CodeFN42 has announced the release of Cales, a freeware MIDI utility VST plugin which is capable of mapping a MIDI controller keyboard to a specific musical scale.
Mastering a musical instrument (or even several different instruments) was somewhat of a prerequisite to becoming a musician in the past. Nowadays, it’s becoming less of a necessity and more of an optional benefit. With the advance of music making software and virtual instruments, some of us are making their first steps in the music world in front of a MIDI grid (aka a piano roll) instead of a real piano or a guitar. In all honesty, I don’t have the slightest problem with that.
Cales is a tool which was designed to make things even easier for the musicians who still haven’t mastered musical scales, or simply don’t know how to play the keyboard. This freeware VST plugin maps the MIDI notes received from a MIDI keyboard to a specific musical scale, making it virtually impossible to play the wrong note. The utility is delivered with twenty different scales, however it’s possible to add an unlimited number of custom scales if needed.
The scales are selected from the drop-down menu on the right hand side of the interface. Once a specific musical scale is loaded, all of the keys which aren’t part of that scale are disabled, while all the other notes are clearly labeled on the GUI. For ultimate simplicity, the plugin also features an “easy mode” which maps all the notes to the white keys, where as the “C” note on the keyboard becomes the root note of the loaded scale.
In a certain way, Cales can also work as an educational tool. Beginner music producers who are making their first steps in music theory can use Cales to better understand the difference between different musical scales, as well as to learn those scales by following the visual guides on the plugin’s virtual keyboard display.
Download
Cales is available for free download via CodeFN42 (4.1 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VST plugin format for Windows).
