Ansible scales

bassik · 2016-11-07T14:30:54.087Z

Hello all,

So my adventure with ansible started and I am enjoying it.
Resolved my clock issue, another question came out.

I am trying to figure out exactly how the scale page works.
I get the fact that I have 16 preset scales.
I get teh fact that I can build scale from bottom row up.
I get that each step from teh dimly lit button is a semitone.

what I do not get is:

the first row in teh scale editor is your root note…I only have 8 button…notes are 12…if I want to build a F# major, how can i do it?
if it is that I can have semi tone and tone steps, why i have 8 buttons also on the other scale steps?

Those questions are reltaed to my relatively old knowledge of harmony and scales (kind of major scale is tone tone semi tone tone tone semi and so on).

Of course please feel free to direct me to some theory resources if this is what I am missing.

Thanks in advance, always.

Leverkusen · 2016-11-07T14:55:57.233Z

I am not sure if I got you right but for F# I would build up a major scale as you described (ton, tone, semitone,…) with the scale steps and then tune your oscillator to F# when the sequencer is at the playing the root note. It’s only about the relative pitches in a scale not the absolute pitch of the root note.

When you do so you will see that using scale steps greater then 8 semitones (from one step to the next as in: tone, tone, semitone, 8 semitones, 5 semitones, tone, tone, semitone,…) is pretty unusual for a scale since you would pretty fast sum through octaves. (just re-read your post and understood that you pretty much got that point so just see the 8 possible semitone steps as a surplus…)

As I understood the bottom row with the rate notes it is built for convenience when you want to use multiple scales that are related to each other but vary in the root note.

The scale mode is built with a maximum of flexibility in mind.

carvingcode · 2016-11-07T15:56:26.916Z

Right, it’s probably best to tune the oscillator. Then concentrate more on modes and scale types in the sequencer.

For tuning, I use an iOS app called ‘Cleartune’. There are others available also, but this one has worked well for me.

bassik · 2016-11-07T16:06:41.623Z

thansk for replying.

Well I would expect not to have to tune the oscillator to get the right scale.
If i am playing a live set I cannot tune the oscilaltor everytime…unless I always play in the same key or I do a quite complex harmony consideration to change keys.

To be honest (might be a feature request) I would prefer to set the root note between teh 12 available and then be able to run through the vaious scale modes.

but still I do not get the first row in teh scale editor…the manual says it is the root note…anyone?

bassik · 2016-11-11T10:01:02.579Z

Latest post as it might be useful to someone else who does not get the scale generation in the first place.

First of all you are right! Root note position 0 refers to the Osc tune.
So if I tune my osc to C, my root note positions correspond to:

C C# D D# E F F# G

So it is exactly a semitone step.

The scale is constructed from this and you can easily create all scales and modes considering the intervals between notes.

It might sound obvious but I took a couple of days to elaborate it.
Hope this helps