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SCOUT

key & tempo detector

Know the key before you play a note. Real-time key and BPM detection that broadcasts to every Echelon instrument in your session.

What's in it

What we'd love your ears on

Score it against ten tracks you know the key of. Send us the hit rate — we're proud of it and we'd love to see it confirmed on material we've never heard.
Watch the broadcast work. With Scout, Cadence, Root and Voices in one session, the key should reach all three by itself. It's our favourite trick — tell us if it lands.
BPM on halftime and triplet-feel beats — does it lock to the multiple you'd want?
How fast does it settle on a sparse intro?

Learn SCOUT

QUICK-START · 4 MIN

Lock the key and tempo of any track and broadcast both to every Echelon instrument in the session.

01
Insert and play
Drop SCOUT on the track you want analyzed (or the master for a full mix) and press play — the analysis tap is zero-latency and never touches the audio. The CAMELOT SCOPE starts hunting: outer ring is major (B codes), inner is minor (A codes).
02
Confirm the lock
The sweep hunts until the key locks; lit neighbours on the wheel are safe harmonic mixes. Watch the PULSE ring — if it breathes with the track, the tempo lock is right. TEMPO CONFIDENCE reads LISTENING… for the first ~4 s while the vote window fills.
03
Resolve ties yourself
A key and its relative minor share the same seven notes — when they tie, SCOUT says UNDECIDED and holds the broadcast instead of guessing. Click a KEY CANDIDATE to lock it. Same for tempo: an amber chip in TEMPO CANDIDATES is another metrical level (×2, ×3/2) — click it to report that one.
04
Tune the detector
Set SENSITIVITY low for noisy or reverberant material, high for sparse clean sources. WINDOW sets how much audio is weighed — Short (15 s) locks fast, Long (60 s) rides out drops. TEMPO BIAS nudges the octave call: Slow prefers 70 over 140.
05
Broadcast to the fleet
Enable BROADCAST to publish key + tempo continuously over EchelonLink, or hit SEND NOW for a one-shot push. Turn on Follow SCOUT in CADENCE, ROOT, VOICES or FUSION and they lock to the detection automatically.

Worth knowing

The TUNING readout estimates the track's offset from A440 — SCOUT folds its analysis around it, so off-tune beats and acapellas still detect correctly.
SCOUT reports tempo in the range tracks are usually counted in — a 174 BPM jungle track reads 87; the ×2 chip switches levels when the evidence supports both.
Switch KEY SYSTEM to Camelot codes if you're organizing for DJ-style harmonic mixing.
Hit RESET ANALYSIS when you jump to a different song section or track — don't let old evidence pollute the new detection.

Full control reference

Every control, its range, and what it actually does — the complete SCOUT manual.

iLok (PACE) — machine, iLok Cloud or iLok USB

Accepted testers get every Wave-1 plugin deposited to their iLok account — machine activation, iLok Cloud or iLok USB, your call.

Insert SCOUT in your DAW (AU · VST3 · AAX). First launch asks for activation via iLok License Manager.

Beta licenses run through the round. Your license codes and downloads live in the tester portal.

Universal macOS builds — Apple Silicon + Intel

Not in the round yet? Applications are open — we accept in waves.