May 21, 2019 Scaler VST for Mac Free Download Download Scaler VST for Mac free latest version offline setup. Scaler VST is a powerful application for unique MIDI effects and allows the users to find the chords and progressions. Scaler VST for Mac Review. Welcome to VST Crackz! Email us at [email protected] if you want to request a software or if there are any problems with the software. We have softwares for both Windows and OS X, unless otherwise specified in the title. The links we provide will lead you to an AdFly page. Mar 15, 2019 scaler vst,scaler plugin vst,Scaler 1 5 VST Plugin,free download,Scaler 1 5 VST Plugin,scaler plugin patch,scaler plugin Crack,for,MAC,OS X,scaler vst Patch.
- Sound QualityN/A
- Ease of use
- Features
- Bang for buck
- Overall:
The Scope: Scaler is a MIDI effect that is focused on offering the electronic musicians a quick path to two of the most essential aspects of songwriting - chords and scales. It is built around two main operating modes: a “detect” mode and what I’ll call a “librarian” mode. The first mode displays chords as they are played on the keyboard, while the second is really a library of chords and scales. Once this first option is made - detect a chord or pick a chord - then it flows to the same stream. Upon clicking on each chord Scaler will immediately show all its corresponding scales along with tags for their style and “mood”. The user can also simply pick a key and a mode (minor, major, Lydian, etc.) and Scaler will show the respective diatonic chords, voicing options and chord alternatives. There are 12 scales with 12 modes, totaling 144 different options (see attachments for all options). In order to offer more practical examples Scaler also packs a good set of presets that includes 50 chord sets for a “mood” or certain genre and also 50 chord sets from artists such as Carl Cox, CeCe Rodgers, Mike Huckaby and others. Overall these presets are mostly catered towards modern-sounding music, but they’re also universal enough to provide good starting points for most styles.
In use: As mentioned before this is a MIDI effect, but its implementation varies from one DAW to the other. For example on Cubase it’s a “VSTi” or VST Instrument plug-in instead of a MIDI effect, with Scaler showing up as a source and/or destination on MIDI tracks once the “VSTi” is loaded on the instrument rack or track. On Logic Pro it’s a de-facto MIDI Effect that uses that appropriate insert slot - it’s important to note that it also shows as an “AU generator” but this way you’ll only be able to use its onboard sound without sending MIDI to other instruments, which is done through the aforementioned MIDI Effect. On Pro Tools it’s an AAX instrument and follows the same principle of Cubase, where it shows up as an input or output for MIDI tracks. Moving past that, Scaler’s interface is organized on three main sections: top keyboard area for detecting chords or picking notes, a middle section for scales or chords, and a lower section that allows for chord progressions to be played. The middle section is probably where the bulk of the work will be done, and to facilitate that Scaler offers easy octave shift and also chord substitution buttons to quickly access the III mediant and VI submediant of a given chord. Lastly, the lower section is quite a handy feature that is noteworthy since it enables the user to preview a progression before going to the DAW with it. Also worthy highlighting is that all three areas have a “Bind MIDI” button that will route the incoming MIDI to that particular area, allowing for easy chord triggering. Other notable features includes the resizable interface, humanized velocity which slightly randomizes each note for a more human feel, configurable drag and drop settings (see attachment for all options) and onboard. One sad note is that there’s no support for using the computer keyboard to play notes or trigger chords on Scaler, so you either have to use a mouse or with a MIDI keyboard to play/trigger or use an intermediary solution for the computer keyboard as available on some DAWs such as Logic, Live and others. Besides that there’s little to complain here, so let’s wrap it up with the scores.
Sound quality: This is not a very import criteria for this plug-in since it’s all about MIDI and chords and not sounds or timbres, so this should be pretty much irrelevant to most users, but I’d like to highlight that Scaler does offers some onboard sounds (a piano and three synths which are all lead-esque) so that the user doesn’t have to connect it to an instrument if all they want to do is pick certain a certain chord. Needless to say that these sounds are pretty basic and will certainly need something else (i.e. a proper software or hardware instrument) for your final product, but they’re still a welcome feature nonetheless.
