Mixed In Key released a new suite of plugins a few years back designed to make your time in the studio more effective. So let’s unpack just how effective they are a few years after their initial release.
The Captain 5 Bundle includes five unique plugins that help generate musical ideas easily by working together to develop sketches quickly. Using these tools, you can write chord progressions in Captain Chords which then help dictate the Captain Deep before moving on to Captain Melody to write an infectious earworm.
Some of the biggest artists in the world, the Zedds and Diplos, are using the plugins that Mixed In Key has designed. So let’s find out how the rest of the plugs measure up.
What Is Included In The Captain 5 Bundle
- Captain Chords. Use this plugin to create the framework of your track. It allows for quick voicing changes on the chords and allows you to add complexity to the progression with just a few clicks.
- Captain Deep. This plugin helps create groovy low-end bass lines that are effective and minimal. Often relying on the input of the chord progression, this plugin can quickly create bass lines that make sense.
- Captain Melody. This plugin allows for key-locked melody creation that helps you churn our ideas efficiently.
- Captain Beat. This simple plugin has hundreds of drum presets quickly for loops to add rhythm and groove to your tunes. IT even helps create drum fills out of the samples you’re using!
Captain Chords
If you struggle with music theory, chord-generating tools can be one of the most powerful things to help your initial ideas get off the ground. This plugin will help you create complex and intriguing chord progressions all your own without having to rely on hacks such as MIDI files and more.
The plugin also comes with many preset progressions and rhythms that can instantly create awesome chords that you can further tweak on your own. You can even record your pattern and have Captain Chords adjust the notes to match the progression of your choice! Now that’s awesome.
These chords create the framework of the song that the other plugins in the bundle, like Captain Deep, play off from.
Captain Deep
This plugin’s primary job is to create bass lines underneath the chord progressions you’ve made.
And while I know that bass notes are supposed to be relatively rudimentary and straightforward to follow, this plugin’s lack of the same functionality and customization levels as the other plugins is a slight disappointment.
There are four basic choices you can tell the plugin to make regarding playing off the chords’ movement. It can directly mirror the root note of the chord progression, do opposite movement, countering the root note, minimally adjust melody, or stay on the root note.
To make this happen, Mixed In Key requires the plugin to connect to Captain Chords.
The final verdict on this one is that it has some incredible potential but needs some work before it becomes an essential part of my workflow. I imagine an update on this one is coming soon as it doesn’t match the functionality of the rest of the suite.
Captain Melody
Of all the plugins in this bundle, Captain Melody, by right, is the most badass. With all of its different tools and uses, it’s the flagship tool.
The hardest part with this plugin is finding an initial riff you’re happy with. Once you have that lacking, the bells and whistles included here do all the rest of the heavy lifting. You can match the rhythm of the initial riff, change minor notes to add ear candy or flourishes, and even have the plugin generate new ideas as the sections progress.
This plugin in the bundle is a serious powerhouse and is well worth the price of the entire bundle alone!
it even has a randomizer for when you’ve completely hit a wall and want an act of God to spark new inspiration for you. It’s awe-inspiring.
Captain Beat
This plugin helps you create rhythms and beats for your music. Much like the Deep plugin, this has a ton of potential that didn’t measure up to the rest of the bundle.
There are a ton of presets in the library that you can manipulate and change, but not much on randomness and spontaneity that would be simple to include. Sure, these kits are production-ready. But I found myself growing tired of scrolling through them fairly quickly.
The saving grace is that this plugin can help you generate percussion fills almost instantly. This was a super clever idea that I was surprised to see included.
Is This Bundle Right For You?
After playing around with this bundle for a couple of weeks, I will admit that I was pretty damn impressed by the couple of plugins I found myself returning to.
Where this bundle thrives is off generating complex melodies from the chord progression. So if the songwriting process is slowing you down, this plugin bundle might be the biggest game changer of your career.
While the bundle may need some updates to really get the most out of the plugins, I am sure that these are coming. So don’t let my critique of Deep and Beats prevent you from taking full advantage of what the best elements here can offer.
That being said, there are alternatives to the Captain 5 Bundle if these are deal breaks for you. HookTheory offers a far more intuitive chord-writing workflow than this does if you can put up with composing solely in your browser before exporting MIDI notes.
But the fact that you can take advantage of all of this directly in your DAW and for a one-time purchase instead of subscriptions makes this an easy investment to recommend.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
