Define seven different scale and chord setup, and switch between at anytime. Velocity, lag and probability settings help you to create vibrant and rolling chord progression. With monitoring feature, you’ll see always, what is the result of the chord generation.
The many rows and columns at first glance can be daunting, but it is easier than you think.
One row represents a scale and chord setup. The used row is always highlighted. You can change the selected setup by radio buttons, or the knob on the bottom right corner.
Columns:
Scale part
- Scale root
- Scale or setup name
- Dropdown button for the quick scale setup
- 12 buttons for defining the scale notes
Chord part
- Additional chord root notes (-2,-1,+1,+2 octaves from the played chord root note)
- 15 buttons for defining the chord notes
- Inversion
- And finally dropdown button for additional editing features, clear, copy, randomize, etc…
In the bottom part of the screen, you will see the MIDI monitor, with velocity sensitive colors.
With the Curves button the huge amount of ability opens.
Edit parameters for the selected chord setup by notes:
- Velocity modification
- Velocity variation
- Lag
- Lag variation
- Probability
For increase the dynamism of the play, you can find two more knob for lag settings in the right bottom side of the device. Lag range and reduce lag by velocity knobs can be found here.
Finally, you can transpose the generated output by two more knobs (octaves and semitones)
ScaleMatrix supports 4 kind of performance mode.
- Normal - like in Reason’s Scales & Chords
- Shifted - similar, but the current scale root shifted to the C
- White keys - use only white keys for playing the chords (use this, if the scale has 7 or less notes)
- Black keys - use only black keys for playing the chords (use this, if the scale has 5 or less notes)
In the back side, you can set the used scale library also.
- Common scales: the dropdown list of the scales contains only the scales which included in the Scales & Chords
- Big Scale Library: the dropdown list of the scales contains the big scale library, which is included in ChordLine or some Tonicmint device patches.
- Big Scale Library with special and exotic scales: the previous, plus many other special and exotic scales. Warning: this scales could contain notes which are not playable in any context or not compatible with the equal temperament, but provides a good starting points for experiments and exploration!
What’s new in version 1.2
- The Scale Notes display now indicates the number of notes in the scale
- The Chord Notes display now indicates the root index of the current scale
- Using the mouse click you can now drag to select areas of notes
- Improved visuals in the Curves display (redrawn buttons, gridlines)
- Recolored piano keys in the Monitor display in Show Scale mode
- Scale Tools for browsing/selecting scales with detailed filtering
- Chord Tools for setting up chords quickly
- Stepped menu items now can be pulled on with a mouse to scroll through available options
Scale Tools
The scale in each row can be set by the drop down menu in the row itself and the drop down menu content depends on the scale library setting on the back panel.
ScaleMatrix has a very large scale library and with the new Scale Tool you can explore it more deeply, and more easily find what you are looking for.
Scale Tools displays a list of scales which is filtered by many things.
Filter by groups: Click to the Show Group Filter button and set which groups will be displayed in the scale list.
Filter by name: Are you looking for a scale by name? Just enter a few characters in the name filter.
Filter by notes: Just click which notes are required for your scale.
Filter by length: Are you looking for pentatonic scales? This filter helps you.
The scale list in the display contains the filtered elements from the scale library in a scrollable view.
Click on an item to set the current scale row by the selected scale or you can drag and drop the scale to any row.
Trick: drop the scale over the left side of the matrix to set all scale rows at once.
Chord Tools
Setting the chord shape by clicking in the Chord Notes display is not hard, but you can speed up this process with the Chord Tools.
You can set basic chord shapes for one or all rows by one click.
What’s new in version 1.5
Upgraded to SDK4.0 so Reason 10.1 is required for this version
Guess mode
Like the Reason Studios player Scale & Chords, incoming Midi notes that are not in the current channels scale can be recognised by ScaleMatrix as the closest correct scale note (lower if equal). In Filter mode, notes outside the current scale will be ignored.
New randomization options
Randomly generate a new scale or load a random scale from the whole library or a sub-category, chord notes and scale key if you like too. A combination of these randomisation tools can be loaded into a quick action button for each channel.
UI tweaks
Expanded regions for scale assigning by Drag & Drop to include an assign to all feature.
Drag and shift the scale notes with Alt key. (Press and hold Alt key while clicking and moving mouse on scale notes)
What’s new in version 1.6
Gate and Note CV Outs for the generated chord root notes. For the newest and for the oldest also (for the case, when you are playing not just one finger). With the hold option the CV note stays on the last value, when you are releasing the MIDI key.
Version history
- 1.0.0 Initial release
- 1.0.1 Minor fixes and inverted lag velocity reduction
- 1.2.0 UI improvements
- 1.2.1 Minor fixes
- 1.5.0 Guess mode, new randomization options, UI tweaks, upgraded to SDK4.0 (Reason 10.1 required)
- 1.5.1 Minor fixes
- 1.6.0 CV Outputs
- 1.6.1 Minor fixes