Ease of use: I don’t usually start with user manuals, but in this case something caught my attention. The documentation (14-page PDF) and video tutorials on YouTube shows setup examples for Live and Logic, which was quite helpful given my inexperience with those two but on the other hand I think other DAWs should be included, the omission Pro Tools is actually a bit glaring since it supports AAX when many plug-ins on this category won’t. The absence of setup tutorials for the everlasting FL Studio and rising hosts such as Bitwig and Studio One is a kind of concerning too, but nevertheless, it’s not hard to set it up and get it running regardless of the host in place - just follow the bottom line that Scaler has to send MIDI to your desired instrument or drag and drop/export MIDI file with the desired chords to the DAW using the onboard sounds for preview and you’ll be fine. One other small but nagging issue is the fact there’s no way to tell the version number on the plug-in, which detracts from the developer’s laudable effort to introduce new features and bug fixes as seen on the latest update (version 1.1). Setup niggles aside, the plug-in itself is really a breeze to learn and results should come in no time. It’s very intuitive to use, the interface is clean and uncluttered, presenting no obstacles to the user and makes life easier for music theory illiterates such as myself to quickly build nice chord progressions. CPU-wise it’s a lightweight plug-in, running multiple instances on a session shouldn’t be a problem for today’s computers and even the modest ones will handle it.
Features: Without extrapolating its purpose and initial premise, there’s not much to complain here. As mentioned before, computer keyboard playing/triggering capabilities would be great to have, especially for quick sketching on laptops and on situations where a proper MIDI keyboard controller is not available. I also would like to see the drag and drop functionality enabled for scales, but besides those two issues the current feature set fulfills its purpose, providing a solution that should be simple enough for anyone to get some decent chords on their songs. On a closing note, Scaler has been updated two times with a handful of new features during the course of this review, and to see developers committed to the constant improvement of their product is always a great sign of things to come.
Bang for buck: The market is very competitive these days when it comes to composition aides and chord tools, with all sorts of products offering different depths and solutions to our address our song-making needs, so I advise everyone to get their hands on all possible demos and figure out which one fits best. Having said that, Scaler ranks amongst very high when it comes to workflow and ease of use, it’s equipped with the right tools to be fast and effective when laying down the building blocks of a song.
Recommended for: novice songwriters and producers or anyone looking for a quick and painless path to chords and scales.
Pros:
Extremely easy to use
Enables a fast-paced workflow
Well-organized and efficient user interface
Quick access to a comprehensive library of chords and scales
Supports all major DAWs
Cons:
Doesn’t send notes/trigger chords through the computer keyboard
Specs:
Product: Scaler
Developer: Plugin Boutique
Formats supported: AAX/AU/VST for Mac (10.7+) or Windows (7+)
DRM: license file
Price: $49 (US Dollars, MSRP)
Demo: fully functional for 29 days with periodic noise bursts, which are fortunately not extremely loud or frequent. PS: Come on guys, noise bursts are so 2010, time limit is the way to go, so take that noise out please?
Click below for full resolution (1080p) screenshots.
In use: As mentioned before this is a MIDI effect, but its implementation varies from one DAW to the other. For example on Cubase it’s a “VSTi” or VST Instrument plug-in instead of a MIDI effect, with Scaler showing up as a source and/or destination on MIDI tracks once the “VSTi” is loaded on the instrument rack or track. On Logic Pro it’s a de-facto MIDI Effect that uses that appropriate insert slot - it’s important to note that it also shows as an “AU generator” but this way you’ll only be able to use its onboard sound without sending MIDI to other instruments, which is done through the aforementioned MIDI Effect. On Pro Tools it’s an AAX instrument and follows the same principle of Cubase, where it shows up as an input or output for MIDI tracks. Moving past that, Scaler’s interface is organized on three main sections: top keyboard area for detecting chords or picking notes, a middle section for scales or chords, and a lower section that allows for chord progressions to be played. The middle section is probably where the bulk of the work will be done, and to facilitate that Scaler offers easy octave shift and also chord substitution buttons to quickly access the III mediant and VI submediant of a given chord. Lastly, the lower section is quite a handy feature that is noteworthy since it enables the user to preview a progression before going to the DAW with it. Also worthy highlighting is that all three areas have a “Bind MIDI” button that will route the incoming MIDI to that particular area, allowing for easy chord triggering. Other notable features includes the resizable interface, humanized velocity which slightly randomizes each note for a more human feel, configurable drag and drop settings (see attachment for all options) and onboard. One sad note is that there’s no support for using the computer keyboard to play notes or trigger chords on Scaler, so you either have to use a mouse or with a MIDI keyboard to play/trigger or use an intermediary solution for the computer keyboard as available on some DAWs such as Logic, Live and others. Besides that there’s little to complain here, so let’s wrap it up with the scores.
