Limited ability to change Motions once selected [Arrange tab]

Scaler 3 Feature Requests
21

But y’know, @davide, I do think there’s an issue here that might deserve some enjoyable cogitation…

First, an observation: I suspect all the talk of Scaler 3 as a “DAW substitute” is a McGuffin, as we film buffs say - a misdirection. Youve been clear about this, but the rest of us might have been striving for more than the application promises. It IS, first and foremost, a composition engine, a theory machine, a creativity-inspirer.

With that as backdrop, I do think the relationships between progressions and motions can be distracting. And it’s possible that the Sketch page might benefit from some (you’ll pardon the expression) articulation.

Here’s the use-case:

I’ve been working on a song, mostly to try to codify my workflow in S3. Now, I think we’d all agree that Scaler’s most miraculous achievement is to allow us the opportunity to substitute chords, change inversions, add colors, etc. And in Scaler 3, that’s been advanced by breaking the boundaries of the 8-bar line.

But the motion issue is, at the least, a distraction. If I’ve got a presto groove going and I’m composing a melody to it, and then I add a new chord to the line and it plays as a whole-note block, it stops the creative process cold.

That’s where the advances of Scaler 3 run into the reality of creative exercise. Scaler 3 not only allows all manner of chord substitutions, as Scaler 2 did, but it allows you to extend your lines, test motions, etc. But if I’m adding a chord and extending a line, and the new chord doesn’t conform to the basic rhythm I’ve set out, it’s a compositional interruption, and a workflow challenge.

I know you and the team have dwelled on this a lot. But I figured I’d throw this into the mix!

Cheers!

22

I’m also wondering, @davide - and this is WAY OUT THERE - maybe the Main Track is the McGuffin? By which I mean, maybe the Main Track should always be considered a non-audible feeder of progressions that are “motioned” and “instrumented” by other tracks, either in Scaler and/or the DAW?

My thinking is that we users may be trying to do too much with the Main Track, whereas our reflex ought to be to break our work into sections.

Simple use-case: a 32-bar AABA pop song, where the rhythm of the B section (among other motions) differs markedly from the A sections. There’d never really be a reason you’d put all 32 bars on the Main Track. But the mere existence of the Main Track encourages the composer/producer to try to assemble it all in one place.

Anyway, this is Sunday evening one-cocktail-in reflection

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23

Our intention is to have a User Track that records the MIDI Capture output and has it right there. I feel that would give us all more flexibility for those use case scenarios.

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Yes, that empty user track has a lot of potential.

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SOLVED: I want to acknowledge that I’m an idiot, and changing rhythms or other motions within a track could not be simpler: You just add a motion track (e.g., a rhythm track), select a rhythm, use the grab bars on the track to shrink it to however many bars you want it to cover, and then on the next bar of that track, select a new rhythm in the motion browser, and stretch that next part of the track for however many bars you want. This couldn’t be simpler.

Yes, it’s true that you can’t mix different kinds of motions on a track (unless you use my Sketch trick outlined above) but it’s unnecessary.

BUT ALSO: This reinforces my feeling that the Main Track should only be used for block chords, and mostly silenced. Motions and instruments can be added and manipulated almost infinitely on other tracks underneath it. But the Main Track is difficult to maneuver inside, as discussed above.

26

For me the main track is in arrangement the Chord track we got in Cubase, StudioOne and Logic and maximum the felt Piano but normally muted @GoliathGrouper proposed. All other motions are in additional lanes done.
By the way I wish that I can move the lanes and sort it by type so I can put bass to bass and melodies … together.
But so it will become a more and more DAW like tool @ least the stand alone.

27

In another thread Davide has already said that a future version will allow tracks to be renamed and reordered so that’s all good. I guess over time we’ll see Scaler 3 acquire more DAW-like features. Of course, the more DAW features we get, the more we’ll want!

Davide and the team have the tricky task of balancing that stuff with the core purpose of Scaler 3 - scales and chords. If Scaler 2 is anything to go by we can expect Scaler 3 to expand and evolve significantly in the coming months and years.

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28

I want to add my voice to the chorus asking for the ability to change between types of motions. To us as users, passages vs arpeggios vs expressions, etc. are mere categories of patterns. There are endless situations in which one might want to move between these categories and even change them after having already set tracks up. Having to recreate those is a major workflow inhibitor. Please consider changing this or perhaps help explain why it is that this limitation is necessary. Than you!

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29

Have you guys seen this? Limited ability to change Motions once selected [Arrange tab] - #13 by theoryofmine

30

I am not sure if this is a bug report or a feature request, but when I have a new S3 track that is set to Chord Follow, the ‘inspector’ in the mix window only has a limited number of variation parameters compare to a new track with other Motions. One parameter that is missing is the ability to switch motion away from Chord Follow, which would be nice…

Similarly, when I have a new track with a different motion e.g. Melody, I can only switch the motion to other melodies – other categories e.g. Phrases are greyed out.

Am I missing something silly?

MBP M1 13.6.2 Logic 11.0.1
Scaler 3 – 1.0.5

31

Page 60 of the manual is I think what you are referring to - Track types are determined by the Motion selected, and once created, cannot be changed
to a different track type. For example, if an Arpeggio track is created, only Arpeggios can
be used on that track. To use a different Motion type, you must create a new track.

32

You refer to something that pertains to multiple motions with a single track. But I would still love the fairly reasonable ability to simply change the type of motion for the track as a whole after having already tailored my sound. The whole nature of scaler 3 is one of exploration. Anything that facilitates rather than restricts that is of value.

33

Thanks Whatamint. Note to self – RTFM!

In that case, it is a feature request; multiple motion types per track please!

34

You can achieve multiple motion types per track but you have to jump though a few (daft) hoops.
Create two or more tracks, each with a different motion type. Cut up the midi clips as appropriate then drag clips from one track to the other. The dragged clip(s) will keep their original motion type so you can mix and match on one track, it’s just fiddly to do so. Hopefully they’ll give us a better way to do it in a future update.

I don’t really understand the logic for them restricting it in the first place. It feels like an arbitrary restriction in a product that is meant to encourage experimentation.