Recycle! 2.0 Operation Manual
Recycle! 2.0 Operation Manual
Recycle! 2.0 Operation Manual
Operation Manual
TABLE OF CONTENTS
5 Introduction 15 Windows Installation
6 Welcome to ReCycle! 16 Requirements
6 What can I do with ReCycle? 16 Setting Up The Computer
6 Copyright Issues 16 Turning on your system
7 About This Manual 16 Finding your way on the ReCycle CD-ROM
16 Installing the Acrobat Reader
9 Macintosh Installation 17 Installing ReCycle
10 Requirements 17 Setting Up The Sampler, MIDI and SCSI
10 Setting Up The Computer 18 Read the Read Me file!
10 Turning on your system 18 Register your software!
10 Finding your way on the ReCycle CD-ROM 18 Launching ReCycle
10 Installing the Acrobat Reader 19 Audio Settings
10 Installing ReCycle 20 Getting Help and Additional Info
11 Setting Up The Sampler, MIDI and SCSI 23 Quick Tour of ReCycle!
11 Read the Read Me file!
11 Register your software! 24 How ReCycle Works
11 Launching ReCycle 25 Using ReCycle - Step By Step
12 Setting up Audio 28 Exporting to File
13 System Information
14 Memory setting and Audio files 29 Sampler Settings
14 Getting Help and Additional Info 30 The Sampler Settings dialog
2 TABLE OF CONTENTS
41 The ReCycle Window 69 Transmit and Sampler Options
42 Window Overview 70 Selecting a Sampler to Transmit to
44 Handling Windows 70 Transmit and Memory
44 Magnification, Song Position and Scrolling 70 Transmit Options
45 Waveform Display Options 71 The Transmit dialog
46 The View Menu
46 The Edit Menu 75 Saving and Exporting
47 Context Menu Items 76 Saving ReCycle Documents
49 Playing Audio 76 Exporting Files
61 Processing Audio
62 About the Effects
63 Effect Parameters
66 The Process Menu
67 Additional Processing Items
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
4 TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1
Welcome to ReCycle! Copyright Issues
First of all we’d like to thank you for purchasing ReCycle! You are now in The raw material with which you feed ReCycle is drum loops, grooves,
possession of a unique tool which will be an enormous time saver and which breakbeats, or whatever sampled weirdness you find appropriate. Included
will add great creative possibilities to your music making. in this package is a great selection to get started with. When you grow out of
Before ReCycle, using drum loops was very technical. Also, once you had that you’ll find a wealth of other sampling CDs and CD-ROMs out on the mar-
committed yourself to a sample, you were stuck with its inherent tempo, its ket to pick from. However, please read the following text carefully:
bass drum pattern, its snare sound etc. A bit like painting by numbers. Every published recording carries a warning, like this:
With ReCycle all that has changed. This program puts you – the musician – • "All rights of the producer and owner of the recorded work are pro-
back in control, and lets you concentrate on what you do best. Which of tected by law, unauthorized copying, public performance..."
course is creating music.
The text above means it is illegal to use this recording in your own work, un-
less you obtain permission (see below).
What can I do with ! Failing to observe a copyright warning may result in legal action
taken against you. Make absolutely sure any material you use in
your own recordings is cleared for use, or you may find yourself in
ReCycle? serious legal trouble!
Some CDs (and other media) are created specifically for sampling. Even
With ReCycle, you can perform a number of pretty amazing “tricks” on your then you must ensure the result is properly cleared for use in your own re-
drum loops: cordings. If you find a disclaimer text that goes something like the one below,
• Change the tempo without affecting pitch. beware:
• Change the pitch without affecting tempo. • "Every effort has been made to ensure that this CD contains sounds
• Quantize drum loops (either to straighten up the timing or to change you can safely use in your music. However, the producers of this
the feel, for example by applying a “groove map”). product can not accept responsibility for any direct or consequen-
• Extract the timing (a groove map) from a drum loop. This can then tial loss..."
be applied to other sequenced parts or even to other loops!
In this case, please contact the producer to find out exactly what applies.
• Replace individual sounds in a drum loop. Again, do not use any material from this medium without making sure it is
• Edit the actual playing in the drum loop without affecting the basic properly cleared for use.
feel.
• Extract sounds from loops.
Clearing
• Process the loops with various effects.
