So far I’ve been using both scaler 2 and scaler 3 to just get ideas and copy chords to my DAW and things like that. Lately, however, I tried to fully utilise it in my current project and include a whole project in scaler’s main track. I came across the following difficulties, summarised in the following points:
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It’s stated that there are no limits to the length of the main track. It’s probably theoretically true, but practically things get difficult and sketchy for longer tracks. I think the UI needs to be worked on. To do editing and move things around one needs to zoom out, and when you zoom out selection becomes painful.
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Selecting a group of chords by dragging the mouse across them is possible if you start from the end. If you want select a group of chords from the middle it does not work. You need to select chord by chord using Command+click .
*** Edit: I’ve discovered that to be able to select from the middle of the track by dragging the mouse, you need to go all the way down below the all the other tracks and then select. It works, but then you’ve also selected the other tracks as well! -
Moving a group of chords around, for example if you need to copy and add a group of chords to the end of the track, it becomes difficult! Zooming out is possible, but then selection is almost impossible for the zoomed-out tiny chords.
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Why is it not possible to add a group of chords to the end of a zoomed-in track by dragging them to the end of the page and then the track would automatically scroll to reach the end or the area where you want to insert them??
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Once selected, why is it not possible to “copy” a group of chords and then scroll to the area where you want to insert them and then just use “paste”??
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Tab 3 is the main track (or tracks) tab. I did the editing there.
Now the main track is also seen in tab 1 (section C at the bottom). Now I expected that my edits in tab 3 would also be reflected in tab 1’s main track! But this wasn’t the case! I don’t know what use would this be, but for the sake of consistency. (I think it was when I almost gave up on editing in tab 3 I thought it might be easier to edit the main track in tab 1).
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The bar numbers in the DAW are clearly reflected in the main track in tab 3 (i.e. they are in visual sync). However, bar numbers are not seen in the main track of tab 1.
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I realise scaler is made so that work is done in scaler first and then the work transferred to the DAW. However, I think the need often arises when, during a project, some work is done in the DAW first and we need to copy it to scaler, for example to make use of the follow-tracks, etc.
I just thought I might clarify this, for why I am mentioning bar numbers, editing inside scaler itself, etc ..
- Lastly, occasionally, the UI of scaler gets into a weird state and starts to flicker and becomes unusable. The only thing to do then is to quit the DAW altogether and restart everything. Which can be dangerous if one has unsaved edits. (I am on Logic Pro 10.6.2).
- Another issue I’ve just discovered while trying to drag chords to the DAW:
In case of having a long main track (in my case it was 163 bars) and I try to select the whole track (in main track, tab 3), by right-clicking one chord and selecting “select all”, then scaler is stuck forever. The only way to get out of this is by restarting the DAW!
I hope some of the points I mentioned are just a misunderstandings or misuse on my behalf, for which you’ll instruct me on how to deal with them correctly. Otherwise, if bugs or shortcomings, I hope you can quickly and easily fix them.