This week we welcome back Kirk Degiorgio as he checks out Plugin Boutique’s updated Scaler 2 plugin.
With 200 new chord sets, modulation suggestions, new melodic expressions along with new instruments and more Scaler 2 can really help with compositions, progressions and music theory for both beginners and seasoned producers alike.
Over these six videos, Kirk takes us through the controls, menus and options available demonstrating how simple it is just to use your ear to determine which direction you want your chord progression to go.
For anyone that’s experiencing that feeling of writer’s block, this is an awesome tool to help with inspiration so you can try different variations through a synth of your choice. You can even detect a favourite chord progression you may have sitting in your loop library so you can match a scale or key and go from there.
A very intuitive plugin and definitely one to check out!
Actually you can’t playback those chords using Ableton’s Push 2 pads, those chords are computed & processed within Scaler 2 only. You can just use the pads to record Midi notes into Scaler 2 when using the “detect” mode.
What you can do once you have selected your scales & chords progression inside Scaler 2 is to use the “Host Sync” feature to map the playback button to the space bar & thus the “Play” button on Push 2, that will help to trigger back your chords progression.
Simply right click on the bottom row “Play/Pause” button inside Scaler 2 and you’ll notice a temporary popup saying “DAW SYNC: ON” or OFF ( it acts as a toggle ). If you enable this feature, the loop mode inside Scaler 2 will be disabled and you’ll have to use the Loop mode from Ableton’s Live instead.
Another great & easy to follow course from @Kirk_Degiorgio, really like the “non musician” teaching approach here and going through building that chord progression example while making pleasant music makes it even more nice to follow along, thanks
And yes, what a major upgrade with this version 2, fully featured & nice designed plugin at this price point, I’ve been using other plugins such as the MixedinKey “Captain” plugins suite as well as W.A Production Instascale & Instachord but Scaler is the one that I always reach for in the end, cool stuff from Plugin Boutique
I found the software fairly easy to get my head around without any tutorials but I can’t figure out how to send the midi outside. all my routing is in place but I’m missing something. I seem to recall there was a button needs switching on that wasn’t obvious but I haven’t used it in ages. do you explain routings in these tutorials? id like to skip to that.
Glad to read that you’ve figured it out for Ableton though, now when it comes to Maschine I’ll be honest I have no idea if this is possible, never tried it myself. I’ve found some threads on the Web saying that it is required to use a Plugin VST Host such as Blue Cat Audio “Patchwork”, but it doesn’t seem to be that stable either from what I’ve been reading.
For Midi Out in Maschine, I’m not sure about this not being possible TBH, I will have a look at this.
I recently purchased Scaler 2 and most of the videos out there have been focused on the technical capabilities of Scaler 2. Really liked the real world approach to using the plugin Until I watched this I was wondering if I had made the right choice purchasing Scaler 2
Best Scaler 2 tutorial out there…really shows how you can incorporate this plugin into your creative process. Kudos to Kirk for his straight to the point explanations too
Wow this was great–informative and concise! Really helped me dig deeper into Scaler 2. That last bit Kirk does with auto detect was really awesome. Would be interesting to do a video on remixing and using Scaler 2 to work out the chord progressions and then create a remix in a relative key or transposed or something.