Sound quality: This is not a very import criteria for this plug-in since it’s all about MIDI and chords and not sounds or timbres, so this should be pretty much irrelevant to most users, but I’d like to highlight that Scaler does offers some onboard sounds (a piano and three synths which are all lead-esque) so that the user doesn’t have to connect it to an instrument if all they want to do is pick certain a certain chord. Needless to say that these sounds are pretty basic and will certainly need something else (i.e. a proper software or hardware instrument) for your final product, but they’re still a welcome feature nonetheless.
Ease of use: I don’t usually start with user manuals, but in this case something caught my attention. The documentation (14-page PDF) and video tutorials on YouTube shows setup examples for Live and Logic, which was quite helpful given my inexperience with those two but on the other hand I think other DAWs should be included, the omission Pro Tools is actually a bit glaring since it supports AAX when many plug-ins on this category won’t. The absence of setup tutorials for the everlasting FL Studio and rising hosts such as Bitwig and Studio One is a kind of concerning too, but nevertheless, it’s not hard to set it up and get it running regardless of the host in place - just follow the bottom line that Scaler has to send MIDI to your desired instrument or drag and drop/export MIDI file with the desired chords to the DAW using the onboard sounds for preview and you’ll be fine. One other small but nagging issue is the fact there’s no way to tell the version number on the plug-in, which detracts from the developer’s laudable effort to introduce new features and bug fixes as seen on the latest update (version 1.1). Setup niggles aside, the plug-in itself is really a breeze to learn and results should come in no time. It’s very intuitive to use, the interface is clean and uncluttered, presenting no obstacles to the user and makes life easier for music theory illiterates such as myself to quickly build nice chord progressions. CPU-wise it’s a lightweight plug-in, running multiple instances on a session shouldn’t be a problem for today’s computers and even the modest ones will handle it.
Features: Without extrapolating its purpose and initial premise, there’s not much to complain here. As mentioned before, computer keyboard playing/triggering capabilities would be great to have, especially for quick sketching on laptops and on situations where a proper MIDI keyboard controller is not available. I also would like to see the drag and drop functionality enabled for scales, but besides those two issues the current feature set fulfills its purpose, providing a solution that should be simple enough for anyone to get some decent chords on their songs. On a closing note, Scaler has been updated two times with a handful of new features during the course of this review, and to see developers committed to the constant improvement of their product is always a great sign of things to come.
Bang for buck: The market is very competitive these days when it comes to composition aides and chord tools, with all sorts of products offering different depths and solutions to our address our song-making needs, so I advise everyone to get their hands on all possible demos and figure out which one fits best. Having said that, Scaler ranks amongst very high when it comes to workflow and ease of use, it’s equipped with the right tools to be fast and effective when laying down the building blocks of a song.
Recommended for: novice songwriters and producers or anyone looking for a quick and painless path to chords and scales.
Pros:
Extremely easy to use
Enables a fast-paced workflow
Well-organized and efficient user interface
Quick access to a comprehensive library of chords and scales
Supports all major DAWs
Cons:
Doesn’t send notes/trigger chords through the computer keyboard
Specs:
Product: Scaler
Developer: Plugin Boutique
Formats supported: AAX/AU/VST for Mac (10.7+) or Windows (7+)
DRM: license file
Price: $49 (US Dollars, MSRP)
Demo: fully functional for 29 days with periodic noise bursts, which are fortunately not extremely loud or frequent. PS: Come on guys, noise bursts are so 2010, time limit is the way to go, so take that noise out please?
Click below for full resolution (1080p) screenshots.
Need help coming up with creative chord sequences? Plugin Boutique’s Scaler can provide the missing music theory...
Musical creativity is not always something you can just turn on like a tap, so software developers are working on tools that can provide compositional inspiration. One such is Scaler, which Plugin Boutique describe as a “creative chord composer”.
Scaler’s musical assistance comes in the form of a plug-in that supports VST, AU and AAX hosts, with a succinct PDF manual and helpful prompts built into the user interface that help you get started. The plug-in contains a small selection of internal sounds so you can explore its features without recall to any other tools. However, within most DAWs, you can route the MIDI output from Scaler to another MIDI track, where you might have a more sophisticated virtual instrument sound engine inserted.
Striking A Chord
In essence, the plug-in is built around a database of scales, modes and chords. A ‘detect’ mode lets you play in any combination of individual notes or chords, whereupon Scaler will first identify the chords you’ve played, and then show you which key/scale/mode/chord combinations they best fit into. MIDI input can come from your own ‘live’ keyboard playing or from a MIDI clip on Scaler’s host track.
