Is there any thing like Ableton's "Scale" for iPad? (Constrain *ext* keyboard to chord notes only.)

johnfromberkeley

Info on scale here:

http://abletonlife.com/midi-effect-tutorial-how-to-use-abletons-scale

I'd like to do this with a physical midi keyboard. Any ideas?

Matt_Fletcher_2000

Thumbjam will do this I think. You pass midi through it and can remap all notes to a custom scale. Think you can also map to white notes only.

Will

Jesse should really add a tag line:

Thumbjam:
The App That Keeps on Giving.

The white keys only option in TJ is fecking magic. You can find the options for it within the MIDI section of the options menu. I have a 0.1sec empty sample that I've saved into a TJ preset for this purpose (mostly because I'm not sure how it works with resources).

MIDIFlow can do this as well but it's not as easy as it is with TJ—you have to bring your own scale files to the party.

CalCutta

ChordPolyPad can do this easily

johnfromberkeley

@CalCutta said:
ChordPolyPad can do this easily

How do you do this with chordpolypad?

When I plug in an external keyboard, the keys trigger individual pads.

Will

After actually reading the linked article, if you are looking to manually map notes on your keyboard to specific notes, MIDIFlow is what you'll want. You can read/see about it here: http://www.midiflow.com/documentation/#routings-modifiers-note-remapping

CalCutta

Set up the chords on the pads you want in CPP, set CPP to output to whatever app you want (or CPP's internal sounds if you prefer), and set the MIDI In to be from your controller. When you press keys on the controller, it will trigger chords from CPP into whatever synth you have set on CPP's MIDI Out (or CPP's internal sounds).

I like doing this with NeoSoul Keys.

Will

And for completeness ... http://thumbjam.com/usersguide#midi and scroll down until you see Input Scale Lock

johnfromberkeley

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:
Thumbjam will do this I think. You pass midi through it and can remap all notes to a custom scale. Think you can also map to white notes only.

Thanks, Matt and Syrupcore.

I'm pretty sure that thumbjam has an option to make me a smoothie somewhere in there!

johnfromberkeley

@CalCutta said:
Set up the chords on the pads you want in CPP, set CPP to output to whatever app you want (or CPP's internal sounds if you prefer), and set the MIDI In to be from your controller. When you press keys on the controller, it will trigger chords from CPP into whatever synth you have set on CPP's MIDI Out (or CPP's internal sounds).

I like doing this with NeoSoul Keys.

I get it. I do this all the time, and great tip for others.

But, this is not what Ableton Scale does. I want to be able to play individual keys on a keyboard that only play the individual notes of a specified scale. I'm not looking to trigger chords.

I imagine you could do it in CPP by matching each individual pad to the right note, but that would be exhausting for all 88pk (if it's even achievable.)

CalCutta

That would be achievable, and you could save the profile for easy recall. If you have TJ and it's easier, go that way.

Will

By the way, MIDIFlow is kind enough to offer Import/Export of values for remapping via the clipboard. That means that you can use something like a text file or Numbers to make the lists and then import them directly into the app. Again, not as easy as TJ's scale presets but it should help. http://www.midiflow.com/documentation/#import-export-remapping-lists

Full disclosure, I haven't actually tried it yet though it's on my list. I was thinking with a little bit of formula magic in something like Numbers, it should be pretty easy to generate scale lists with info like the following from http://www.guitarland.com/Music10/FGA/LectureMIDIscales.html#6. Each number is an interval from the root (0).

/* 8 steps */
major_scale           = 0,2,2,1,2,2,2,1
natural_minor         = 0,2,1,2,2,1,2,2
melodic_minor         = 0,2,1,2,2,2,2,1
harmonic_minor        = 0,2,1,2,2,1,3,1
dorian                = 0,2,1,2,2,2,1,2
phrygian              = 0,1,2,2,2,1,2,2
lydian                = 0,2,2,2,1,2,2,1
mixolydian            = 0,2,2,1,2,2,1,2
aeolian               = 0,2,1,2,2,1,2,2
locrian               = 0,1,2,2,1,2,2,2
lydian_domiant        = 0,2,2,2,1,2,1,2
super_locrian         = 0,1,2,1,2,2,2,2

/* 6 steps */
minor_pentatonic      = 0,3,2,2,3,2
major_pentatonic      = 0,2,2,3,2,3

/* 7 steps */
minor_blues           = 0,3,2,1,1,3,2
major_blues           = 0,2,1,1,3,2,3

/* 9 steps */
whole_half_diminished = 0,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1
half_whole_diminished = 0,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2

The math trick for me would be to make each series work with white keys only. Probably easier to generate the lists with an actual programming language than futzing with Numbers though my Excel Fu is not strong. Any Excel masters out there want to hook the community up?

Also, not having actually tried it, I'm not sure if you can enter these in MIDIFlow and then use the note-offset simultaneously to set the key to something other than C.

@JohannesD I would gladly pay for an IAP that included scale mapping presets.

Will

For the inspired: the motherload of scale definitions: https://github.com/Air-Craft/MusicalLib/blob/8b28bcf1294b7bc737d7c4626f6d03ecd836239c/MusicalLib/MusicalScaleData.json

johnfromberkeley

@syrupcore said:
For the inspired: the motherload of scale definitions: https://github.com/Air-Craft/MusicalLib/blob/8b28bcf1294b7bc737d7c4626f6d03ecd836239c/MusicalLib/MusicalScaleData.json

I've been looking everywhere for a Mela Simhendramadhyama tuning!