First Impressions: My first orchestral piece using Scaler

Scaler 3 General Discussion
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I decided to have a go at creating an orchestral composition using Scaler with Spitfire’s BBC Symphony Orchestra in Studio Pro. There are 17 tracks, comprising strings, horns, woodwinds and percussion. The piece is arranged using two chord progressions. The first in 4/4 was created using suggestions on the main track in the browse page, the second in 5/4 is a Neo-Riemannian progression done in the create page.

My workflow is to record the progressions on the Scaler DAW track using the bind keys. They aren’t necessarily in the order of the chords on the main track, although obviously the Neo-Riemannian one has to be. From this I record a guide track with just the chords on a separate DAW track that won’t be in the final piece; this track is also used to extract the chords to Studio Pro’s chord track. Each of the DAW tracks has its input set to Scaler, and with keys lock (chord notes) on, I played and recorded each instrument. I don’t use the Scaler arrange page or performances/motions.

I can’t remember what key I started out in (C Major, possibly), but Scaler says that it is now in the Ab Ionian #2 scale. Taking the sections separately, they are Db Major and C Harmonic Minor.

I’m not going to get a job scoring the next Hollywood blockbuster anytime soon, but I’m happy with this as a first attempt. I’ve gained a huge amount of knowledge during the project and it proves what a phenomenal resource Scaler is, not only as a practical tool, but for learning harmonic theory in a unique way.

First Impressions on Bandcamp

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Nice work @NickC4555 and thanks for sharing. I have a similar workflow and Scaler 3 also helps me professionally in so many ways. Even just speaking the language!

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@NickC4555,

Nice! I’d like to see what your project looks like in Scaler 3. Have any screenshots you could share? I’m interested to see how you are using the various passages, etc. to generate the various tracks. Well, now that I think about it some more, I’m not sure you can share screenshots on the forum. Oh, well. Either way. Nice job.

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There isn’t really much to see in Scaler on the project, just the chords on the main track in the browser. They are just dropped on there, not arranged or sized. I don’t use the arranger in Scaler or passages. The arrangement is done by recording the chords using the bind keys directly onto the DAW Scaler track (not the arranger in Scaler), then all the instrument tracks are played live with the keyboard using keys lock.