Once Scaler has completed its detection process, the most appropriate matches are ‘scored’ for both notes and chords. Perfect matches are often found — sometimes more than one — but, equally, you will get suggestions where a particular key/scale/mode combination fits except for perhaps one note or a chord or two. That’s not always musically ‘wrong’, but might simply reflect how harmonically complex the original MIDI performance was. Oh, and Scaler can do complex when it comes to chord detection; those with a love of jazz chords are not going to find it lacking on that front.
When you select a key/scale/mode combination, Scaler then does its final, impressive trick: it allows you to explore the full range of chords that fit within the selected key/scale/mode. This includes options to trigger full chords from single MIDI Notes — including sending the triggered chords to a further virtual instrument — assemble and test out chord sequences, and then export those chord sequences to a MIDI track in your host DAW/sequencer. And that’s where the help ends: writing suitable bass or melody lines to weave across your (possibly complex) chord sequences from those notes is entirely up to you. Even so, given the price, Scaler offers considerable potential for composers looking to break out of a rut.
A Sense Of Scale
Usefully, Scaler’s interface can be, well, scaled to suit your available screen space. By default, the GUI is divided up into five main sections. The top strip gives you access to global settings, the useful help system and the small selection of built-in sounds. However, the key element is the real-time display of both MIDI Note and chord recognition arriving at Scaler’s input.
The upper third of the UI is dominated by the keyboard display and the Detect panel. When you engage the Detect button, the keyboard graphic will highlight the incoming MIDI keys. If you then press the Start button, any subsequent MIDI input is analysed by Scaler and you will see both notes and chords recognised by the plug-in displayed within the panel beneath the keyboard.
However, if you don’t wish to start with your own MIDI input, the Scales, Songs and Artists buttons provide an impressive collection of presets for you to explore, each featuring a collection of pre-selected chords. The Artist selection includes contributions from some very well-known names such as Carl Cox, Josh Abrahams and MJ Cole. While many of these presets make excellent and accessible starting points for developing new song ideas, it’s worth noting that not all of these presets are built from chord sets that ‘fit’ perfectly into a single key/scale combination. That’s particularly interesting with some of the Artist presets and, while there are lots of popular songs that modulate between keys, these more experimental chord sets might prove quite challenging to use for those without at least some awareness of music theory.
Making Progressions
Once you have either completed the detection phase, or selected a preset, the key/scale/mode results are then displayed across the middle section of the interface. A list of detected key/scale/mode possibilities is shown, with an indication of the closeness of the fit to your note/chord input and some suggested musical styles the specific mode is associated with. Closest matches are shown at the top of the list and you can scroll through others as required.
After detection is complete, Scaler offers you a list of key/scale/mode options that most closely match the detected MIDI notes/chords.
A further list of the chords within the currently selected key/scale/mode combination is shown beneath the scales list, and buttons allow you to switch between displaying the basic diatonic chords or chord variations and voicing alternatives for each of the notes of the scale. When the Chord Variations button is selected, you can then pick any of the notes within the scale and show chord variations with that root note. This can be an extensive (scrollable) list that I’m sure jazz aficionados will enjoy. In addition, when in Chord Variations mode, you also get a useful panel on the right that provides both basic information about the chord and suggests which other chords it might substitute for. Again, this is an interesting push to experiment with your chord sequences.
You can also explore chord variations and voicings for all the ‘in key’ chords.
The final panel at the bottom of the UI provides two banks of eight slots, into which you can drag and drop chords either from the topmost detection section or the middle key/scale section of the display. This sequence of chords can then be triggered with the Play button; it’s somewhat mechanical-sounding, but lets you audition the transitions between each chord to evaluate their musicality. Each of the 16 slots allows you to adjust the octave the chord is played back at and the inversion used, both very useful features in fine-tuning the flow of the chord sequence.
Advisory Capacity
In principle, Scaler’s chord triggering process is very similar in basic operation to features such as Cubase’s Chord Pads or Logic’s Chord Triggers, but Scaler’s USP is the ‘advice’ it offers you in assembling your family of chords in the first place. Operation is very intuitive, and Scaler can guide you as far as you wish to go in terms of chord selections; pretty much every session I had with it got me exploring chord choices that would not usually have fallen under my fingers. Given the relatively low cost of the plug-in, I’d happily argue that’s enough to justify to price of entry on its own.
However, Cubase also offers a feature called the Chord Assistant, which has a different approach but a similar intent. The Chord Assistant can be combined with the Chord Pad system to achieve the same sort of end results; but, with all these features packed into a single plug-in window, Scaler is more intuitive and slicker to use.
