Mixed In Key has released Captain Plugins, a new series of plugins to help music composers and producers write music. “Captain Chords” enables musicians to write new chord progressions inside their favorite DAWs like Ableton Live or Apple Logic. “Captain Melody” allows the creation of melodies and rhythmic hooks, and “Captain Deep” enables the creation of rhythmic basslines. The entire suite of plugins is now available for macOS for the price of $79 at www.mixedinkey.com/captain-plugins

Captain Plugins allow musicians to:
• Discover different chords by jamming out on the computer keyboard. One touch of a keyboard button plays the entire chord
• Automatically transpose the song to any Key and Scale, even after the composition has already been written
• Apply different rhythms to melodies, basslines and chords
• Write arpeggiated melodies that stay 100% in key with the song
• Add basslines that follow the chords
• Add complex voicings to any chord, add passing chords, add 7th, 9th and other notes, add thickness to any chord, split the chords and resize them

Captain Plugins YouTube video:


Tutorial on How to Write your own Chord Progressions in Ableton Live with Captain Chords:

Great product but it crashes Cubase 9 :(
The plugins are blacklisted and crashes when manually activated

Great product, working perfect in Reaper and in the FL Studio Mac beta. But now I'm switching to Windows, so until the Win version I'm going to let it sleep a bit.

This really look more advanced and seems to have a more detailed workflow then Plugin Boutique's Scaler.
The only thing I'm waiting for is a windows "64bit" version and also Presonus Studio One support. Then... I will gladly part ways with 80 bucks!

Uhh......Is Internet access required? (Yes)
You can use Captain plugins offline to play the MIDI you've already written. However, you need to be connected to the Internet to write new MIDI notes inside the plugins themselves. Our generators require Internet access.

So what happens when you're on a laptop, flying on an airplane?
You can write MIDI notes inside Live and play them using Captain plugins, but you won't be able to generate a new chord progression using our User Interface. Internet is becoming common everywhere, even in the sky. Most studios have wifi. This requirement is usually not a problem.

Sigh .. I saw this only after my post above. I still like what you have done. But still I'm disappointed ..seems like I will not be getting this fantastic looking plugin.
I live in a state where every year, like clock work Internet,cable,phone lines,Wifi go out for days, weeks or months.

During That time I may not be able to fully use a software I paid full price for a license. Good job anyway.

I was interested until I saw that it’s a Cloud app... my studio computer is only online when I need to download new software. This new model of having the actual working part of a program in the cloud is anathema to me.
Good luck with the product though...

Nothing comes close to Scaler´s chord detection. In conjunction with Kameleono it beats Steinberg´s chord detection and chord transform easily.

I'm using my mac offline and the vst works without problems

I'm sorry about this, we're working with Steinberg and PreSonus to fix the crash. We needed help from their engineers because the problem doesn't happen in Ableton Live or Logic. We'll get it solved in a free update.

You know I saw the advertisement to Captain plugin this past week and have not thought much about this kind of VST previously. I went to demo it and saw that it doesnt exist. See that Scaler is a similar product and going to demo theirs. If i like it, i'll probably buy it because its cheaper than captains anyways and I wont know what captain really is like without trying it and wont need to buy a second vst like this one. silly not to have a demo/trial product unless your Omnisphere which even for them i think is not wise.

I have both and although Scaler is very good, IMO Captain is better. Also you have different plugins, not only one, so you can do more things. In a future even a drum rythm plugin is coming free.

This is a very cool must have chord builder. From the ones I know, this one seems way above and well featured. Scaler is one of the best.

Hope developer of Captain plugin is working to bring this fine product for VST Windows soon.

damn, I was just looking at the videos earlier on their website and was about the pull the trigger on this until I saw the always-online requirements here. I think I'll pass.

Yea, that's a bit obnoxious. I was interested, too, until I saw that.

Same here. Online requirement is a purchase killer.

I just bought this yesterday and did not read about the online requirements.A lot of guys don't want the internet on when working I think as people are saying you will lose a lot of sales forcing people to be online. I can't think of any other developer employing these methods.Its a pity as it is a good product if have a also bought scaler so I guess I be using that when I don't want to be online.

Why don't they just do ILok like everyone else?

Other than the internet issue can anyone share experiences with using it?

MG the Future has done a series of tutorials on YouTube that go well beyond the marketing.

Uses with Scaler too.

Seems like a neat tool to use to *start* songs and stay out of writers/producers’ block.

Thanks! I'll check it out.

100% Agree!! I was "REALLY" Intrested and was about to buy it but when i scrolled down and discovered its cloud based i rapidly changed my mind and did not buy it! What is going on lately with developers going cloud based? What benefits do it have? Regarding using it,my computer is only ever online to authorise plugins/software and then it is taken offline. Just a word of advice,
MANY MANY people will NOT have their studio computer on line and for this you are losing MANY customers! But as i said? I don't know the benefits of this actual piece of software and maybe the process it uses cannot be achieved without the cloud servers! Anyway,REALLY disappointed i will not be using it,it looks excellent!!!

It would be interesting to hear the companies reasons for their software being cloud based. As paranoid as this seems I really don’t need anybody hacking into my computer through a cloud based service... and believe me that’s a cert as soon as hackers get suss to all the new potential Trojan possibilities supplied by clouds.
Also as some have already stated... companies go bust and servers go down. Reliability is very very important. Just my 3 cents

yup - me too: cloud = nope

I dont think the Cloud is a big issue. Everytime
we log onto our browsers or check our
phone apps, we’re in the Cloud.

I just think that if you are a good
songwriter/composer/arranger, you dont
need this product.

Yes a somebody said early why don't they just put it on ilok like all the other developers

Because Pace protection costs and is totally inefficient. I like it for the sake of simplicity, but develpers like it less I guess, because Pace has done nothing to improve it <deleted by mod>

ugh just saw this plugin. I bought scaler yesterday and now that I am seeing this, it seems more inline with what I want. Scaler is awesome but for workflow its a bit annoying because you cant play out the chord lengths within the program.

In Scaler you record chords with a single note on a MIDI controller into your DAW.No need for fixed lenghts really.

Yah but its not the same as working through a loop and adjusting chords on the fly. Its a bit more cumbersome. Not the end of the world but not quite as good as the way this captain program is showing. Really digging what I am seeing in the videos on this.

EDIT: Scaler is very very in depth with its chord choices. curious if this goes that far. Will trial it I think.

Captain plugs offer now more scales and custom chords.

Impressive chord alternatives in Captain play for jamming around.
I am very picky but kudos to the guy who made them.

I purchased both after watching those videos lol.