| Scaler 2 | Captain Chords | |
| Built-in Instruments | 33 Sampled Instruments | 150+ Sampled Instruments |
| Drag & Drop Midi | ✅ | ✅ |
| Note Editing | ✅ | ❌ |
| Scale & Chord Detection | Audio and Midi Detection | MIDI Detection Only |
| Price | $49 | $79 (Includes Captain Chords, Deep and Melody) |
| Free Trial | ✅ | No trial, but a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
Here’s a quick overview of Scaler 2 vs Captain Chords:
Scaler 2 is better than Captain Chords and provides better scales, chords functionality and presets to choose from. It has a much less pretty interface than Captain Chords but you’ll likely get better sounding, more unique chord progressions out of Scaler 2.
Contents
Scaler 2 Review
Plugin Boutique’s Scaler 2 is a MIDI chord progression and scale assistant.
Scaler 2 aids your compositions if you’re not confident with your music theory or piano chords.
In addition to having a massive library of scales and chords, from a simple C major, to Super-Locrian Diminished scales, Scaler 2 also allows you to detect scales and chords from an audio or MIDI input.
For example, feeding a melody track into Scaler 2 will let you see exactly what scale it is and what chord progression was used, which you can then alter, add to or take away.
Creating new and unique MIDI chord progressions is super easy with Scaler 2.
Scaler 2 also can be played as a standalone VST instrument, featuring 33 sounds to pick from. While this isn’t the most expansive and best-sounding instrument, most of the time you’ll be using Scaler 2 to control other VST instruments.
Our favourite feature of Scaler 2, is the voicings and variations you can add and change. Voicing any chord in a different way, adding extensions, flipping your chords around etc. can be done quite easily for any chord selected.
In addition to this, the various humanization features also help, to introduce some imperfection to your MIDI velocities and timings, leading to a less robotic chord progression.
Scaler 2 offers an awesome amount of creative control over the way each chord is played.
The Edit mode allows the selection of performance options for each MIDI chord, letting you control any performance detail, modulation or variation, on a chord-by-chord basis.
The amount of depth you can go to with Scaler 2 is truly inspiring, and we’re never left wanting more, or thinking that there’s something missing.
That being said, getting to grips with using Scaler 2 can be a bit of a faff and reading the manual as well as watching some tutorials will help massively.
Lastly, both Scaler 2 and Captain Chords are going to be way more useful to beginner producers and music producers, with little to no music theory knowledge. For more advanced users, Scaler 2 becomes a quick and easy way to lay down ideas without having to use a MIDI keyboard or draw in MIDI notes.
Pros
✅ Chord Voicings & Variations
✅ Scale and Chord detection
✅ Over 500 Genre and Artist Chord Sets
✅ 33 Sampled Instruments
✅ Humanization and Modulation
✅ Extensive MIDI-Mapping possibilities
Cons
❌ GUI can be confusing at first.
❌ Not as useful to musicians that know Music Theory
Pricing
Scaler 2 is available on Plugin Boutique for $49.
A FREE 30-Day Trial is also available, so you can Test Out Scaler 2 before you buy it!
Captain Chords Review
Mixed In Key’s Captain Plugins Suite is probably the best package of plugins you can get for modern EDM and Pop music. Captain Plugins will help you compose everything from Chords, To Basslines and Melodies, with Captain Chords, Deep and Melody respectively.
Captain Chords allows you to, quickly & easily access, all the scales and chord progressions you want.
The GUI of Captain Chords is awesome, it’s easy to understand, and makes assembling MIDI chord progressions simple and fun to do.
Mixed In Key’s Captain Plugins Suite is probably the best package of plugins you can get for modern EDM and Pop music. Captain Plugins will help you compose everything from Chords, To Basslines and Melodies, with Captain Chords, Deep and Melody respectively.
Captain Chords allows you to, quickly & easily access, all the scales and chord progressions you want.
The GUI of Captain Chords is awesome, it’s easy to understand, and makes assembling MIDI chord progressions simple and fun to do.
Captain Chords also comes with over 130 different sounds you can use with your chords and progressions.
That being said, you’ll most often be routing Captain Chords to other instruments, but it’s nice to have some already built-in.
Exporting a finished Chord progression or sequence is also quick and painless, it’s just as simple as dragging and dropping the thumbnail into a MIDI track in your DAW.
If you get the Captain Plugins bundle, you can use Captain Play as a host for the other three plugins. This lets you bind Melody and Deep, to follow the chord changes in Captain Chords. Captain Chords is an awesome plugin, but the rest of the bundle makes it an even more appealing purchase.
Captain Chords alone, doesn’t allow for as much depth in control over your individual chords and has no note editing. Variations and Voicings are also not as good as Scaler 2, so if you’re looking for the more in-depth plugin, Captain Chords won’t be for you.
What it has, however, is a way better interface, as well as the integration with other Captain Plugins, plus some awesome preset Rhythms and progression customisation, which help to make Captain Chords a worthy competitor to Scaler 2.
Pros
✅ Intuitive Workflow and GUI.
✅150+ onboard sounds
✅ Linking with other Captain Plugins is great
✅Tons of quality rhythmic patterns
✅ Lots of highly customizable chord progressions
Cons
❌ No note editing
❌ Limited to the built-in harmonic and rhythmic shapes
Pricing
Captain Chords can be purchased as part of the Captain Plugins bundle (Includes Deep and Melody) for $79 of the Mixed-In-Key website.
