Scales new feature idea

Hey everybody,

Over the weekend I thought of an idea for a new feature on Scales that I think would be fun and interesting to use. I just wanted to share it here to see if anyone else likes the idea or has any opinions on how it could be made better.

The basic concept is a note “bucket” or “pool” mode where the notes of the selected scale are removed from the scale one by one as they are selected until all of the notes have been played. As each note in the scale is selected, it’s eliminated from the “pool”. Then when the last note in the pool is selected, the pool is reset to include all selected notes again. This would mean that each note would only play once per cycle. I think this would have a different feel to the other modes that would provide some nice musically random results. I think Elektron has this as an arpeggiator option on the A4 and Octatrack and calls it Cycle or Shuffle.

This could be accessed in the Config menu by long-pressing the TRIG A button, and would then be indicated by a flashing light so you can still see if TRIG A is activated. I don’t think it would make sense for OUT B unless DUAL mode was active. Then in regular operation the notes could dim to 50% once eliminated, or flash between regular and dim. What do you all think?

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Interesting!

Further suggestion: make sure it works together with the CV over scale selection, such that changing the scale also resets the note pool (thus besides changing scales, it can also be given a pulse to reset the pool early or just clock synced).

Sounds cool!

Is it possible to switch the mode with CV (e.g. fall back to the normal mode when SHIFT input is high) so that we can mix the random note and fixed note? For example, I might want to fix first and last note and let the other notes chosen in the bucket manner.

This is a great idea! It would give just a touch of order to a more chaotic part.

Interesting ideas! The danger is making the UI too confusing and cluttered by introducing too much.

I like the idea of being able to select a first/last note. Maybe this could be selected with a long press in the regular scale mode view.

Toggling pool mode on/off or reseting are interesting, but it would mean sacrificing your SHIFT functionalities, or TRIG functionalities if it was assigned to that input. If changing scales didn’t come into effect until only the last note was selected I can see that being quite musically interesting. You could probably set something cool up with Quadrax and QX where each pool plays a melody in a different scale.

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Thanks, this sounds simple and enough!

Note elimination mode sounds great.

Can we get a “scale selection” mode?

Each saved scale corresponds to a pitch in a C Major scales (if the black keys represent octaves), right?

So, “note” and “trig” would operate as normal, but “shift” would become a 0-5v 1v/oct input for selecting saved scales (would work for saved sequences, as well, maybe?)

Is this different from assigning SHIFT to SHIFT MODE: SCALE?

It is the same. Thank you for the reply. I look forward to the note elimination. (Third time reading the manual’s a charm!)

Indeed. The eternal temptation of every module that is digital universal computing machine under the hood but a single function on the face plate is to keep adding features ad hoc until it’s a mess of hidden modes and lights blinking at various rates and colors.

I like the idea of a pool of notes that are eliminated once played. It reminds me of twelve tone compositions and I can’t think of how I would patch a pool of notes on a hardware synth and even struggle to think about how I would achieve that in a patcher like Audulus or Max 8. It’s a very specific tool though, and I’m not sure when I would use it apart from becoming electronic Schönberg.

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