free for ios download Plugin Boutique Scaler 2.8.1

If you select one of the more delicate-sounding presets such as the soft piano, and then humanise the performance, you’ll be greeted by beautiful and expressive phrases at the touch of a button. This setting currently exists as a simple on/off function but we can confirm that a sliding scale is in the works. You can also humanise the sounds by tweaking the velocity and timing and adding randomisation. There are a large number of performances, melodic phrases and chord rhythms that can breathe life into static progressions in an instant. The fantastic new Expressions captures the essence of a musicians’ playing and then adds it to the chord. There’s a built-in arpeggiator with which to add detail, alongside a strumming mode that allows for different speeds and directions of strumming.

Chords are presented as clear squares that play when pressed, and you can choose between a keyboard or guitar fretboard view at the top. This time around though, Plugin Boutique seems to have embraced flat design, which, for our tastes at least, makes Scaler 2 easier on the eye than its ancestor. Scaler 2’s GUI is similar to that of its predecessor. You can also route MIDI-out to control an instrument of your choice, the technique for which will depend on your DAW – thankfully there’s an extensive video manual on YouTube that shows you how to do this and more. Still, we’d happily use these sounds in our tracks, and it’s nice to have some varied inspirations when building your progressions. It’s a shame there’s no editing, as even simple controls for the decay time and reverb amount would add additional and very welcome flexibility. Expect felt pianos, tech synths, house plucks, acoustic guitars and deep pads, as well as a choir and several orchestral ensembles. There are now 33 internal sounds, which may not sound like a lot but the quality of these remains impressively high.

When installing, you have the option to include 492MB of extra sounds, which takes the total install to just under 1GB. Finally, there’s the ScalerAudio version, which can be placed on audio tracks for quickly analysing audio content. The ScalerControl version can be used as an AU MIDI effects plug-in in programs such as Logic, where external control works differently. The main one loads as a virtual instrument and can detect from audio and MIDI, and control external instruments. To cover all bases and DAWs, it comes in three plug-in versions. Scaler 2 allows you to load preset progressions, detect chords from audio and MIDI, and build and edit your own chord sets.

Free for ios download Plugin Boutique Scaler 2.8.1