Sundog Scale Studio 2.0 composition software released

[steff3]

Question. Extended chords, when?

Like 9th, 11th, 13th? I'm tinkering around with various ideas to add additional chords. But everything has to fit into the given user interface. Personally I'd rather have less chords instead of too many. But obviously there are times where the full set would be nice

Hello, I am trying your software currently - and quite like it - great workflow. Currently using it on Win8 (Surface Pro 3) - some artefacts in UI layout there. The Scale selector is partly over the step sequencer frame.

and your comment - well, what screens is the interface designed for? On the surface as on most modern Windows computers one has a screen resolution of full hd or higher - so the interface becomes pretty small on those devices and thus usability suffers to some degree IMHO.
ok, the Macbooks have a smaller design resolution with high pixel density - which makes it harder to have a great UI layout for both platforms.

I would also like to see those additional chords - and on Win there is plenty of space - maybe you can use something like the folded option one has in Live's piano-roll editor - use scrolling to display all chords when selecting and the option to fold the list when done?

Another enhancement for the Chord "sequencer" - it is great that I can adapt the chord - but it would be great if it would then still highlight the chord box from which my modification originated - maybe with a different colour to indicate that it got modified.

Just my thoughts,

best, Steff

[sambo]

Hi,

Loving this app but is there a way to work with the Chord window without having to define a key/mode - some of the chords I'm working with need an open chromatic setting rather than trying to constrain them to a static mode/key.

Cheers,

[hauke]

Question. Extended chords, when?

Like 9th, 11th, 13th? I'm tinkering around with various ideas to add additional chords. But everything has to fit into the given user interface. Personally I'd rather have less chords instead of too many. But obviously there are times where the full set would be nice

Hello, I am trying your software currently - and quite like it - great workflow. Currently using it on Win8 (Surface Pro 3) - some artefacts in UI layout there. The Scale selector is partly over the step sequencer frame.

and your comment - well, what screens is the interface designed for? On the surface as on most modern Windows computers one has a screen resolution of full hd or higher - so the interface becomes pretty small on those devices and thus usability suffers to some degree IMHO.
ok, the Macbooks have a smaller design resolution with high pixel density - which makes it harder to have a great UI layout for both platforms.

I would also like to see those additional chords - and on Win there is plenty of space - maybe you can use something like the folded option one has in Live's piano-roll editor - use scrolling to display all chords when selecting and the option to fold the list when done?

Another enhancement for the Chord "sequencer" - it is great that I can adapt the chord - but it would be great if it would then still highlight the chord box from which my modification originated - maybe with a different colour to indicate that it got modified.

Just my thoughts,

best, Steff

Hi Steff,

thanks for your feedback!

A little bit of background info: When Sundog started some months ago the chords page (and everything) was waaaaay smaller. I worked with a fixed screen / UI dimension because this simply made sense back then.
Now Sundog has grown quite a lot, and I will have to do a rewrite of the UI to add other things. In some parts this is simple, others will take some time.
But I see the points . I got requests for smaller screen resolutions as well, so I will see what can be done to bridge the gap.

Best regards,
Hauke

[hauke]

Hi,

Loving this app but is there a way to work with the Chord window without having to define a key/mode - some of the chords I'm working with need an open chromatic setting rather than trying to constrain them to a static mode/key.

Cheers,

Hi sambo,

a chromatic chord mode is planned, but I'm still doing some research on that and tinker around with different implementation concepts.

Cheers,
Hauke

[izwun2]

Hey Huake,

Another Cubase 8 user here. I'm having an issue similar to the one Tony had that was discussed in the beta thread. My problem is with the MIDI channels too, but in another manner.

I would make 4 varying patterns on channels 1 - 4 in Sundog, and have those routed to 4 instrument tracks in Cubase accordingly. But I hear the 4 outs from Sundog on each of the Cubase tracks, for whatever reason, like my channels in C8 are set to "any".

I know you're without a demo of Cubase to really effort out a solution, but posting it anyway just in case you or someone else has an idea about how to fix it.

Meanwhile I'm just gonna continue having fun with this program, because the MS wavetable synth is good enough for capturing an idea and the drag 'n drop works flawlessly.

I'm using cubase pro 8 on Windows 7 64 - tried loopmidi, loopbe1 and copperlan virtual MIDI cables.

[hauke]

Hi izwun2,

Tony sent me a screenshot that he allowed me to use for a setup guide (thank you!). The guide isn't finished yet, but I can post the screenshot here. Maybe it helps you:



I think there are two important parts:
1) The Cubase channel must be set to the virtual MIDI cable + MIDI channel that Sundog uses as well (but you wrote that you already did that)
2) You must "arm" the channels for recording: The recording symbols of all channels must be activated.

Cheers,
Hauke

[knewspeak]

Question. Extended chords, when?