As outlined in the ‘Alternatives’ box, there are also other third-party options. Perhaps the most interesting of these is Captain Chords by Mixed In Key, which was reviewed in SOS last month. The Captain Suite, of which it is a part, perhaps offers a wider feature set, including help for writing melodies and bass lines, for example, but at the time of writing, only Live, Logic and FL Studio are supported.
Just as we were going to press with the review, Plugin Boutique supplied me with the v1.5 update to Scaler. I only had a brief opportunity to explore, but this adds a number of additional options including a new UI skin, some very nice additional chord set presets, additional internal sounds, simple arpeggiator and strumming options for chord playback, and the option to toggle the default piano keyboard display to a guitar fretboard. Chord progressions can now also have 32 steps rather than just 16. However, perhaps the most useful new feature is the introduction of a Scale Lock, so that any individual melodic notes played beyond the chord trigger zone are automatically corrected if they lie outside the currently selected scale. Scaler v1.5 should be available by the time you read this.
If I was feeling greedy for features, it would be nice to see the addition of some sort of mechanism for modulating between keys. For example, it would be great if you could define two separate chord sequences and Scaler could suggest appropriate linking sequences or pivot chords.
Purists may be uncomfortable with tools like this that allow technically proficient music to be generated by ‘non-musicians’, but this particular genie has been out of the bottle for a very long time, and it’s not going back in any time soon. Scaler will appeal to those who see themselves as ‘music producers’ rather than ‘musicians’ and, as long as it results in some great tracks being made, I suspect Plugin Boutique will consider it a job well done.
I’ll leave the philosophical debate to better minds than mine but, from a personal point of view, Scaler is one more of the countless tools that technology now provides me with to improve the music that I create. And at this modest price, I suspect it’ll find its way into the armoury of many other music producers, whether they have conventional musical skills or not.
Alternatives
Many DAWs and sequencers now incorporate music theory/chord trigger features, while third-party options include AutoTheory Pro by Mozaic (reviewed in the January 2015 issue), which provides both chord and melody advice. Studiolinked’s Chord Guru doesn’t offer an equivalent of Scaler’s detect feature, but can automatically generate chord sequences based upon a specific key/scale combination. InstaChord by WA Productions adds some interesting performance triggering options such as strum directions to a guided chord selection process, but the most obvious competitor for Scaler is Captain Chords by Mixed In Key, as mentioned in the main text.
Setting Up
Scaler needs to be configured slightly differently depending on the host DAW. In Cubase, this involves simply creating a new Instrument track and selecting Scaler as the VSTi to be used on the track. Any MIDI input, or chords generated by Scaler, can then be monitored via one of the four built-in sounds. Alternatively, by setting Scaler as the MIDI input to a second VSTi set up on a further Cubase Instrument track, with both tracks selected and record-enabled, Scaler’s output will be played by the second VSTi.
I also gave Scaler a brief run out with Logic Pro X. Under AU, things are slightly different but, if anything, it is even easier to get Scaler to play back through another virtual instrument: the plug-in is also provided as an AU MIDI FX plug-in called Scaler Control, which is simply installed on the appropriate instrument track.
Export Options
Once you have a selection of chords you like, you can either do a simple MIDI export or engage the Bind MIDI option and use your MIDI keyboard to generate a chord performance based upon single-finger triggers.
Once you have assembled a chord progression within Scaler’s play zone, you can click on the Export MIDI button to drag and drop that sequence to a MIDI track within your host. This worked well enough, but by default, all you get is a quarter-note sustained version of each chord within the sequence: not the most inspiring ‘performance’ of the chords. You can, of course, then get busy with your MIDI editor, but an easier way to create a performance based on your selection of chords is to engage one of the Bind MIDI buttons. These link any further input from your MIDI keyboard to the relevant section of the interface. Any chords within the various chord slots can then be triggered by a single white key starting from C2. These chord triggers are velocity-sensitive, so you can conjure a decent amount of expression from them.
Beyond the number of used chord slots, other MIDI Notes just play their usual single note, so if you have the desire and the keyboard skills, you can play both chords and melody at the same time. Within Cubase, if you enter record mode on the MIDI track that is receiving Scaler’s MIDI output, any chords or melody notes triggered from a bound zone get recorded, this giving a much more performance-orientated way of generating a MIDI chord sequence than drag and drop.
Pros
- Very useful for expanding your creative chord sequence construction skills.
- Easy to use.
- Very modestly priced.
Cons
- The option to modulate between key/scale combinations would be a nice addition.
Summary
Scaler will undoubtedly appeal to those who are stuck in a compositional rut and, given the price, is accessibly to almost anyone.
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