Yes, but you still need to dance around the Tonic & Dominant chords no matter how you do it

I have a template that I fire up when I am in the mood, and this process has produced a treasure trove of chord & melody ideas that I've stashed away for a rainy day. It's also good to practice harmonizing a melody and vice versa whenever you can. I've noticed that the best songwriters don't spend ages on a specific song idea, the basic outline is done in a relatively short period of time.

 

There are a lot of things that can bog you down. That's how I feel using Scaler. I like something more like Cthulu or even the Logic Chord Trigger midi fx plugins instead. But it also really helps to know what you can fix later and what you have to fix immediately or redo.
Reasonable and "Safe" Templates are awesome for that. You can get going right away without all the specifics.

When in doubt, throw it out. I like that new Limu Emu commercial with the actor. "Are we married to Mutual?". Exactly, hell no. Shitcan it now before you spend 2 hours and just delete it then anyway. Working like that in scaler will let you convince yourself you should spend the time. Suspended, dotted, or not; if the melody still sucks. Shitcan it. You should feel even less attached to something generated by a computer.

 

apropos to recent comments. before, the gatekeepers for becoming well known and reaching a sizable audience were the big record companies. that model came with a certain statistical chance for 'making it'... usually the proverbial snowball's chance in hell, or, winning the lottery.

now everyone and their grandmothers are vomiting music. so the entire planet has replaced the record companies by providing its own variant of a snowballs chance for making it.... you're a veritable spit in an ocean. which has me wondering.... has anyone figured out statistically what are the chances for an artist today to achieve a comparable amount of notoriety/income as a charting artist/band back then? I suppose there's a huge amount of 'niche' everything going on today. is that viable comparatively speaking?

don't want to derail topic... just an aside

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2022

It's definitely a 10/10 app for me

 

Last edited: Apr 20, 2022

Scaler 1.7 The Best Music Theory VST Plugin Got Better

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2022

But anyway thanks for your previous comment.

 

it was too political I had to delete it a copy is in your mailbox.

 

Dude. This is gold.

 

Personal opinion: Scaler 2 is a "must-have" in my arsenal, as long as I'll remain a newbie concerning music theory.
Also, I like Orb Producer Suite 3 (by Hexachord) and ChordPulse v2.6 (by Flextron). I never regret to have bought all them!

 

Given your enthusiasm for those products (which I share), I think you might also enjoy these two...

[1] RapidComposer https://www.musicdevelopments.com/
will take a bit of study to figure out - but well worth the effort.

[2] ChordSpace https://www.chordspace.com/ChordSpaceindex.htm
Tiny plugin. Excellent visual tool for chords and chord relationships - with instant gratification written all over it - and it's free!

 

Thank you very much!
Under consideration.
EDIT: unfortunately ChordSpace is 32-bit VSTi only (no 64-bit).

 

Last edited: Apr 20, 2022

True, but I wouldn't let that be a deterrent.
Various solutions exist according to which DAW you use.

But also - a more general solution...
I like to use the free-and-tiny SaviHost to host the ChordSpace plugin which effectively turns ChordSpace into a stand-alone MIDI-generating instrument. After that you may want to use a virtual midi cable (e.g., loopBe) to connect it to whatever tools/instruments/DAWs you like to use to receive the MIDI. This general approach applies to all the MIDI generating plugins mentioned in this thread.

The musical value of ChordSpace (and many similar golden oldies) is such that I would never allow something as mundane as a 'tech spec' to get in the way of using it.

 

I'll second RapidComposer. It's a bit fiddly to first start with, but once you get the hang of it it's a great tool