Switching scales:
The video uses an older definition of pad mapping, the Default Pad 1 is MIDI # 48 = C2.
Activating Scale Mode & toggling through scales:
Holding Shifter 2 will augment the Performance Matrix, highlighting the currently active scale (a backlit Pad pattern previsualization corresponding to notes active in a scale). Pressing
Pad 15 or Pad 16 (while holding Shifter 2) will toggle forward / backward respectively through the available Scales
. The omitted notes in the previsualization of the scale pattern correspond to omitted notes in a scale as seen from a 12-notes per octave, Piano layout perspective. Active notes are backlit, omitted notes are not backlit.
f.e. here we have a chromatic mapping with all notes present.
Activating a scale and understanding the resulting layout:
In the standard Chromatic scale, all notes are present. Therefore all Pads will be backlit (fig.1).
Toggling further to a different scale, f.e. one to the right being C major will previsualize the active notes in the scale (fig.2).
Releasing Shifter 2 at this point will activate the currently previsualized scale and cause the scale to settle. All active notes of the scale bundle up together in the chronology of the Pad layout (fig.3) on OffGrid and in a linear octave progression order, Pad 1 being the bottom left, Pad 16 being the top right. This way to distribute the present notes in a scale allows for more efficient use of the 16 available pads to play more notes at a time.
For the C major scale, this would mean we can stretch from any C position two octaves up without using the Octave Shifters.
Available scales (in order of toggling):
- Major
- Minor
- Locrian #2
- Dominant Diminished
- Minor Harmonic
- Altered
- Whole Tone
- Hexatonic Blues
- Heptatonic Blues
- Nonatonic Blues
- Lydian Dominant
- Major Beebop
- Minor BeeBop
- Mixolydian BeeBop
- Spanish Phrygian
- Enigmatic scale
- Japanese Mode
- Kraftwerkian scale
- Fearless Four scale
- Blade Runner Blues
- Chromatic
Comments
1 comment
Where does the "Japanese" scale come from? It doesn't match any other pentatonic scales I've come across. I know "Kraftwerkian" is better known as Man Gong.
After using it for a while and loving it, I have 2 feature requests for the OffGrid:
1) Option to turn notes on and off to set a custom scale in scale mode.
2) An instrument preset that leaves aftertouch on and turns off motion control. That would have more use for me than motion control-only.
Again, cheers, this is a really nice controller. I am sad to see the Sensel Morph discontinued, that is the other portable controller I have that just seems to get everything right.
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