Plugin boutique confusing me on Scaler 2

I am trying to buy Scaler 2 but the way the product is shown on PIB leaves me confused about what to buy, If I start with the first offer Scaler 2, can it be upgraded to some of the other options?
What are the other options offering? It just says Scaler + and? another product - what is it? What are these other products? Why dont PIB explain. Makes me very suspicious it comes across as clickbait, will I be stung for further (necessary £££) addons down the line

Looks simple to me. Scaler 2 by itself is Scaler 2 -

Anything else are things you don’t need to have to work with Scaler. There are some learning bundles with tutorials but there are free tutorials on Youtube.
There is this bundle that is the same price that comes with a guide to Scaler that might be worth it since it’s the same price as Scaler alone.

Everything else is just third party add ons that you don’t need to enjoy Scaler as long as you have a DAW.

thnx J

u see y i got confused, not a good start for the product. y cant they just be up front and say what u r getting ffs. instead i just got a mistrust impression - surely not a good image for Scalar
I want to do a trial version first to see it works ok on Reason 12 (been caught before cos R12 doesnt do Midi routing ? You have to by a Black Cat VST for $90

Always wise to do the trial of any product first. You’ll need to Drag and Drop MIDI from Scaler in Reason to different tracks.

I was surprised to find that Plugin Boutique, was selling Scaler 2 and reMIDI 2 for less than Scaler 2 on it’s own. Obviously this was a no brainer for me and reMIDI is introducing me to the concept of midi sampling.

They love to bundle Scaler right off the bat. It will be confusing to most of us.

thnx for info. just a dumb question here but can Scaler act as a standalone app thru W10-12 - it has its own sound font AFAIK?.
if loaded as a VST with no MIDI thru it wont make any sound (as I found with another similar app - refund given as they too didnt make it clear)
Drag and drop into DAW SEQ is mentioned but if you cant hear your stuff first …

Scaler is not stand alone and has never advertised itself as such. It says quite clearly it is a plug in using AU, AAX, VST and VST3 on Mac and AAX,VST, VST3 on Windows. In needs to be hosted in a DAW or similar in order to function. Scaler has it’s own built in sounds so even if you loaded it into a DAW with no MIDI through (like Reason) it will still sound and is still usable. But you can always hear sound from Scaler when used in a compatible DAW.

Ok J thnx for that useful clarification. I will try it out. After all I need to compose agreeable chord patterns first then port them into a DAW Seq for real music/rhythm stuff. I dont expect all that out of Scalar. I like the idea of suggested progressions. Most of these chord apps just play the basic chord pattern which is pretty flat for inspiration I find - bit of a turn off really. Will persevere

You truly are underestimating what you can do with Scaler. If it does not provide some inspiration I would say nothing will for you. You must however learn it to really understand the power you can derive from it. To be blunt it is quite a bargain given the features that are included. I have found no other chord suggestion program to come anywhere near what is offered with this fairly priced product.

It sounds like you are starting out with a negative attitude instead of taking the time to see that this is a very active forum with direct participation from the developers. Go into it with an open mind and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Major upgrades over the last few years have been extremely fairly priced with great feature additions and addressing of program bugs. (all software has bugs…I was in the software industry for 40 years) I have found this product to be quite stable with only occasional issues.

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yes indeed, my ignorance of its potential speaks volumes. Issues I face, as with so much in this techie grossly over hyped 99% useless bells and whistles DAW genre is wading through all the crap and still remain in tact with some MUSE energy. I find all the time wasted on clearing a way through the afore utterly deflates my MUSE. Scala is not to blame, its Un - Reason 12 and its crippled VST implementation. Ive loaded it into Reaper, but Reaper is like a pile of bricks dumped on your plot. Your have to put it together yourself to build a house. Where did my MUSE go ? :joy:

I use Reaper and Scaler since 2018 and this has been an easy and enjoyable experience. Create a new track (MIDI input, all channels to make it easier for you), set it for recording, drag and drop Scaler to the track and play. Watch some of Davide’s videos on Youtube and enjoy. If you have your favorite synth, create a new track, drag & drop you instrument, redirect Scaler’s track to the synth track. Not a proper method, but you can even add your synth vst to the same track as Scaler and set Scaler internal sounds to off instead adding the synth to a new track. The sky is the limit.

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thnx 10^6 :grin: advice much appreciated

I rather regret I made the choice of Reason 6 in 2017 but it seemed logical for me at the time as I understood the principles of CVs and Analog synth from the its days of leads and patchboards, VCOs,VCFs,VCAs etc. Notice that adding effects in a rack was an expensive hardware business. Since PC (but musically illiterate) nerds were enabled it became of negligible cost to add as many knobs, sliders, meters etc to a panel and to artificially fiddle with parameters for no sensible musical purpose. eg - try this if you dont know) there is no discernible difference to the ear as to whether a sawtooth wave has a leading edge or a trailing edge indeed a triangle wave is barely different. Yet widgets are presented to the gullible as some wonder feature - give me a break :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I think you need to note that PIB is just what the name says: a Plug In Boutique. Scaler team just chose to sell its product through them. So Scaler-2 is one of the many plugins they sell. So how PIB chooses to sell, market and bundle their plugins is another story.
In short, you only need Scaler-2, and it’s one hell of a good tool.

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Yes indeed quite right. PIB is typical of the kind of aggressive monetisation used for all these mostly useless DAW addons. The whole arena is littered with 100’s of grossly over hyped rubbish. Graphic designers must make a good living out of it though
Musicians generally have purist minds wishing to create their unique contribution to music - and mostly make very little money for their life’s work - truly a labour of love. IMHO

As a passing thought, Scaler might consider putting together a patch for Reaper (given its sound and generous ethics) so that the noob might just plug a demo in and run straight off with a rig ready to play. Surely a simple gesture of good faith - dont you think?