I realize this is a complete newb question and probably has more to do with my limited knowledge of music theory (but hey, I’m trying to learn, that’s why I got Scaler in the first place)…
Sometimes I “mess around” with melodies and progressions in Logic. Then I go to Scaler (controller mode) to detect the scale for what I’ve just played. Now if I go to the piano roll and have Logic quantize the notes to a completely different scale, Logic will move the notes around, BUT when I ask Scaler to detect the “new” scale, it will suggest a different scale than what I have quantized the notes to in Logic’s piano roll (often the original scale it detected, before it was changed). In fact, no matter how I quantize my notes in Logic, Scaler always comes up with a different scale than the settings in Logic.
What am I missing here? Shouldn’t Scaler detect the same scale that Logic quantized to? Which one should I trust?
(I do realize that this is a completely backwards way to make music and as I newbie I should work in scaler and just bind the midi keys to specific scales. Still I wonder how Logic and Scaler can get so out of sync).
Welcome to the forum @Archile This is difficult to answer without knowing exactly what you are doing and exactly what results you are getting. A simple explanation is that you are getting the same scale but it may be a relative minor of a major scale (C Major / A Minor feature the same keys as an example). Usually there is a good explanation.
Thanks for the response Davide. Its not exactly a relative scales issue, but I think you are on the right track with some of my “messy” melodies either not clearly fitting into a single specific scale, or having notes that they could belong to multiple scales. Logic forces notes into the scale I set, whereas Scaler is more free to choose from different possibilities (and it usually defaults to the first note/chord wherever possible, which makes perfect sense). I will need to go through what I’ve created note for note to double-check this is the case. But I guess for now I can just trust that scaler is detecting correctly. (Probably pretty obvious to those with a half-decent understanding of music theory). Thanks for the help
One more quick, somewhat related question:
Does Scaler “detect” scales based on the midi notes in the piano role or the actual “sound” of the midi instrument as it plays. I’m asking because I have a few cinematic plug-ins that seem to oscillate between notes the longer they are held; as wells a few guitar plug-ins that don’t really seem to follow the midi in the piano roll at all.
When set to MIDI Scaler 2 detect MIDI notes as opposed to when it is set to AUDIO in which it detects and analyses incoming audio. MIDI is always going to be much more accurate.