Captain Plugins (4.0) — first thoughts

Just how useful are they?

As someone into science fiction who used to work with IT, I’m fascinated by the whole field of computer assisted music creation. Whether it’s generative music, random composing or just tools to help (such as Logic Pro X’s drummer, which I use all the time) I’m gripped by the idea. In my case it’s due to limited (though improving) keyboard skills and no ability on any other instrument. Arguably the arpeggiator is an early example of the same idea. In the end I’m giving Captain Plugins from MixedInKey a whirl.

Why Captain Plugins?

I spent a long time nearly buying the dearer, and different Band in a Box. I looked at the trial of Scaler from PlugIn Boutique, and may yet get version 2 later this month. What I liked about Captain Plugins was the coverage – melody / tune / bass / drum. I also liked the pace of change, the interest from users and the commitment to progress. A lot of tools look really interesting but have no updates in over two years.

Captain Chords post betas on their site and version 5 (due this year?) is a free update. I like that!

The main drawback was its need to be online to work — if the company vanishes, I’ve software that stops working overnight. I thought long and hard but decided to risk it. It also helps there’s an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee. Of course no sooner did I buy it than my ISP suffered major outages over the space of a few days! I would say LOL, but I’m too old for that.

So what is Captain Plugins?

There are four core plugins (that work in Logic Pro X and other DAWs): Chords, Melody, Deep and Play. There ‘s a fifth, Beats less integrated in the others.

Chords is the centre of the suite and has a range of ways to pick chords (no, really!) to form a tune, set key, rhythm and other features.

Melody can then let you make a lead line (or bass) to suit the chord sequence.

Deep can play bass along with your chords.

Play can let you play along in key.

Beats is a drum pattern maker. It looks good but I didn’t get this (even though not an expensive add-on) as I have Logic Pro X drummer and Maschine.

So what do I think?

I’ve only dabbled but so far I’m content. There are lots of weaknesses, many I see being addressed in the upcoming releases.

Chords is solid — my main gripes are lack of times other than 4/4 and also it doesn’t suggest what I view as normal structure of bridge/ intro / outro. It has pre-chorus, chorus, verse and drop. It’s less tied into the more modern genres than this might imply though.

Melody is the star of the show — versatile with lots of potential and a very usable GUI.

Deep is basic — not a pun, just the truth. It can do simple follow the chord type rhythms and needs to look a lot more like Melody. It looks a little behind the curve and even MixedInKey are suggesting people use Melody to write bass lines.

Play I’ve not used. My keyboard skills are adequate without it (I think).

Beats still looks good on video and is getting lots of love from the developers. I wonder if I’ll regret not picking it up when it gets integrated one day?!