How to record notes into Scaler from MIDI Controller

Scaler 3 Tutorials
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For context, I use Reaper as my DAW, but I imagine these steps apply to almost any DAW. With all the cool features that Scaler 3 has, I knew that there had to be a way to play a melody in key lock mode, and record the MIDI onto a track within Scaler. I tried numerous times to do this when I first got Scaler (with no success). I finally figured it out! It was not the most intuitive process, but eventually I figured it out.

All of these steps will take place on the ARRANGE screen. After having figured out a chord progression in Scaler, you need to select “Keys Lock” at the bottom, and in Keys Lock select a mode (Scale notes only, Scale white keys, Chord notes - whatever works for you). Then at the top click the + button to add a new track. From the available track types, select ARTICULATION > USER. You will see a new User track added near the top of Scaler.

Making sure DAW SYNC is enabled (right click on the play button in Scaler, and ensure there is a checkmark next to “Daw Sync”), click on the red record button next to the play button. At the top you should see “Capture MIDI”. Click on the red record button next to it. It will start blinking, indicating that it is armed for recording.

Now in your DAW, click the record button. When Scaler’s chords are playing, use your MIDI controller to play notes - if you have set everything up correctly, the notes that you play should fit in with Scaler’s chords. When you are finished recording, click the stop button in your DAW.

In Scaler, the red record button will still be blinking. Click on the button to stop it. Once you click on the button, you will notice that the little “drag and drop” icon next to it is blinking. Click on this icon, and drag it down onto the user track. You will now see the MIDI that you just recorded. Drag the MIDI item to where you want it (delete the empty MIDI slot if necessary).

One bug that I noticed with the output MIDI is that it does not have any space before the first note - this will cause the MIDI phrase to not line up with the chords during playback (unless you played the first note as soon as you started recording). I fixed this by going into the MIDI Editor and selecting all the notes, and then dragging them to the right until they lined up properly with the chords.

Hopefully these directions will save someone else a lot of time and headaches! Happy composing!

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MIDI capture question
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Hi @mldpolyglot . Welcome to the forum.

Great tutorial. Thank you.

I am also Reaper user and I found that the easiest way to start with the first note is to enable metronome (1) and be sure that the check box “Run metronome during recording” (2) and, specially, “Count-in before recording” (3) are checked. The latter will count two measures before the real recording starts.

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I hope that other DAWs work in a similar way.

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Thanks for the metronome tips - I will try them!

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As you may see in the video, the playhead moves two bars (count-in); the sound is disabled and only ticking of the mentronome is heard (I could not capture it in the video). Then playhead returns to the first bar when the recording starts and moves until the end of recording. At that moment, the sound is re-enabled.The recorded solo is visible in the track 2 (Piano V3).

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I would never have worked out how to do this without your tutorial. Thanks for taking the trouble to share this with the community.

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I found out, there is another way to record notes:

The best way IMHO:

Open one Scaler and build a progression - f.e. C-Minor, arrange some Chords. Ready.

Open second scaler, stay on the startview, choose the “Keys lock” in your favourit mode.

Start Record in “Midi Capture” mode. The button is blinking.

Start the Project, you don’t need to record, that happens in second scaler.

When you’ve played some notes, the cross is blinking.

That’s nearly all.

Now you can drop it in your Instrument-lane.

Ready.

Sorry for my english, i hope, i describe it clearly.

I had a little Party after found this way. :wink:

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Thank you mldpolyglot for posting this. I was able to get it to work in Logic. For some reason when I was playing in the melody, it consistently began recording the melody in the User track several measures beyond the start of the song and it also recorded the main track chords. Anyway, I can work around these issues–just happy that it worked!