Plugin Boutique are proud to announce Scaler EQ as a VST/AU/AAX plugin for PC and Mac. Following on from the award-winning Scaler music theory plugin, Scaler EQ offers a remarkable new way to EQ with musicality and colour.

By enhancing only note frequencies in key with your song, and reducing only note frequencies that aren’t, Scaler EQ can provide a new spin on working with cuts and boosts, increasing the tonality behind your music and providing new harmonic avenues.

And for when you just want a regular, fully-featured, modern EQ, Scaler EQ has you covered with its familiar workflow, choice of band types, mid/side operation, dynamic bands and stereo enhancement. There are even highly unique Magic Shelf bands that

Scaler EQ is available now from Plugin Boutique for £49. For detailed pricing information, please see the bottom of this press release.

The World’s First In-Key EQ

Thanks to its Harmonic Peak and ‘Plus/Minus’ filter types, performing a boost on Scaler EQ means only boosting frequencies that are in-key with the currently set scale. Making a cut with the same band will reduce only the out-of-key frequencies – although it can be set to cut in-key frequencies too, which can be helpful for mixing.

The World’s First In-Key EQ

Thanks to its Harmonic Peak and ‘Plus/Minus’ filter types, performing a boost on Scaler EQ means only boosting frequencies that are in-key with the currently set scale. Making a cut with the same band will reduce only the out-of-key frequencies – although it can be set to cut in-key frequencies too, which can be helpful for mixing.

By using in-key EQ, you’ll get warmer lows and sweeter highs when boosting, while out-of-key cuts will lead to clearer, more focused bass and less harsh highs that retain their musicality.

Simple key detection

Key detection lets you automatically capture the key of your music through audio or MIDI, making it quick and simple to set up sweetening, tonal boosts. For a choice of broader or more focused tonal colours, you can add or remove notes in the currently selected scale.

Musician- and Producer-Friendly Band Types

Scaler EQ’s harmonic band types aren’t the only option for boosts and cuts. The traditional array of shelves, bells and high-pass/low-pass filters will be instantly familiar and simple to use for every producer, and there’s more to reward creative exploration in Scaler EQ.

The Magic Shelf

Scaler EQ’s proprietary Magic Shelf bands work with stereo properties in mind. Boost a Magic Shelf in the bass region, and it will work harder on the band’s mid signal than it does on its side information. Reduce the level of that bass Magic Shelf to make it a cut, and you’ll cut the side signal more than you cut the mid information.

The high-frequency Magic Shelf works in the complementary way, increasing sides with more strength and reducing mids more heavy-handedly. With its Range control increased, any Magic Shelf band introduces a complementary scoop or bump before its corner frequency.

All the Mod EQ Cons

Scaler EQ will fit right beside all your other mixing plugins with its solid workflow for boosting and cutting bands and shelves like a traditional EQ. Each band or shelf can also be set to Dynamic mode, helping to soothe boosts and cuts with dynamic compression and expansion, set with Threshold, Ratio, Attack and Release controls.

Stereo options abound in Scaler EQ as well. With stereo channel selection (mid/side/stereo) for every band, it’s easy to enhance or reduce energy in a particular region of the stereo panorama, and thanks to the Mono Frequency selector, you can quickly and simply make the bass region mono below a frequency of your choosing. The Stereo Width dial offers a frequency-conscious way to enhance stereo width, using proprietary widening DSP.

Scaler EQ Features

• Patent pending musical EQ with harmonic band types that boost in-key frequencies and cut out-of-key frequencies
• Familiar EQ controls translate to a regular workflow – but one that adds more colour
• Choice of band types for traditional boost/cut EQ or harmonic EQ
• Magic Shelf bands deliver punchier low end and smoother highs
• Key detection sets the EQ’s target scale
• Dial in dynamics for any band (Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release)
• Add or remove scale notes for a specific colour (eg, four-note chords or just fifths)
• Creative unique EQ responses by combining magic shelves, harmonic filters and cuts
• Each band can be set to work on stereo, mid or side channels
• Enhance stereo width and collapse low frequencies to mono
• Available for Mac and PC in VST2, VST3, AU and AAX formats

More info:
https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/16-EQ/11473-Scaler-EQ

 

So...serious question (I know, shocking) for y'all who mix constantly. This musical EQ concept, gimmick or real deal? Does a plugin like this make sense?

