Plugin Boutique Scaler review – Expand your chord knowledge

Sometimes you hit that invisible brick wall when writing and need a helping hand. Scaler promises to be that and more…

When you purchase through affiliate links on MusicTech.com, you may contribute to our site through commissions. Learn more
Scaler 1.7

Price £39.95
Contact Plugin Boutique

Scaler key features

  • Chord helper MIDI effect
  • VST, Audio Units
  • 100 artist and genre chord sets
  • Chord detection, drag-and-drop MIDI
  • Use substitutions to develop progressions

Scaler is a chord helper/MIDI effect plug-in from Plugin Boutique that features over 100 artists and genre chord sets from the likes of Carl Cox, MJ Cole, Davide Carbone and Mike Huckaby.

You can choose one of these as a starting point in the top half of the GUI, then build and fine-tune your progression in the bottom half, choosing from a large list of keys, scales and voicings, before dragging the MIDI straight into your DAW.

Alternatively, there’s a detection section that can capture MIDI input, allowing you to experiment and develop different chord variations. You can route Scaler to your instrument of choice in Ableton Live, or use it as a MIDI plug-in directly in the instrument channel in Logic.

In practice, the workflow of the effect takes a while to get used to, and we would have liked to see more use of colour to help differentiate chord relationships, but at this price, Scaler is a bargain way to quickly expand your chord library and also work on your knowledge at the same time.

logo

Get the latest news, reviews and tutorials to your inbox.

Subscribe
Join Our Mailing List & Get Exclusive DealsSign Up Now
logo

The world’s leading media brand at the intersection of music and technology.

© 2024 MusicTech is part of NME Networks.