Scaler EQ Pro turns the notes you play into EQ bands

Scaler Music released Scaler EQ Pro on 23 September, three weeks after announcing it. Like the original Scaler EQ, it is an equaliser that knows the key of the track: its Harmonic Peak filters boost frequencies that belong to the selected key and scale and reduce the ones outside it, or reverse that if you want the opposite. Key detection is automatic, and three automatable Scale Switchers handle key changes inside one project.

Live Mode is the new idea

Live Mode creates EQ bands from incoming MIDI. Play a note or a chord and bands appear at those notes. It is polyphonic, it responds to velocity, and each band has its own ADSR, so a band can swell in with the chord and release after it.

That moves the EQ from a fixed curve to something that follows the arrangement. A key-aware EQ on its own treats every note of the scale the same for as long as the key holds. Live Mode treats the notes actually sounding right now.

The filters underneath

Scaler Music describes a new filter design: resonance scaled to ERB, a model of how wide the ear’s own frequency bands are; raised-cosine note filters; and fractional-order slopes that move continuously between the usual fixed slopes. The company cites US Patent No. 12,647,085 for its note-aware processing, and calls the product the world’s first musical EQ, which is its own description.

Price and formats

$99, or $29 as an upgrade from Scaler EQ (normally $39). macOS 12 or later with VST3, AU, AAX and standalone; Windows 10 or later with VST3, AAX and standalone.

Producer’s note

Try Live Mode on a reverb return, fed with the MIDI from your chord track. The return then lifts whatever chord is playing instead of everything in the key, which keeps the last chord’s tail from competing with the new one. Keep the boost small: with four or five notes held, several resonant bands stack up quickly.