Plugin Boutique’s Scaler 2 is a Music Theory Tool for helping you create melodic content in your music. With an expanded bank of factory sounds, it can be played like any software instrument, or be used more as a MIDI FX device for playing other instruments in your project, either with a keyboard or by dragging out patterns with your mouse.
With a huge array of built-in song and artist presets, as well as scales modes, it’s easy to find inspiration in the software itself. Simply selecting the scale you want, based on the descriptions and audio previews, or choosing the genre you want to produce, loads suggested chords and suitable harmonies into the Scaler window, so you can create hooks, melodies, basslines and more right away.
New Features in Version 2
Version 2 features some incredible updates, including Audio Detection, where samples can simply be dragged into the software to work out the chords being played in them. Once the chords have been worked out, they can be played instantly with Scaler with single clicks or individual notes on a keyboard, as well as being rearranged, extended and developed to customise and adapt the material to your project.
Another of the great new features is MIDI Capture. With version 1, to capture the MIDI notes created when playing Scaler, they would need to be recorded onto a MIDI track in your DAW. Version 2, however, allows capturing of performances within the software itself. When this is combined with the massively-expanded set of performance modes the keyboard can lock to, it opens up a whole world of possibilities for rhythmic and melodic phrases that can be swiftly put together.
In this Scaler Course Excerpt, Senior Tutor Rob Jones shows how MIDI Capture works, whilst creating some dynamic orchestral textures:
Another of the new Keys Lock modes is Chords Notes mode, which enables chords from a pattern to be chosen with a lower octave, whilst the octave above plays individual notes from the chord. In this mode, it’s easy to either sequence an arp pattern yourself in the DAW, or perform one with a MIDI keyboard.
Take a look at this next Scaler Course Excerpt to see Rob demonstrating Chords Notes mode:
With many more superb features, including an improved Editor facility in the Chords Builder for detailed customisation of each chord, an automatic Voice Grouping feature for helping chords flow more easily from one to the next and a Modulation section for helping transpose your song to different keys, Scaler 2 has become an even more desirable tool for a producer’s collection.
Rob Jones’ Scaler 2 Course is the perfect way for you to learn about the software, by watching as he guides you through the main features and a number of different workflows, imparting a vast amount of production knowledge as he goes! Here’s Rob’s introduction to the course, where he explains the module structure and featured content:
And if you’re reading this before Friday 29th May 2020 14.00 GMT, you’ve still got time to join Rob live for his Scaler 2 Producertech Members webinar. If you’re not a Member and you want to attend, sign up to the free 24 hour trial here, and if you missed the live date, you can still watch the webinar from the archive in the Member’s Area of the site.
