New to Scaler 3 – Crashing Issues + Workflow Questions (Ableton on Mac)

Scaler 3 Support
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Hi all,

I’m completely new to Scaler 3 and just downloaded the latest trial version yesterday to use with Ableton Live on the macOS 15.3. I’m really excited to get going, but I’ve run into a few problems and would love some help:

  1. Crashing – Scaler 3 keeps crashing both as a standalone and inside Ableton. I’m on the latest Mac OS with a fresh install. Has anyone else experienced this? Any known fixes?

  2. Dragging chords into Ableton – When I drag a chord progression from Scaler into Ableton, it appears as a MIDI track, but when I edit the MIDI (e.g. change note lengths), the chords start sounding wrong or weird. Am I doing something wrong, or is there a trick to editing MIDI chords from Scaler properly?

  3. MIDI View in Scaler – Is there a way to actually see the chord progression in MIDI view inside Scaler’s arrangement section? It would be helpful to visualise before exporting.

  4. Best workflow? – Should I be building more of the arrangement (patterns, performances etc.) directly in Scaler and then drag it all into Ableton? Or is it more common to just create the core chord progression in Scaler and build everything else in your DAW?

  5. Greyed-out chords – Sometimes I click on chords and they become greyed out and stop playing. I’m not sure what I’m doing to trigger this, or how to get them working again.

Appreciate any guidance from more experienced users! Thanks in advance :folded_hands:

2

Hi - Scaler is an amazing program but, like most powerful software, can take a bit of learning to get the best from it. This is doubly so in the early days of Scaler 3, which is a huge change from what came before.
I run Scaler 3 on multiple Macs with Ableton, so I might be able to try to help a bit with some of the issues you’re facing.
First though, what sort of Mac are you using - Intel or Apple Silicon?
Taking your issues point by point:

  1. Regarding the crashing, I almost never see that and I know that one recommendation has been to restart immediately after installing. Perhaps you could try reinstalling and then restarting to see if that helps? If that doesn’t work I would suggest doing a clean install as outlined in this post: Clean Install 1.0.7
  2. Regarding dragging chord progressions into Ableton, are you dragging them to a new track, and not the track that is hosting Scaler? The midi should go on a new track, otherwise it could trigger Scaler and that might cause something like the issue you describe.
  3. You can see the midi for the chord progression in the Arrange section by selecting chords in the main track and then selecting Midi Editor below. You can also see and edit any motion tracks that you add there too.
  4. The way I work is to use Scaler with Ableton is to develop a chord progression, and then create different motion tracks in the Arrange section, and then drag those into different tracks in Ableton to work on further - once I am happy with the basic direction. Because Ableton has poor internal midi routing it is not possible to directly link the various tracks in Scaler directly to corresponding tracks in Ableton. Other DAWs work much better for that, however I don’t find it too much of a workaround as it currently stands. There has been some talk that there may be other ways to deal with this in future updates.
  5. Out of scale chords are somewhat greyed out - could that be what you are seeing?

While it is early days for Scaler 3, it is my understanding the Devs are developing a wide range of supporting tutorials and workflow examples to help get new users up to speed. For Scaler 2 they had a very inexpensive but detailed course that I personally found an excellent resource to get up to speed quickly. I’m hoping that they may do something like that as well.
Obviously the last-ditch option is to follow the old tech maxim and read the manual… :grin: however to be fair, it is still early days for it and it doesn’t, and probably can’t, cover every possible use case - let alone all the different DAWs and their peculiarities.
Hope that offer some help - let us know how you get on.
Cheers from Oz - Robert

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Thanks for your prompt response. See below:

  1. I restarted but will try again.
  2. Yes I am dragging the chord progression straight into the existing track. When I extend the length of one of the progressions, it then plays a quick tap of the chord and then the long chord. The visual of the midi within Ableton is accurate but the sound is wrong… very bizarre.
  3. I noticed this only displays one of the chords at a given time.
  4. Thanks.
  5. No it’s within the chord progression I choose I notice they sometimes grey out and dont play.
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  1. I would suggest that you follow the instructions for a clean install.
  2. You need to drag the midi to a new track. If you drag it to the track Scaler is on it will trigger Scaler and cause weird output.
  3. If you select all the chords in the main track (try lassoing over the entire progression) it will then show the midi for all of them.
  4. :+1:
  5. @davide @Tristan Can you guys help with the greyed out chord question?
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@zzrwood shift + clicking on main track chords will mute them. @controlz is this what is happening for you?