ReCycle, Loop Slicing, GURU (Re: FlyLoops and electronic instruments)

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

> Jeffrey Larson wrote:
>
>> REX2 is a file format for storing "beat sliced" loops.  It has  
>> nothing
>> to do with pitch shifting.  Beat sliced loops can be played back with
>> special software to achieve a form of time stretch, changing the  
>> tempo
>> without changing the pitch.  Basically loops are cut up into multiple
>> "slices", typically with a slice for each beat or fraction of a beat.
>> To change the tempo, the playback software shifts each slice closer
>> together (to speed up) or farther apart (to slow down).  This works
>> well for percussive loops with obvious beats and slices carefully
>> designed so they don't cut off sustained notes.  It doesn't work well
>> for non-percussive loops such as a legato horn line.

On 5 nov 2007, at 10.08, andy butler wrote:

> Sounds like a fantastic feature to put in a looper.
>
> ;-)


Yes, I fully agree with that!

I said the same thing to FXpansion when they rolled out the first  
plans for what was going to become GURU. Sadly they could not find a  
market out there to justify the development work (same answer they  
gave me many years ago when I suggested them to develop a software  
looper). Except for not dealing with real-time live input GURU has  
some amazing new functions that draws on the heritage from  
Propellerheads ReCycle/REX2. Any (already recorded) loop can be  
thrown into GURU for automatic slicing (according to transients, or  
"Hit Points" as Steinberg prefers to call them). Then the sounding  
pitch of each slice is examined and every slice is being tagged as  
for the part of a drum kit that the slice sounds most alike. And, as  
the third stage, loop slices are mapped to MIDI notes according to  
the GM standard (Roland's General MIDI standard, which goes  
Note#36=Kick drum, Note#37=Rim Shit, Note#38=Snare drum one, etc  
etc). And the fourth stage means instant playing back of the loop's  
slices in the order dictated by a running pattern based MIDI Step  
Sequencer. Isn't that cool!!!! :-)) Now, imagine how much more cool  
it would be if you could simply sing or play into GURU and have your  
live loop automatically scrambled into a "virtual drum kit" and  
played back according to some sick sequence pattern! To really make  
that an awesome live performance instrument you would also need some  
MIDI drum pads to program the sequencer "MPC style" on-the-fly.

  A nice thing with GURU is that it has a Swing Beat controller  
(simply a knob to delay beat 2 and 4). This is one thing I hope  
Mobius will implement in the future; a percentage delay of any action  
that happens on certain time beats. Ableton Live also has a "Groove  
Factor" which is one thing I liked in using MIDI Clips in Live to  
control Rate Shift of a running live loop (Augustus Loop or Mobius).  
In todays version of Mobius you need to script sequences of rate  
shifting and the pitch goes up and down on mathematically correct hit  
points, which might not always be the musically most preferred way.  
BTW, Numerology has an awesome implementation of "Global Groove  
Clock" that can do this instant time shifting to every process that  
happens in the applications (wow - isn't that cool. And you can  
change the "groove feel" too while complex parts are running, just  
like a well conducted orchestra plays with a changing rhythmic feel  
during a piece of music). I'm surprised that not more developers have  
looked into this, because micro timing is what makes music groove.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)