If you’ve ever found yourself struggling with ideas for chords and melodies, maybe Scaler can help. Scaler is a creative music theory plugin that can level-up your compositions and provide inspiration for new musical ideas. Released earlier this month, Scaler 2 includes some powerful new features like detection of audio and MIDI, so that it can determine what scale you’re in and suggest new chords to match your music. Lead plugin designer Davide Carbone gives us the rundown on what’s new about Scaler 2 and gives us a vibe on what makes Scaler a powerful music theory workstation.
For those that aren’t in the know: what is Scaler?
It’s a plug-in that makes music-making easier, effectively it’s something that is able to detect incoming MIDI notes, audio, or notes and chords that you’re playing, and it can suggest more chords based on traditional music theory, artist recommendations, or genres. I always think of it as kind of a ‘Siri for music for music theory’, as it will give you the chords and notes and scales, all the while not needing to have an understanding of music theory.
What are a couple of standout features of Scaler 2?
For me the Expressions and the performances. So with Scaler 1, it was really about triggering a chord with 1 finger, now it’s really about triggering melodic phrases and chords. A way that we did this was having several artists come in and we captured their performances so that users can enjoy a more natural human experience. Also, the MIDI capture and audio detection are standouts.
Would you say that its superpower is creating inspiration for new musical ideas?
YES! By feel and emotion. I think the whole thing about Scaler 2 is that it does empower you to create new musical ideas through your own feel and emotion.
If I have a good understanding of music theory already, can Scaler 2 still be part of my creative process?
Yes, it can. Scaler 2 is used by many Producers and Hollywood composers like Jean-Michel Jarre and several others. I think it’s the ability to look at a bunch of chords and look at what scales those chords share, so rather than having to refer to charts it’s part of this music creation environment but based on what they’re doing at the time, so it saves a lot of time for those high-end composers.
What is something you love most about Scaler 2?
For me, it’s a genuine ability to create music. Before Scaler 1 focused more on chord progressions, but now with Scaler 2 it’s also more about phrases and melodic lines so now it’s more of a complete eco-system.
Scaler 2 – Available from Plugin Boutique: https://www.pluginboutique.com/meta_product/3-Studio-Tools/93-Music-Theory-Tools/6414-Plugin-Boutique-Scaler-2