Mixed-In-Key offers a 30-day Money Back Guarantee, so you can test it out for a month and get your money back if you don’t end up enjoying it.
Captain Chords Vs Scaler 2 Verdict
Scaler 2 is better than Captain Chords and provides better scales, chords functionality and presets to choose from. It has a much less pretty interface than Captain Chords but you’ll likely get better sounding, more unique chord progressions out of Scaler 2.
Deciding, which is the MIDI chord progressions assistant plugin for you, entirely depends on your style of music production.
If you’re into more pop and EDM rhythms and chord voicings, Captain Chords will be exactly what you need.
Probably the best option when it comes to just laying down MIDI chords quickly and easily, with plenty of options to customize your chord arrangements.
Scaler 2 on the other hand is a beast when it comes to customization, and the level of control you get over all your chords.
From complex modal chords to intricate chord voicings and inversions, Scaler 2 has pretty much every chord and scale you might ever need (Unless you’re Jacob Collier).
Scaler 2 comes ahead steadily, when it comes to pure flexibility as a chord assistant, allowing for almost all possible modulations, alterations, inversions etc. for every single chord.
If we’re talking purely from a song-making perspective, however, Captain Chords has a better and easier workflow, which you get as a trade-in, for the depth of Scaler 2. If you want a chord assistant plugin, purely to quickly and easily assemble chord progressions, Captain Chords is going to be the better option for you.
Lastly, Captain Chords comes as part of the Captain Plugins bundle, which feature both Deep and Melody. The 3 plugins in addition to Captain Player, are incredible song-writing tools, that let you instantly create entire arrangements quickly and easily.
Chord & Scale Detection
Both plugins offer chord detection functionality, that lets you instantly figure out what chord or scale is being played.
Captain Chords has a MIDI Detection feature, which lets Captain Chords understand, what MIDI chords it’s looking at, but sadly, unless you get the Mixed-In-Key producer pack, you won’t be able to analyse audio samples.
Scaler 2 on the other hand has both MIDI and Audio detection so that you can instantly harmonize any sample or melody.
GUI & Workflow
As previously mentioned, when comparing the workflow and GUI of both Scaler 2 and Captain Chords, the latter has the upper hand. Going from an idea to an assembled progression and out into your DAW is super quick and easy and it’s nearly impossible to get lost in the options offered to you.
Scaler 2 however has to compromise on the GUI and Workflow, to fit more features and options to customize your arrangements, into the plugin. Not saying it’s a bad thing, but it will definitely help to look through some tutorials before you get started.
To Sum up, Captain Chords has a faster and sleeker workflow than Scaler 2, that being said, Scaler 2 has to fit it’s control somewhere, so there had to be compromises made.
Instruments
In terms of instruments, both plugins come with a set of built-in sampled instruments, which are meant more for auditioning purposes than anything else.
Scaler 2 has 33 sounds, while Captain Chords offers a bit over 150 sampled sounds.
99% of the time, however, we use both plugins to either route to a different instrument or export the MIDI into your DAW.
Captain Chords certainly offers more in terms of built-in instruments, however, none of the instruments in either plugin is particularly stellar. If you want to have more auditioning options, go for Captain Chords. If it doesn’t matter to you, like it doesn’t for us, Scaler 2 is just as good of an option.
Price
Scaler 2 is cheaper than Captain Plugins, but, not by very much.
When you consider that Captain Chords comes as part of the Captain Plugins bundle, you seemingly get more bang-for-your-buck out of Captain plugins.
That being said, don’t be fooled, because Scaler 2 is worth it entirely. Captain Plugins makes more sense if you intend to also use Deep and Melody in addition to Chords. If you don’t care about Captain Deep and Captain Melody, then get Scaler 2.
Verdict
So, the most relevant question of this entire article, which should you get: Scaler 2 or Captain Chords?
Get Scaler 2 IF: You want extreme precision and customization of all your chords and progressions. You like exotic chords and complex inversions and want the most options available, to create bespoke, original chord progressions.
Get Captain Chords IF: You want a tool, that is a quick and easy way to lay down chords for pop, EDM and hip hop. You want a song-making tool, that will be able to assist each project you tackle. You want an awesome workflow as well as awesome integration of other Captain Plugins.
Finishing Up
Hopefully, we’ve helped you choose, which Chord-assistant is the best for you. Whether you’re looking for a powerful music theory workstation, or simply a chord assistant that’ll assist your arrangements, both plugins will deliver awesome ideas and let you develop as a musician.
Scale and chord assistants are awesome tools for beginner musicians and advanced producers alike. Either to bolster your music theory knowledge or serve as a workflow tool, any producer can find use in these plugins.
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Toms is a music producer & DJ, born and raised in Post Soviet Latvia. Currently based in Brighton, Toms has had over 6 years of experience with all things production and in that time, he’s done a tonne of cool stuff! He’s played multiple festivals, had experience in the field with mixing & mastering and even become a freelance journalist in the music industry.
Toms currently creates music under the alias Sovereign. Producing music that’s intimate and subtle, while full of edge and energy, the young producer combines the artistic sounds of Trip Hop artists like Massive Attack, with the energy and youthfulness of producers like Flume, Jamie XX and Yaeji. You can check his stuff on Soundcloud.
