Scaler 3: User Feedback & Suggestions

Scaler 3 General Discussion
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Drag chords onto the mat in Scaler3 is very uncomfortable. It’s definitely not as comfortable as Scaler2, which is a big problem. But the official developers haven’t paid attention to it. In Scaler2, there was a black empty space at the bottom, and we could successfully drag and drop chords into it every time. But in Scaler3, it often fails to drop. Or when I drag a new chord onto an old one, the replacement is very difficult, and often a vertical line appears instead. These problems make me really dislike Scaler3; I still use Scaler2 the most.

Therefore, I want to know if Scaler3 can be improved, so that the feel and opening speed can be as good as Scaler2.

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Hey @swingmix, I think you might be referring to an issue we have where chords other than one bar in length can’t be replaced if dragged from anywhere other than the main track. This appeared when we adjusted the backend to properly support various time signatures in the DAW. This one will be fixed, and you will be happy to hear we are also incorporating some of your other suggestions (Voice Grouping retaining bass note and standardising nomenclature). I find dragging and dropping into S3 nice and smooth; there’s always the consideration that S2 only allowed eight chords, so it was easier to manage!
Scaler 3.3 is looking to me a more refined version of itself, and we’ve been listening closely to the feedback since release, and I think our users will be happy! Hopefully, you may like S3 more too!

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Scaler3, turn it into a black box below, place chords in it, and replace them for better comfort.

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+1 Though my hope was that the team would crack this area, it would have much potential and usefulness in the context of Scaler itself.

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@skank @Miki Stay tuned. There’s some really special potential on the horizon in relation to ARA. Early discussions but they are underway!

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Hi Davide and the Scaler team (@davide),

First off, I want to say that Scaler 3 is a fantastic piece of software, and I really appreciate the direction you’re taking it. While it’s not quite a full-time part of my workflow just yet, I see so much potential in it. I’m truly hoping that with a few more refinements, it will become my primary go-to tool for my creative process in the future.

I wanted to share some feedback based on my recent experiences:

  • Stability: I’ve had some issues with Scaler 3 crashing in Ableton Live from time to time. However, I’ve noticed a significant improvement lately—it seems to be getting much more stable, so thank you for the hard work on the under-the-hood fixes!

  • Adaptive MIDI Recording: Since before the V3 release, there’s been talk about the ability to record our own MIDI into Scaler, which would then adapt to the chord track. I’m still really excited about this feature! I currently use Rapid Composer for this specific task, and while it’s the “undisputed master” of that workflow right now, it’s nowhere near as user-friendly or pleasant to work with as Scaler. Adding this would, in my eyes, make Scaler the ultimate tool.

  • Piano Roll Highlights: I’d love to see the chord tone highlights in the piano roll placed across all octaves, rather than just 1:1 on the specific notes where the chord is placed. It would make it much easier to compose melodies and basslines quickly.

  • MIDI Editor Workflow: The editor could use a bit of “TLC” to speed up the workflow:

    • Double-click to Draw: It would be great to be able to draw notes by double-clicking without having to manually select the pencil tool.

    • Hotkeys: Implementing keyboard shortcuts (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4) to switch between the Cursor, Pencil, Eraser, and Scissors would be a massive time-saver.

Thanks for continuing to evolve this amazing tool. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s coming next!

Best regards,

Henrik

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Hi @Henrik88nd, Welcome to the forum and thank you very much for the feedback and good vibes!

Yes, we have improved stability, and this is always our number one priority. Given we are now a host, it was impossible to test all edge cases, which we discovered many after release. Personally, I find Scaler 3 100% stable and can rely on every single professional environment that I use it in.

We currently have a User Track you can record onto, and you can import MIDI and drag it to your main chords, but we are adding some features in Scaler 3.3 which will do what you want!

Yes, adding chord tone over octaves is on our list too. Just need to think this through a bit more as we still want to differentiate the actual notes over the ‘octave’ representations. Either 3.3 or 3.4!

