KVR Audio

Nleif · Post by **Nleif** » Mon Jun 17, 2019 2:32 pm

Says it in the title, there seems to be a lot to choose from, what is the best/your favorite? Is scaler any good from plugin boutique?

I'm looking for something to give me a display of chords or turn notes into chords automatically.

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Mon Jun 17, 2019 2:57 pm

I know odesi and captain plugins, but I have no experience with any of those.

And I'm also interested in the subject so bookmarked

JumboNewJack · Post by **JumboNewJack** » Mon Jun 17, 2019 7:59 pm

I've demo'd both Cthulu by xferrecords and Scaler over at pluginboutique. I purchased Captain Chords (part of the Captain Plugins suite) because they didn't have a demo but did offer a 30 day money back guarantee. All are pay VSTs.

As far as designability, I think Captain Chords is the best so far. Scaler was nice too but Captain Chords had a nice feature for chord progressions that were for verse, pre-chorus, and chorus. I thought that was nice. The only issue i'm having so far with it is compatibility with my DAW Tracktion. When I copy the progression to a midi track, notes are playing that aren't supposed to. So Ill need to see what up with that.

Scaler seems to function closely the same with it auto-generator. Scaler did look like it would be smoother to work with it you weren't auto-generating your chords. Cthulu wasn't bad, but its presets seemed a bit complex (using numerous Bachchorale progressions). So even though it has the basic chord progression structure , it just looked a little bit more daunting music theory wise. BUT, premapping of the chords to one note on the keyboard was really nice. Another good feature that would seem to boost chord progression done manually instead of auto generating.

I will put in an "i'm and old geezer and I wished this still worked for me" memory of a free chord progression VST in the past named Chordspace. I know its still around -http://www.chordspace.com/ChordSpaceindex.htm - and it has zero auto-generation, but the graphical representation allowed me to instantaneously select different types of chords, all in the same view, and see how they sounded. If I'm in Bb major scale, it would show me what the ii, iii, IV, V etc etc chords were and all the variations right there on one screen. These ones I demo'd so far show the chords of the scale, but for any variations you have to click that chord and then the different variations show up (7th, 9th, dim etc). Ok trip down memory lane over.

Cthulu
https://xferrecords.com/products/cthulhu

Scaler
https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... 933-Scaler

Captain Plugins
https://mixedinkey.com/captain-plugins/

NTO · Post by **NTO** » Tue Jun 18, 2019 12:49 am

JumboNewJack wrote: ↑Mon Jun 17, 2019 7:59 pm ...it has zero auto-generation, but the graphical representation allowed me to instantaneously select different types of chords, all in the same view, and see how they sounded. If I'm in Bb major scale, it would show me what the ii, iii, IV, V etc etc chords were and all the variations right there on one screen.

That portion is true, and one of the nice things about Sundog too.
https://feelyoursound.com/sundog/

Another thing about Cthulu - you can add your own chord mappings to the keyboard for one finger 'sound checks'.
Assorted small sample - extracted from commercial music. Did these a couple years ago (

hard to believe!)
Extract the zip to the Cthu preset location, and they'll be in the menu. Sorry, just numbers for naming...

trewq · Post by **trewq** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 6:04 pm

It is not a plugin yet. It has not been reviewed, advertised, or endorsed. There are no pattern or progression presets (its all algorithmic and structured).

But what it does have is large and worth a serious look anyway.

www.chordwarepa.com

MasterTuner · Post by **MasterTuner** » Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:04 pm

Obelisk by FrozenPlain is good for giving you a large multi-octave rich sounding chord.
I own Captain Chords, but development of the Windows version has been so slow and lots of teething problems that I've kind of lost interest in it and not fired it up for a while.
I do like Capt Chords, or rather Capt. Play where you can jam on your computer keyboard between chords in a key, and it gives you the sus2, sus4 etc as well.
I had been onto MixedInKey (who develop Capt Chords) for a while asking them to make Capt Chords accept midi input and tell me what key the midi is in, but they did not respond well so I ended up buying Scaler on Black Friday for $29.
Between them both I've got a few bases covered.
Capt Deep which is the bass generator is not that good imho. It suggests to you just the root chord notes for bass progressions, and bass is not just rhythmic but melodic as well. So it wont suggest a walking bass for example.
The journey with MixedInKey has been long and frustrating but I hope I'll get the product I think it has the potential to be.

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:19 pm

Chordbot app is nice

Razzia · Post by **Razzia** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:38 pm

Pluginboutiqe scaler is very good IMO. Affordable and frequently updated.

It wont help you generate the rhythms like captain chords or cthulu, but if thats not an issue for you i personally think its worthy of a recommendation. Gets the job done with no hassle and has lots of scales and instrument voices, guitar and piano layout, scale detection

areyouin · Post by **areyouin** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 6:01 pm

Checkout J74 Progressive!

jacqueslacouth · Post by **jacqueslacouth** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 6:19 pm

MasterTuner wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:04 pm I own Captain Chords, but development of the Windows version has been so slow and lots of teething problems that I've kind of lost interest in it and not fired it up for a while.

Sadly Mac development seems to have ground to a halt too over the past year or so. The promised products of Captain Beats and Captain Hook appear to be vapourware and the limited number of DAWs that it actually works with is extremely frustrating. Also, the fact that you basically cannot use it unless you are connected to the internet is going to be a real turn off for many users who simply do not want their studio computers connected to the net.

MasterTuner wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:04 pm
The journey with MixedInKey has been long and frustrating but I hope I'll get the product I think it has the potential to be.

I'm afraid my journey with this mob is pretty well over which is a shame as they actually had a pretty good product which showed a lot of promise. If only THEY could have maintained interest in it.

simon.a.billington · Post by **simon.a.billington** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 11:18 am

If you’re on Logic there may be a MIDI-FX plugin that may help out here.

To be honest though, I play and have a solid grounding in music theory, so haven’t had a need to use one personally. So I can’t really be much more assistance past that.

kelvyn · Post by **kelvyn** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 11:49 am

Cthulhu is really very good for a couple of reasons that make it a little more flexible than the other chord thingies.
It has a lot of chord presets in different genres from all kinds of artists - jazz, edm, classic etc - that cover more than just the one or two octaves - across the keys - that others give you.
You can create your own chord presets - very easy to do.
The arpeggiator is also very good.

Scaler is also great but more complicated IMO than Cthulhu plus you are limited to how many chords you can use.

AsPeeXXXVIII · Post by **AsPeeXXXVIII** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 1:50 pm

What's a rogression?

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 2:48 pm

AsPeeXXXVIII wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 1:50 pm What's a rogression?

chords for amateurs

simon.a.billington · Post by **simon.a.billington** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 7:59 am

Michael L wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 2:48 pm
AsPeeXXXVIII wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 1:50 pm What's a rogression?
chords for amateurs

Haha!! It’s a typo. It’s supposed to be “progression”, with a P.

It’s a series of chords strung together in a sequence, often repeated to constitute a song. Often it’s just 4 chords, sometimes you will see a different chord sequence for the chorus.

There’s so many different approaches to it, often indicative of the genre and even the times. Chord progressions for popular are very different today than they were 50 years ago.

What is your favorite Auto Chord rogression plugin?