Personally I’m happy to have the context be the arrangement in my DAW, the Scaler Sync was great if I had multiple instances on different tracks - I work faster in my DAW than I would having half the functionality inside another plugin which has a completely different workflow..
I did acknowledge that I’m only looking at this from my perspective and I’m sure this update/direction is delighting many… the reason I’m calling it out is that these features will have to come at a development cost over other features/enhancements that I might value. They also make the UI and performance that bit ‘worse’ for me (longer loading, more clicks to achieve the same result as S2)
Sure, totally valid. I was responding to your statement about users wanting to arrange in a plugin vs the DAW. My arrangement is still going to be in the DAW. Scaler 3 lets me explore more before I commit to bringing everything into the DAW. So far, that results in less work compared to V2.
Scaler 3 also allows me have multiple tracks in one instance instead of needing multiple instances of Scaler. IMO, that’s an improved workflow.
But if you don’t expect to use Arrange, then I can see why you would be frustrated with it because it is for sure going to receive ongoing development.
This type of comment is reassuring to me because that is exactly how I feel. I think by seeing the Arrange Page everyone feels they need to use it. But I have scored 4 major jobs in Scaler 3 and used Arrange just to sketch or hear what a key change would sound like. So much quicker and more fulfilling than Scaler 2 and the flexibility to decide you want to keep it all in one, MIDI route, use external MIDI trigger notes means it can be just Scaler 2 with all the added bells and whistles too.
I’m not uninstalling Scaler 3, but I am strongly thinking about reinstalling Scaler 2. If the update is reasonable (I just need the midi stuff between DAW and Scaler to work like in 2), then fine. I really don’t think three was ready to be released as every major DAW is having substantial issues. The value of Scaler and of trust in what we bought in 3 is a key issue here. Something was wrong with the testing on Scaler, or it should have been stated that Scaler is intended to be used as a stand-a-lone product. I am sure that most of the folks at Scaler at running redline to get Scaler 3 usable for those of us who expected to use scaler 3 interfacing with the more popular DAWs as Scaler 2 did, but alas that is not the cost. When I am not using Scaler 3 professionally, I can see those that do have to revert to 2. Will try the upgrade and hope that the major flaws with import / export of midi and music sound files is fixed. Good luck Scaler folks.
I have moved your message to this discussion. There is no need to create new posts and make sweeping statements like the below which are misinformative and misleading at best.
I have sent you Scaler 3 1.0.5 which address stability in some edge cases we have found (Studio One 7 Windows for example). Scaler 3.1 addresses these known issues and is due soon.
I’m retired now, but when I was doing paid work I never updated anything right when it came out. (Unless the update could be installed side by side so that I could explore it on my own time).
It’s not even 3 weeks since it was released. If towards the end of June there are still issues, then I might think it was released too soon.
Oh, and I use Bitwig and I was having lots of crashes (3.0.1) and I set Scaler 3 to “Suspend Never” in Bitwig and that seems to have helped. So far it hasn’t been crashing since I did that, though it still needs to be addressed.
In what way is the midi stuff between your DAW and Scaler not working for you?
Hi all, just an update about my experience. There is a new version 1.0.5 that i was not aware of and i have been using it 3 days now in Ableton and i didn’t have a single crash with it!
It seems there is some “underground” working by the team but the updates are probably “silent”.
I was able to use it at last as it is supposed to!
For anyone experiencing crashes in their DAW i suggest to update to that version because it seems that it has a lot of things fixed regarding crashes.
Thanks @Davide and all the Team. Waiting for the official Apr update.
Of course in the mean time if you have any new updates please share them
That’s nonsense. What additions to Scaler have drawn focus away from it’s original purpose? It’s certainly not the Colours page. So being able to choose from a variety of voices within a given key is a downgrade from Scaler 2? The Explore page? A great way to test chord progressions that might help you think outside the box? The modulations page, which not only includes some of the best parts of Scaler 2, but expands on it, and allows you to concentrate on 5 different ways of exploring at tonality between every key? Or is the arrange view, which isn’t mandatory when using a DAW but I imagine has great utility if sitting at a lone instrument playing with ideas. I really don’t understand how this is a downgrade in any way, shape, or form. You can use what you like and ignore what you don’t. Why exactly do you feel the Scaler Team have deviated from their original idea, when all most of us see is innovation? As for people getting lost, how does that old saying go? RTF(riendly)Manual.
The time spent on building a VST host and the arranger view - will HAVE to be at the expense of other features. That’s how development priorities work.
I have no idea what other features or enhancements were de-prioritised over these major new features however since a large amount of the new features are of no use to me (my personal opinion here) then from my perspective this was not a good upgrade. Especially when (as I said before) the UI now adds clicks to my workflow rather than streamlining them.
As I also said, some people will absolutely love the new features and will be delighted that they can use Scaler as a standalone band in a box.
Well, it would be fair to say this is all our personal opinions. I know all too well how dev priorities work. But as you say, you have no idea what the devs prioritised to bring out these features you don’t like, so what have you imagined up? Because if you have good ideas, I’m certain the Scaler Team would be more than happy to look at them. As for the band in a box view, Scaler 2 featured midi generation for a variety of instruments too. It’s not like they integrated a drum machine. The arranger is for additional articulations. Suits me fine. I don’t need to open multiple instances, I can just route the midi data to another channel for a melody or bassline. Or, you can just drag the midi out, like in Scaler 2, and ignore it completely. The lack of shortcuts, I understand, not my personal workflow, but I understand why that’s not ideal for you. As far as I’m aware that’s being worked on. I find the band in a box thing a little hyperbolic to be honest. It’s not like they build a DAW.
A drum machine! Now there’s an idea.
And Davide has already said they will be expanding on the DAW-like functionality due to popular demand. We should be happy we have such responsive developers.
Hello all, coming from using S2 for less than a year, I came to really love exploring chords and dumping them into Patterns. I could experiment not only with progressions but parts of songs, Pattern 1, Pattern 2 etc. Manipulating the timing and movements is a bit mathematical but also more or less intuitive. It’s great for that and so much more beyond.
S3 however does not make that particular workflow tolerable. I’m finding that exploring chord sets and setting a key to be frustrating and even more frustrating is that the Patterns section is on another page. Editing the patterns is even more cumbersome because S3 seems to want you to do the editing (manipulating length and movements/expressions) on the arrange page, but I get completely lost when I try programming each chord as the functionality seems inconsistent. The “Main Track” is really confusing as well. In my mind, I want it to be the “Chord/Program Lane” that serves as a master for each subsequent instrument to follow.
I love that there is the ability to use vst/au. I also love the idea of editing each chord in a visual way ie dragging the handles and theoretically changing movements/expressions/octaves etc per chord box on the side panel display. Using S3 standalone is also a big plus as it could potentially save time with DAW setup. S2 on the iPad functions similarly. I’ll be checking back in with S3 to see if the workflow improves for my needs but unfortunately for now, I’ll be sticking with S2.
Just another “not complain”
I use scaler 3.05 on my MacBook Pro M3Max latest OS together with Cubase 14 since 3 days without closing the Project in Cubase. So Cubase and Scaler have been open. Lid was closed and open, a beta update of Live 12 was installed. No crash at all. parallel browsing … doing a pages document.
Drums are edited in Cubase (4 tracks) and all other sounds 8 Tracks are at the moment in Scaler with some 3rd party synths and plugins.
