I think there's an important difference between DAWs that allow to restrict a track to scale so that recording into it actually places notes into the selected scale, and those that merely have a way to remap notes using a realtime midi effect.
Especially in a teaching context the former is really insightful (the result of the note transformation is transparent and immediately visible in the note editor), while the latter seems really confusing as the notes you play, edit, and see being played are not the notes that you hear.
Due to this I wouldn't count e.g. FL Studio and Bitwig to those that do what the thread starter is after. In Bitwig at least it's possible to record the result of the note effects to a new track, but FL doesn't have that option (as far as I'm aware), so basically you're permanently stuck with a mismatch between the notes you see and hear.
Both of those DAWs also don't have a literal "snap to scale" feature in their piano rolls that would prevent placing a note on a key outside of the scale.
Help Needed: Snap to Key/Scale Feature?
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1095 posts since 12 Jan, 2011
Are there any current Snap to Scale utilities available for Mac?
I can't seem to find MIDIForceToKey . . . the website is down.
Cales is for Windows only.
Cales is a VST plugin that allows you to map your keyboard’s keys to a musical scale. This will ensure that you will always stay in key, and never hit a wrong note. When "easy mode" is enabled, you can play any scale using only the white keys with "C" always being the tonic (or "root" note). More than 20 scales are included, and you can add your own custom scales.
Cales can also work as an educational tool. You can use Cales to better understand the various musical scales, as well as to learn those scales by following the visual guides on the plugin's virtual keyboard display.
I can't seem to find MIDIForceToKey . . . the website is down.
Cales is for Windows only.
Cales is a VST plugin that allows you to map your keyboard’s keys to a musical scale. This will ensure that you will always stay in key, and never hit a wrong note. When "easy mode" is enabled, you can play any scale using only the white keys with "C" always being the tonic (or "root" note). More than 20 scales are included, and you can add your own custom scales.
Cales can also work as an educational tool. You can use Cales to better understand the various musical scales, as well as to learn those scales by following the visual guides on the plugin's virtual keyboard display.
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- KVRAF
- 26967 posts since 3 Feb, 2005 from in the wilds
Good point...Dionysos wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 6:34 amDue to this I wouldn't count e.g. FL Studio and Bitwig to those that do what the thread starter is after. In Bitwig at least it's possible to record the result of the note effects to a new track, but FL doesn't have that option (as far as I'm aware), so basically you're permanently stuck with a mismatch between the notes you see and hear.
Both of those DAWs also don't have a literal "snap to scale" feature in their piano rolls that would prevent placing a note on a key outside of the scale.
I've been experimenting with the new Note Grid in Bitwig 4.2. You can do stuff like have track 1 constrain itself to the chords being played on track 2. It was working well in the betas, but now in the release version the pitch quantize module in the Grid is broken. So waiting for 4.2.1 for a bug fix
Once it is sorted, it would be possible for one person to play chords (or full scales) and have a couple other people playing a bassline and melody and they would be constrained to the notes of the chords/scales played... all in realtime.
But yeah, you would need two tracks to see the constrained output in the piano roll. It can be done in one realtime step, but still needs two tracks.
Then there is something like Push (or other grid controllers). They can display the note pads in scales rather than chromatic. So only 'good' notes are possible.
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- KVRist
- 188 posts since 21 Feb, 2022
While it doesn't help for within your class, Chordz is their new version, also free, which can also map chords to single keys. So maybe something to share with your studentstommyzai wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 6:52 am Are there any current Snap to Scale utilities available for Mac?
I can't seem to find MIDIForceToKey . . . the website is down.
Cales is for Windows only.
Cales is a VST plugin that allows you to map your keyboard’s keys to a musical scale. This will ensure that you will always stay in key, and never hit a wrong note. When "easy mode" is enabled, you can play any scale using only the white keys with "C" always being the tonic (or "root" note). More than 20 scales are included, and you can add your own custom scales.
Cales can also work as an educational tool. You can use Cales to better understand the various musical scales, as well as to learn those scales by following the visual guides on the plugin's virtual keyboard display.
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/chordz-by-codefn42
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1095 posts since 12 Jan, 2011
Logic seems to have a work-around for key/scale snapping, but it's a workaround and would be way to clunky, especially in a classroom setting:
Can Live's snap to scale allow users to define exceptions, i.e. accidentals. In my own composing, I often use some out of key notes, mostly b7ths, which sometimes simply becomes a mixolydian mode. Speaking of . . . . any of these snap to scales do modes?
Can Live's snap to scale allow users to define exceptions, i.e. accidentals. In my own composing, I often use some out of key notes, mostly b7ths, which sometimes simply becomes a mixolydian mode. Speaking of . . . . any of these snap to scales do modes?