Improving the MIDI Editor Workflow is a priority for us, and there are some big improvements coming in 3.3 and beyond! Hotkeys are always difficult as each DAW treats hotkeys differently (Logic reserves numbers for screensets, for example). For now, are you aware that you can delete notes by double-clicking with the pencil? I think you should be able to move notes with the pencil too. That means you can use the pencil for most things!

223

Hi there

I am trialling the trial with my new workflow

The GUI is not as easy as SC2, but we all knew that; I can tell that re-using it after a while puts me in a position closer to those have never used it before; it means that I criticize it less than before :grin:

Anyway, I quickly dropped a C9 and a F9 and started to repeat the Chris Stainton riffs in Feeling Allright

The new feature that assigns chord keys to black keys, so to have more whites for riffs, is decidely good, and I am able to use riff keys even with my current little 32-keys keyboard

A larger keyboard will be better anyway, and I think I’ll re-buy my old 49-keys one

I don’t think I’ll go for a 66 or 88-keys anyway, because I don’t have enough space

I’ll let you know what I find using the trial more, above all about stability that was a severe issue with SC2

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Stability seems improved

About the GUI, if were a hacker, I would kill all the pages leaving only one, but I am not an hacker so I must survive to that bulk of useless features & buttons :rofl:

Joking aside, I see a potential in the only section I use in my current workflow, that is Section C Keys lock

It seems that many more grace notes are available now; unwanted jumps are reduced (not eliminated), but I think that using black keys to select chords can be a issue for those accustomed to a real pianoforte

I’ll keep trialling it

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Maybe I didn’t see an option that exists already, but moving first the chord progression from Section C to the Create page using a righ click menu, then sending it to the Main track using a righ click menu again is a nuisance

I tried internal D&Ds but it doesn’t work :thinking:

Also tested the standalone:

very stable to crashes

easy to create simple backing tracks, or jingles maybe

Jamstix GUI partially hidden so unusable, but works with UJAM drums

impossible to come back after having selected some performances (I think to remember it’s an old bug)

I’ll never use it; too much robotic and I hate robots :rofl:

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Hey guys! As you know I f****g love Scaler 3. Have been really busy this year (much of that thanks to scaler tbh) so unable to provide much feedback here or in beta but please know I use it every day.

Kudos aside, please consider more gestures refinements for folk with big fingers using iPad. Graphic art apps like Affinity Design, Procreate, etc do this the best imo. Copy, paste, and adjusting length of midi notes are particular pain points as it is difficult to get consistent behavior. Tiny Zoom bar is also kind of janky due to my big nubs. Be great if I could zoom to scene with one gesture. 4 finger scroll and spread em to zoom or something similar.

For example, I think it would be quicker if you could use right finger to simply tap select a chord, note or scene with right finger, then with left finger tap/hold anywhere on glass with two fingers and selection automatically goes into length edit mode and stays that way until another two finger tap to deactivate. I feel this would make it easier/quicker to focus on editing length without miss taps, or accidentally effecting other things. It also clears the path toward painlessly editing length of several chords/notes/scenes at once. The current way causes alot of accidental taps and movement impacting other stuff for me so I’m constantly hitting undo.

Also, please enable a way to select, duplicate, copy and paste multiple scenes to speed up arranging workflow. I just discovered how phenomenal using scenes in Scaler 3 is for arranging full compositions but I’ve only been able to copy one scene at a time. I’d like to be able to lasso a whole 16 bar (verse) scene, an 8 bar (hook) scene and duplicate it 3x to immediately create a song arrangement sketch I can then drop back in to edit later.

On that score, it would be amazing if there was a scene link/lock function that when enabled, allows edits to one scene populate other linked instances of the same scene. Magic bro.lol. Unlinked means changes only affect the selected scene.

Pardon my rambles and I hope that made a little cent$.lol. Keep up the good work team. Scaler 3 is truly Won of a kind :trophy:!

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I used Scaler 2 for a long time and then bought Scaler 3 when it came out. I’ve spent many hours watching official tutorial videos as well using Scaler 3 in Ableton Live Suite 12. With Scaler 2, everything you need is easily accessible, plainly labeled, and intuitively placed. After so many hours messing with Scaler 3 (and being even more confused than when I started), I’m going back to Scaler 2.

