Thanks Davide for the reply.
I should have said I am forever grateful for Scaler and the patience to listen to our ideas.
I used alot of musts,coulds and shoulds in my post which I feel upon reflection was abit much.
What I meant to say is I recommend,kindly suggest.
The reality is, there is no other out there like Scaler.
Most charge extra for the patterns and different musical patterns like Jazz,blues,rock etc.
I guess it is a positive kind of fustration for some people,like arriving at an amusement park and wanting to go on every roller caster ride all at the same time.
What I mean is Scaler has so many exciting roller coaster style themes it can be overwhelming because of said excitement.
In short Scaler as it is is a nice problem to have,if that makes any sense.
Stick with 2 then. The upgrade (especially now 3.1) is incredibly inexpensive and works significantly better for the other tools I use. The point is, 3 is not for you but 2 is. If you let what does not work for you ruin your focus, that is up to you. This not a $1000 vst orchestra that sounds like noise, for its cost just let it go. I do classical stuff and it’s worth much more than I paid, but if it didn’t work I just find something else.
I use the sequencer section.
Go to the bass track.
There is no instrument I can load up or bass sequence in that track.
It is labelled Funk 2 but it is empty.
How do I find a sequence to fit that block?
How on Earth do I select a bass sound for the bass track?
It is too OTT for me.
I’d rather just use Cubase’s tools which are more suited for me.
This software more suited to Einstein.
Menus within menus which interchange with each other.
I get totally confused.
I’m sure those with a technical mind will love it but not me.
I might as well play the notes because this software is all over the place,not practical FOR ME lol.
I have brain fog as it is.
This software makes me depressed sigh.
Plus my failing eyesight does not help squinting into the tiny icons.
Guys from a business and ambitious perspective I get it… I promise I do… but the Arrange page/trying to be DAW-like thing is dragging Scaler 3 down a tad. Again, I see the play for sure, and respect it, but that just isn’t what most people use Scaler for in the first place from what I can see. I’m not saying abandon it because who am I to say that, but I think it’s ultimately just bogging down Scaler 3. I would have still purchased it without those elements and been satisfied. Luckily for me, it’s inclusion doesn’t bother me as bad as others, but I can’t help thinking the plugin would run a lot smoother without all that stuff.
This echoes my thoughts on Scaler quite accurately too. I have basic musical theory knowledge, am self taught on guitar/keyboards and have been composing music for decades now. I always used my ear to create music without ever really encountering any limiting barriers and was hoping to use scaler as more of an inspirational tool but it appears to me that some advanced theory knowledge is actually required? I have played around with Scaler 3 only for a few hours recently since upgrading from Scaler 2 (Which i never really used) a few months ago and i feel like i am struggling a little in my experience. Given people’s brains work differently there has to be a workflow that could work laterally in a creative way if that makes sense? I really like the explore section of Scaler 3 which in my mind is the part that could be fleshed out and expanded as a great way to somewhat intuitively chance upon ideas and progressions that appeal to my ear that i can then sketch out and develop further. Personally, i don’t have any use or want to use Scaler for anything other than chord progs, my daw does all of that perfectly well and it does feel a little like it’s trying to be too much here. Not trying to be negative here either and for those who love being able to multi part arrange all in Scaler i am very happy for you! Perhaps some more in depth tutorials that focus solely on method/workflow and the actual creative process (i know this varies) around using Scaler for inspiration would be a good idea too because of all of the videos i have watched thus far nothing has really clicked, and a lot the progressions that are being demonstrated from scratch are sounding quite random. I am looking forward to spending more time with Scaler to see how i can make it work for me as someone who considers themselves to be very creative but can get bogged down with the math. Perhaps i should just try out Scaler 2 to see if that might suit me better?
Key Switching Would Be Nice So You Can Switch Between Section A / B And C
Extracting Voice From User Presets And Applying Them In Section B & C
Section A:
Adjustment Area Of The Semitones Is Very Small, Making It Very Hard To See Without Having Making The Plugin Window Bigger
Scrolling Up And Down Semitones Scrolls In Increments Of 2 Making It Sticky For Laptop Users.
Section C:
Exploring Scale Families (With Key Switching Without Losing Current Voicing)
Apply Voicing After Extracting (Like In Scaler 2)
Midi Capture (Like In Scaler 2)
Virtual Piano Keyboard & Semitone Buttons Are Too Small For Efficient Editing.
Create Page:
Circle Of Fifths: Loses The Current Voicing While Using The Circle Of Fifths
Modulation: Loses The Current Voicing While Using Modulation
Colors: Key Switching Would Be Great
Sketch: Key Switching Would Be Great
Arrange Page:
Main Track: Adjust Chord Length Moves In Increments Of Beats Making It Difficult For Precision Editing
Midi Editor: Can’t Adjust Chord / Note Length At All In PIano Roll
SUMMARY
Extract Voicing Exists, But There’s No Apply Voicing Like Scaler 2, Limiting Fluid Workflow.