Like 9th, 11th, 13th? I'm tinkering around with various ideas to add additional chords. But everything has to fit into the given user interface. Personally I'd rather have less chords instead of too many. But obviously there are times where the full set would be nice

Hello, I am trying your software currently - and quite like it - great workflow. Currently using it on Win8 (Surface Pro 3) - some artefacts in UI layout there. The Scale selector is partly over the step sequencer frame.

and your comment - well, what screens is the interface designed for? On the surface as on most modern Windows computers one has a screen resolution of full hd or higher - so the interface becomes pretty small on those devices and thus usability suffers to some degree IMHO.
ok, the Macbooks have a smaller design resolution with high pixel density - which makes it harder to have a great UI layout for both platforms.

I would also like to see those additional chords - and on Win there is plenty of space - maybe you can use something like the folded option one has in Live's piano-roll editor - use scrolling to display all chords when selecting and the option to fold the list when done?

Another enhancement for the Chord "sequencer" - it is great that I can adapt the chord - but it would be great if it would then still highlight the chord box from which my modification originated - maybe with a different colour to indicate that it got modified.

Just my thoughts,

best, Steff

Hi Steff,

I had the same problem that you have got with the UI, running Win 8.1 on my laptop, found out that scaling was set to 125%, I reduced this to 110% the UI then displayed correctly, it was also affecting some of my plugins, hope this helps.

[tonymax]

@izwun,

hi, as you can see in the screenhot i had to arm the tracks for recording and turn off monitoring for each intrument, ive been able to use all channels and route drums from sundog to the pads on groove agent 4 using this, but i am still playing with it.

im using loopbe1 as a virtual midi cable from sundog to cubase as you can see in the screenshot as well.

Tony

Hi izwun2,

Tony sent me a screenshot that he allowed me to use for a setup guide (thank you!). The guide isn't finished yet, but I can post the screenshot here. Maybe it helps you:



I think there are two important parts:
1) The Cubase channel must be set to the virtual MIDI cable + MIDI channel that Sundog uses as well (but you wrote that you already did that)
2) You must "arm" the channels for recording: The recording symbols of all channels must be activated.

Cheers,
Hauke

[izwun2]

Thanks for the replies, Hauke and Tony.

I attached some shots (sorry for the oversized pics). The 2 bottom screenshots are of channel 1 soloed in Sundog and the resulting activity in Cubase.

However, I just tried using a multi-timbral instrument (both Halion5 and Kontakt 5 separately, within Cubase), and when loading up 4 patches on the corresponding channels within them, and setting their input channel to "any", then it works fine. Any ideas about this?

I've got plenty of sounds between those two VSTis, so at least I get more options now.

Sun Prefs.jpg

Sun Solo.jpg

C8 4 ch.JPG

[Roc77]

Hello, I like the idea of the sequencer and others have spoke about needing more variation in the ability to place chords in different rhythm patterns. (Hope this is forth coming)

I would also like to see the chord sequencer updated to 32 slots and show the actual chord names with the tensions carried over.


I would like to request a player mode where the chords of a selected palette can be dragged to pads (32) that can be played back from a controller. Right now the sequencer slots can be clicked with mouse and recorded in a daw but 32 pads nicely labeled and showing tensions would be a lot better (imho).

Playing chords the way its set up now isn't conducive because you don't have access to all the chords of a palette via a controller or a computer keyboard, the shift key only goes down one level. For this mode the sequencer can be switched to pads. The patterns for melodies could be triggered this way as welL.

I would also like to request a persistent window (stay on top) option so Sundog doesn't disappear when I need to work in my daw for some reason. Thanks.

[hauke]

Hi Roc77,

thanks a lot for your feedback and your ideas! I will put them on my list and consider them for a future update
This would be going strongly into the direction of a live performance mode then.

Best regards,
Hauke

[Phorous]

Hello, have a bug to report but not sure if this is the right place.

Basically after having configured Sundog with a MIDI port to use, if the MIDI port is not present on startup Sundog will crash (tested on Windows 8.1 x64)

The only way to fix it is to recreate the MIDI device with the exact same name. For me I had a loopback MIDI device named "Sundog" and it worked after I re added it.

By the way really enjoying writing with the software

[hauke]

Ah, thanks I will take a look! It shouldn't crash of course . Usually it will simply stay silent then.
If you have a crash log I'd be happy if you could send it to hauke (dot) menges (at) feelyoursound.com

Best regards,
Hauke

[Roc77]

Thanks Hauke for the quick reponse. It would also be cool to have a note proximity option so the chords play progressions with the notes staying as close as possible so the progressions in the sequencer sound as natural as a piano player might play them. Like an auto inversion feature per chord.

And also please give us the option to manually set the inversion (up to 6 please) for each chord in a progression just in case one inversion sounds better for the music we're making. This can be done after the fact once imported into a daw by transposing certain notes but I'd like to actually hear the progression as naturally as possible during the creation of it. Thanks.

[hauke]

For the next version I will implement a quicker approach to chord inversions. You can press arrow up/down then to listen to different inversions. This should speed up some things