I appreciate new features, but I think it’s a step in the wrong direction to sacrifice basic functionality and ease of use for them. Is there any chance Scaler 3 will become more user friendly in the future?

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Hi @HikeThePlanets. Welcome to the forum and thanks for your thoughts and feedback. Scaler 3 is certainly a different beast to Scaler 2, but much effort was put into maintaining the same basic workflow where possible, whilst adding all the powerful new functionality. There were of course some drastic changes made regarding the main track etc. but we feel the learning curve is worthwhile for all that extra flexibility and functionality.

Note that the Scaler 3.3 update is currently in progress and on track for release in July. This update brings an enormous list of improvements in all sorts of areas which we’re sure you’ll love and we feel greatly improves the overall usability. We’re very excited to share these with users soon, so definitely stay tuned to the forum for all the details coming soon!

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Hi @HikeThePlanets

If you search for my old threads and posts, you’ll realize I was very angry (both as a beta-tester, and a SC2 user) about this new path, and one of the most critics in this forum

But after some time I realized that the tool seemed to be overwheeming, but it was actually easy to use for the commonest workflows

so if a super-critic like me became a SC3 lover it is for a number of sound reasons

As a further evidence, I posted mini-tutorials (and I will post others later) that show how easy is obtaining simple things

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@ClaudioPorcellana I’d like to see those tutorials please? I’m still in the real frustration phase with SC3 workflow

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Have you tried to open the SC3 tutorial page and look at my name?

SC3 tutorials

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No Claudio. I didn’t know. Thanks for the pointer though.

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Don’t expect any video anyway; I prefer a few words and pictures
:grin:

And, look at @Miki posts as well; he is a good person, always ready to help

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Ah ok, TBH I did prefer video haha, but no worries.

Thanks for the heads-up :slight_smile:

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Suggestions and Feedback for Future Versions of Scaler

First of all, I would like to say that I really enjoy working with Scaler. It has become one of my favorite creative tools and I use it regularly, both inside and outside a DAW. The standalone version in particular fits very well into my songwriting workflow.

After working with Scaler for quite some time, I would like to share a few ideas and suggestions that could make an already excellent product even better.

1. Dedicated Song/Project Management

Currently, complete working environments can be saved as presets. However, for me a preset and a song are two very different things.

A preset is something I would like to reuse frequently in different contexts. A song project, on the other hand, is usually unique and only relevant while developing that particular song.

I would therefore love to see a dedicated project/song management system in Scaler.

For example:

  • Save complete song projects separately from presets.

  • Open and continue working on multiple song ideas.

  • Organize unfinished song sketches more easily.

  • Return to older compositions without having to use the preset system as a workaround.

As a songwriter, I often work on several songs simultaneously, and a true project concept would make the standalone version even more powerful.

2. Improved Plugin Scanning

I appreciate that Scaler does not automatically rescan plugins all the time. Manual scanning can actually be very useful.

However, when the scan fails, it would be extremely helpful if Scaler could:

  • display which plugin caused the failure,

  • create a detailed scan log,

  • continue scanning the remaining plugins instead of aborting the entire process.

At the moment, if a single plugin fails, the whole scan process stops and no newly scanned plugins are added. Better diagnostics would greatly simplify troubleshooting.

3. Better Handling of Permissions During Installation

I recently discovered that plugin scanning only worked correctly when running Scaler as Administrator.

Perhaps the installer could automatically configure the required permissions during installation, similar to how many DAWs handle this internally.

This could prevent confusion for many users.

4. User Surveys and Community Feedback

Many software companies regularly ask users for feedback through surveys.

I would love to see Scaler Music occasionally send out short user surveys to better understand how musicians actually use the software and what features they would like to see in future versions.

Scaler already has a fantastic community, and I believe involving users even more could make the product even stronger.

Thank you very much to the Scaler team for creating such an inspiring and creative tool. I am looking forward to future versions and would be happy to continue providing constructive feedback as a long-time user.

Best regards,

Dirk Müller