Exploring Scale Families Remains Clunky (Also True In Scaler 2) And Needs Better Fluidity.
Capture Midi Is Absent, Which Was Highly Useful In Scaler 2.
Editing Midi In Scaler 3’s Piano Roll Is Impractical (Difficult Note Manipulation, Poor Visibility, Can’t Drag Lengths Precisely, No Fine Control In 1/6ths In Section C).
Scale Highlighting On The Virtual Keyboard Is Insufficient When Editing Clusters And Intervals, Making Scale Context Unclear.
Midi Editor Lacks Flexibility: Cannot Drag Individual Note Lengths Easily, Can Only Resize Chords In Fixed Beat Chunks.
CORE ISSUE: NAVIGATING SCALE FAMILY & CHORD FUNCTION
My Ear-First Workflow Means I Often Find A Chord I Like, But Don’t Know Which Scale Family It Belongs To.
Scaler 3’s Current System Makes Scale Exploration Slow And Disjointed, Requiring Manual Browsing And Trial/Error That Breaks Creative Momentum.
This Is Especially Hard When Working With Extended And Colored Chords, Which Often Don’t Appear In Suggested Scales.
FURTHERMORE:
Thank You Scaler Music Team, Scaler Has Been Central To My Workflow For Building Advanced And Sophisticated Progressions In Hip-Hop, R&B, Lo-Fi, And Soul For A While Now. We Appreciate You All.
I have to say that even when I’m grateful for the team listening to feedback and the latest update, I still find Scaler 3 has become extremely unintuitive and a lot of easy functionalities that were there already in Scaler 2 are not working anymore.
For example, every time you want to modify a chord the whole UI forces you into the circle of fifths view, I don’t quite understand why such a move is necessary. There is also no easy way to create chords from zero without having a midi keyboard attached like we used to have in Scaler 2.
In many of the views once I choose a pattern in the motions section it seems to be impossible to replace the chosen motion for a different one, even selecting the chord and with the motions tab being activated there is often no way to select a different motion and the arrow keys on the right of the selected motion have no effect. There is no point on having that option if it doesn’t work in most views and situations.
Someone has mentioned above that people who liked Scaler 2 and are unhappy with Scaler 3 changes should go back to 2, or that this is meant for people with more music theory knowledge, but I strongly disagree, we have paid the same amount as anyone else and the tool has never been marketed as a tool meant only for people with a certain level of music theory knowledge.
It is also to expect that a software with 2 major iterations is not going to remove basic functions in the third one but improve on what’s already working, even when the UI might move things here and there, the problem is that a lot of functionalities that were available before seem to be not there anymore or so limitied and hidden that the user experience has worsened significantly.
I really don’t know what is the point of locking chord editing to a single view when the new version has so many different views and nothing really speaks against being able to edit chords in any of the given tabs and views, unless what speaks against it is an internal bad decision from the software developer, which isn’t the end user’s fault.
I like the tool but the experience is becoming really frustrating for no visible reason for many users of previous versions and loyal customers of this tool. So if the devs are really listening I hope they take a look into the points I and other people have mentioned here then the latest update didn’t really seem to address them.
Same here. I tried for a couple of months to adapt but unfortunately the decision to use this type of interface engine made the new version less functional for me. A lot of clicks and menus and popups. The interface takes more space for no apparent reason. So i switched to the good old version and workflow since i couln’t adapt to the new. Maybe i am old and cant adapt easily but thats how it works for me… hope in a future version (maybe 4) things will change again for the better. TBH the new version look like what windows 8 was for the windows series…
I like the concept of the Arrange page. Scaler 3 allows me to try things in ways Scaler 2 cannot.
That said, it needs refinement and that will take some time. The current version of Scaler 2 didn’t just materialize as is. It had a lot of iterations/updates.
By the time a few more updates of Scaler 3 happen, it will be a tool I will use more than I did Scaler 2. So this user sees V3 as a happy step forward from V2.
It’s not uncommon for a complete re-write of an existing plugin to diverge and at times drop functionality. For example, Zebra 3 will be released towards the end of this year and at the time of release it will not have all the tools that Zebra 2 has.
removing some tools is one thing, removing basic functions a completely different story, specially when there aren’t any real reasons to do so, that’s where an experienced team should be aware of their decisions regarding user experience
That’s fair. I mean like I said, I personally can’t see the use for it right now, but I’m open to being shown different be it through other workflow vids or future updates. Perhaps, as is, it’s more for people that don’t really have a DAW or something.
I never want to come off like I’m downing Scaler 3. For the most part I like it.