument
3 - Route the Midi track to the “Scaler 2” track by selecting “Scaler 2 midi input” in the “Midi OUTPUT Routing” select list (at the left) of the MIDI track
4 - Scaler 2 will detect anything that plays on that MIDI track
Once you are happy with the melody in the MIDI track, you can route it to any instrument track by selecting the appropriate track in the “Midi OUTPUT Routing” select list (at the left) of the MIDI track
Now if you want to route the output of “Scaler 2” to another instrument track you have to:
1 - In the “Midi INPUT Routing” section (at the left) of the instrument track select “Scaler 2 midi output” (in the midi input select list).
2 - VERY important: you will not hear anything from Scaler 2 on the instrument track unless you activate the “monitoring” (small loudspeaker icon) on that instrument track
Hope that helps