 

Yes and no, lol. It can be nice to remove out of key harmonics, but unless the EQ is moving with the chords being used it can be a possible negative by reducing harmonics without needing to. People have also noticed this causes possible filtering issues as every EQ messes with phase to some degree. So we'll see less experienced users praising this tool and abusing it all over, while more experienced engineers will be more likely to subtly use this as a tool to solve issues. DJ Swivel's Knocktonal EQ does something like this also, but just for set freq/notes and it is a problem solve tool IMHO. So while the ides of Scaler EQ is nice only time will tell what quality of a tool this really is. All in all I love the concept, but a little of this will go a long way, so IMHO less will be more.

 

why would i need this

 

It can do interesting in-key sound design tricks
As for mixing duties, I'm not so sure regarding the steep curves and phasing issues, unless i missed the part of it being linear phase

 

do they have a plug-in yet that will write lyrics and argue with you like a bass player?

 

Holy group delay Batman!!. that smearing is pretty bad in the demos and to be expected. not gonna find much use on anything other than ambiences, room mic's, and reverb sends. pretty sure i can already do something like this with UNFILTER too which uses much better filter tech

 

it makes sense, but the sense telling me it's a bad idea to begin with. Anyone with proper understanding of stuff and enough experience knows that this will do more harm than good. Best case scenario, it's just another comb filtering or resonator FX for the sound designers and experimentalist. Funny that the cool part of the plugin is to use it the wrong way. I doubt many would want to pay for plugin just to use it the opposite way of what it is designed for.

 

I watched the demo.

He kept turning the plugin on and off to show the difference.
The difference was minimal and I wasn't even convinced that minimal was improving the sound or not.

I was hoping that somehow this would help you mix together samples that weren't in key but no... it's cutting and boosting only therefore the fundamental out of key notes are still in there - just at a slightly lower volume.

Conceptually unique. In practice, meh!

 

Hmm interesting.
Could be useful for removing unpleasant resonances. But there's already other tools for that.
Could be useful for removing or boosting certain notes in a chord. But there's definitely already other better tools for that (Melodyne and RipX etc)
Mastering wise, such small notches like this would have to have a unpredictable result on phase. Especially in the low end.
And what if the song's key changes or modulates? I feel like it would need to follow the root note like in Surfer EQ to be truly effective.
Think it would be most useful for individual tracks, used in a creative FX way.

Will give it a try though. Always cool to see new plugins that offer something unique. I'm a fan of this dev's other work in Scaler. I bought that plugin and even got involved in making suggestions etc

 

The concept may be good, but only if it's able to emphasise strong notes in a scale and subdue the lesser ones, which would be emulating the skills of a master musician, somebody who does this naturally while playing. If it brings out every note in a scale i'm not sure how useful it would be.

 

Double clicking a key on the keyboard of fabfilter pro Q 3 will create a node on the frequency of the key you clicked. So you can easily mix 'In-key'
So unless this eq moves around and follows the audio like surfer eq does then this seems a bit weird.

 

What a strange product for them to make. It's very niche. They should stick to expanding Scaler 2 to add more accompaniment, sequencing and melody options.

 

Thought about this as well. In the live demo they streamed last night, they pointed out that you can choose the notes you want to affect using the keyboard on the UI but I didnt see the functionality to follow the frequencies. Wonder if note detection will be implemented via midi send the same way you can in Scaler in a future update.

 

For anyone wondering, they did do a long live stream going over it and its use case yesterday:

 

Extended overview video:

 

I (and many other engineers) have mixed successful records without this "remarkable technology" for the past 35 years. It may have some uses in sound design, but it's not something I would see as essential, or even useful, for mixing a record. Mixing, and music, is about capturing a moment, its not about technical accuracy.

 

They are late. It has already been released on sister site.

 

So I decided to pull the trigger and buy it.

Right now Im running a few pad sounds recorded from my Motif ES through it and I have to say, I'm very impressed. Even with some of the frequency dense patches I'm using, it just smooths things out in a way that gives the audio a lot more clarity and presence. The difference it makes can be quite remarkable, almost like lifting a blanket covering your sound. Doing an A/B test with my normal EQ (UVI Shade) I can not replicate the same effect, at least not without considerable amount of work. I don't see it replacing Shade as my go to EQ, but using them both in tandem seems like a perfect pairing.

If youve watched the Youtube video and you're not convinced, I suggest downloading the demo and testing it out (YT audio doesn't do it justice). I think most people here will be pleasantly surprised. Definitely a solid purchase for me, I'll be using it regularly and looking forward to future updates.

 

Last edited: Nov 15, 2023

Scaler EQ - Totally Unique!