i haven't looked into it much but is it important in your productions? its easier to write down/find chords i assume?

 

Whether you use it or not is going to depend on you. I'd suggest you either download it off the sister site, or install the trial first and just try it. I haven't used it in a while now, and not sure if I will or not, but I found it useful when I first got it.

Some things that it does:
- of course it lets you pick a scale and then list chords that are part of that scale, including different voicings/variations.
- it can lock your MIDI into that scale, which is handy, but your DAW or other free tools may do this.
- it can do "strumming", arpeggios, & performances with a chord or notes to give it a bit more flavor than just a held chord.
- it can humanize (change velocity, timing of notes).
- it can do chord progressions.
- it can export out chords/progressions to MIDI.
- it can detect scales from notes played (either MIDI or audio).

I'm sure you've seen their page, but have a look here: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/3-Studio-Tools/93-Music-Theory-Tools/6439-Scaler-2

All in all, I think it's kind of a pricey plugin for something like this. I think it's good at what it's for though, but you could piece together free stuff to do everything this does, probably. Like I said, I'd say just try it. I did get decent use out of it for a while, but as I said, haven't used it in a while. If I'm looking for some chord suggestions, I'll usually just go to: https://www.scales-chords.com/

 

Worth the money in my opinion. Most complete chord solution I've seen so far. Super helpful if you want to try exotic variations and don't know enough music theory yet, like "Cmaj7 #11 over F#"

 

bought it recently while on sale and got a couple nice gift plugs bundled with it. got one or two tutorials from sister site. seems pretty deep. while I play guitar and know theory, i'm not so studied with it that its all automatic so for just one of the things scaler does is coming up with progressions on the fly that all i need to do is use my ears

 

A fantastic tool for sketching out new ideas, before moving over to your selected instruments. I chart all the chord and melody notes, and that make's it super easy to work out an arrangement when you have all the ingredients in front of you

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2022

Once you know the notes, you can go crazy with chord inversions on the guitar. Just get yourself a nice fretboard map and you will soon be playing all over the neck!

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2022

lol... I have that edward hopper as a wallpaper on one of my computers... of course that man's not in it heh.

yeah, been playing a million years and took jazz guitar lessons in the early 00's too but was never a focused or disciplined player so i so i have to think a lot first and write stuff out what i'd want to do. so with something like scaler, i can noodle around to find progressions/chord voicings that i normally wouldn't think of right off the bat.

 

You can also lock the keyboard and only play on the white notes, so that C is always the root/tonic and G the dominant. I find it useful for trying different keys, and it's also handy for constructing melodies when the scale degrees are static (less thinking required!)

 

Another great tool is " ChordPulse " www.chordpulse.com

ChordPulse : How to make a Backing Track in 10 minutes?

The fastest way from chords to music

ChordPulse is a handy backing band software for music practice, inspiration, improvisation, and pure fun with music. Play and sing along with ChordPulse. Use it as a full accompaniment, a drum machine with bass, a metronome with chords, and more.

 

A good tool for producers. The only bad thing is that it hides the logic of music and most of times, weakens it and doesn't allow the users to think much, and also kind of makes the person dependent on itself.

 

So you hardly need to learn anything and use your head. The one who has to exert himself is the producer of the tool.
It is exactly the right tool, because hardly anyone is able to learn and understand theory.
I think there will be more tools like this that will make it easier for us to think or make our everyday life easier.
The trend is clearly towards more technology in everyday life. I am also like you for learning a real instrument.

 

I Love the plugin.
I suggest that you watch this video on YT

 

I usually check it out when there is a new macOS release. Every time I have used it, I have come up with some interesting chord progressions. And then I delete it. I think there are other smaller installation programs that do the things I would use Scaler for. I think it suffers from being too "complete" only. If they had a lite version I'd probably use it.

 

I understand theory, but apps like Scaler are a just a shortcut to inspiration, maybe a snippet of a song to get you started. I also like ChordPulse mentioned above, as it allows you to easily cycle through all the different chord variations. If you want to sound original it's best to use these these tools as building blocks or idea starters. As I said earlier, I chart the music theory, and then I play the actual instruments myself, so it's always sounds like me

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2022

You could also say who is totally unmusical or untalented, for them such tools are the salvation.
Similarly, rappers singers can not sing, but through a rap song (genre rap - chanting) can still communicate.

I share your view that to develop new ideas and songs, it is certainly helpful sometimes to use such tools.
I rely heavily on inspiration. If nothing comes to mind and the sheet of paper remains white,
you just wait until you think of something. It doesn't work if you try to force it.

 

Scaler 2 can do many things but what I love most about it, and what I use a lot, is the way it can tell you what scales/modes best match the notes/chords you play into it.

I have a love of slightly discordant chord sequences. One typical way I start a song is to noodle around on the MIDI keyboard until I find a nice riff or phrase or sequence. Maybe it's 4 or 5 chords, maybe it's just a handful of notes, but you feed that stuff into Scaler and it will offer you a list of scales/modes ranked in order of best match. At the top is usually a "mainstream" scale, but scroll down a little and you'll find some unusual and/or exotic scales that you simply would not come up with any other way unless you are a walking dictionary of music. Persian Mode 3 or Hungarian Gypsy Scale anyone?

You can select any of the suggested scales and it will show you the chords in the scale from I to vii and assign them to clickable pads and/or white keys on the keyboard. You can audition the chords, try different inversions and drag them into the DAW piano roll. You are then free to delete Scaler from the project or you can stay in it and experiment with arps, phrases and sequences that fit the chords. Everything is draggable into the DAW for further editing/tweaking.

It doesn't write the song for you but it's a great way of getting away from the same old chords.

 

No matter how much I write, it's no use.

The natural process of music should not be sacrificed for rapid production. Nowadays, fast production has become fashionable and everyone likes to produce something in the shortest possible time.

Now maybe hundreds of thousands of songs are produced and released daily, but wouldn't it be better if only 10 good songs were produced every day around the world and everyone enjoyed them?

What's the point of mass production when there are not a lot of music thoughts in songs and everyone's just thinking about fast production? Fast for what? To make more money?

 

This is wishful thinking - you spread theories how something could be but is not.

The reality teaches us that almost everyone who can make music, on the PC or notebook can upload his junk on YouTube. There is no one who says that is good and that is bad. So it's not about quality music, but about self-expression in the World Wide Web.

The good musicians who can do something, must now cope with the ever-increasing competition. Besides, the mass of users is dumbing down due to lack of quality music. The record companies are money machines and it's not about good music anymore, but about rich profits. I've been listening to only old music for years, there's almost nothing in it when I listen to the charts. It would also be torture if I had to listen to the whole. But the youth thinks great. Their music is as weird as they are.

 

These are two big threats to music (as you said):

• Self-Expression
• Money

Wouldn't it be better to replace Self-Expression with Music-Expression?

Are the selves important or their music?