Ableton Forum

First of, im loving live 12!! Best version update ever in my opinion. Micro tuning with matching piano roll rocks my workflow world. I have wanted this for 15+ years. In fact all the new midi tools in the piano roll rocks hard.

Regarding scales there is something I have also wanted for years, but I cant figure out if it is added in 12 or not. Im not on the beta. Ive seen most of the Live 12 videos on youtube. You see when I make a melody I sit down by the keyboard and just play around with all notes open, and when I get something I like, I record it to midi. Nothing out of the ordinary, right?

Well I do not know the name of every scale that exists, yet I would like to use the scale I just created as the global scale for the project!


Do I have to click through all the scales to see which one matches mine, or can I now finally just highlight my recorded notes and click “find my scale”? Or something along those lines.

Questions specific to beta versions should be asked on Centercode.

Ok, but I do not have the beta. Not yet anyhow. I am on the waiting list. All I know is from watching various YouTube videos.

Ah, fair point. Sorry, I guess that’s what I get for not reading your post closely enough.

The short answer is that I have no clue. I am more a sound designer than a keyboardist, so I’ve never tried doing such a thing even with Live 11 (or earlier).

You might find some relevant information in the Live 12 beta release notes, which you can find by searching the knowledge base (‘Help’ under the menu on the main Ableton website) for ‘Live release notes’. Now that the public beta has begun they are openly available to anyone..

Nope, there's no automatic scale recognition.

Ah ok

Well thanks for replying!

I wish they would add it in the future, because its something I would use on a daily basis. Its partly there already with the fold function. Perhaps it could be something like the Groove pool, a selection of created and stored scales used in the project.

For those with a musical ear (but no theory knowledge) it is counter productive to click through a large selection of scale “presets” to try to find the right one, rather than just recording it to midi instantly. Workflow.

I would not even care about the name of the recorded scale. No need to auto search a scale database. All I would like is to write my own scale on the piano roll and have it used as the global scale(s).

ze2be wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 09, 2023 12:44 pm

Well I do not know the name of every scale that exists, yet I would like to use the scale I just created as the global scale for the project!

This is - sadly - a misunderstanding

The key & scale that's displayed at the top of the screen shows you what key & scale is selected for clips at the playhead position and if on different tracks the choices are different, then it will show that info with a "dashed" graphical pattern, like when showing diverging parameters of multiple selected clips...

Sadly, the feature is nothing like a global key & scale and chord track functionality Cubase or S1 have, where you have a dedicated "conductor" track that automatically forces (transposes) clips into whatever key & scale is present on the Chord Track. There, you can write a 4 bar sequence in C, then duplicate it 4 times and use the Chord Track to do a 16-bar chord progression through different keys & scales.

See how it works in Studio One: https://youtu.be/643H-bjzfnE

antic604 wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:46 pm

See how it works in Studio One: https://youtu.be/643H-bjzfnE

Wow, thats musically super intuitive. Really nice for composing.

"There is no such thing as a Global Scale"
end of quote.

chapelier fou wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 12, 2023 8:27 pm

"There is no such thing as a Global Scale"
end of quote.

Please gimme the beta already jur! Im freakin dying of curiosity here!

[jur] wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 13, 2023 12:26 am

chapelier fou wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 12, 2023 8:27 pm

"There is no such thing as a Global Scale"
end of quote.

What's funny about this?

It’s been an ongoing debate among us early testers, sorry inside joke.

Yes, sorry for this !