So, how do you go about obtaining permission to use a recording, often re-
ferred to as “clearing a sample”?
The owner of a CD is listed on the CD, in conjunction with a “P” symbol and
a date. Contact the owner to obtain permission. If you can’t find the owner,
contact the company following the © symbol on the CD. If you can’t find that
either, contact the manufacturer or record label listed on the packaging.
Please note that there are several types of clearance, for different types of
usage. Preferably contact an attorney familiar with copyright law, for assis-
tance.
6 INTRODUCTION
About This Manual
Printed vs. Acrobat
➜ The printed part of the manual covers all basic operations in ReCy-
cle.
➜ The Acrobat files (installed with the program) include a Sampler and
File Format Reference.
ReCycle for MacOS also installs a “Menu and Dialog Help” Acrobat file.
! To be able to read Acrobat (.pdf) files, you need the Acrobat Reader
application. If you don’t have this installed already, you can install it
directly from the ReCycle CD-ROM, as described on page 10 (Mac)
and page 16 (Windows).
INTRODUCTION 7
8 INTRODUCTION
MACINTOSH INSTALLATION
2
Requirements Finding your way on the
To use ReCycle for Macintosh you need the following:
• Any Power Macintosh with a CD-ROM drive and 16-bit audio.
ReCycle CD-ROM
• 16 MB of RAM or more. Once you have turned on your system, insert the ReCycle CD-ROM and
• System 8.6 or later. open it in the Finder. At the root of the CD-ROM, you will find a file called
“Read Me”. Double click this to get information about what is what on the CD-
For communication with your specific sampler, you might also need: ROM.
• A MIDI interface and cables, and/or...
• A SCSI interface and SCSI cables.
For SCSI communication, your computer must use SCSI Manager 4.3 (see
page 13). Installing the Acrobat
Reader
Setting Up The Computer To be able to read the online documentation, you must have the Acrobat
Reader application installed. If this isn’t already installed on your computer,
Before proceeding, your computer should be set up and you should be rea- you need to install it from the ReCycle CD-ROM:
sonably familiar with its operation. You should also install all peripherals, 1. On the ReCycle CD-ROM, open the folder “Acrobat Reader” and
such as a MIDI interface etc. double click on the file “Reader Installer”.
2. Follow the instructions in the dialogs that appear.
Turning on your system 3. At the end of the installation you may be required to restart your
computer again. Do so.
10 MACINTOSH INSTALLATION
Setting Up The Sampler, Launching ReCycle
MIDI and SCSI 1. Locate your ReCycle program icon (in the new “ReCycle” folder on
the hard disk, not on the CD-ROM) and double click on it.
! If you don’t plan to use ReCycle with an external sampler connected 2. The program prompts you to insert the ReCycle CD-ROM (if not al-
ready in the drive).
via SCSI or MIDI, you can skip this section.
This is only required the first time you run the program.
! The newer Macintosh models do not have built in SCSI. These mod- 3. A dialog box appears, asking you to enter your name, company and
serial number. Do so, then click OK.
els require a separate SCSI card to communicate with samplers via
The serial number is printed on the Registration Card which is included in
SCSI.
the ReCycle package. Again, this procedure is only required the first time
you run the program.
1. Open the Sampler and File Format Reference (a document in Acro-
bat format in the ReCycle folder), look up the chapter that describes 4. Now, you will be asked whether the program should search for con-
your specific sampler, and check the heading “Support and Re- nected samplers. If you have any samplers connected, click Yes; if
quirements”. you plan to use ReCycle without samplers connected to the com-
puter, click No.
2. If the sampler connection requires MIDI, turn to the OMS chapter in
When ReCycle finds a properly connected sampler, it is automatically
the same document and install OMS as described there.
added to the Sampler list. You can modify the Sampler list later if you
3. Again, please look up the relevant sampler chapter, and install and wish to add, remove or rename samplers. This is described on page 31.
set up the sampler as described there.
! Not all samplers can be automatically found. Please check the Sam-
! Please read the section about your specific sampler thoroughly! If pler and File Format Reference for details of your specific model(s).
your sampler communicates with the computer via SCSI, please
note that improper SCSI connections may cause permanent dam- 5. Finally, an Open dialog appears, asking you to locate an audio file
age to the computer, sampler and other SCSI peripherals. for opening.
This is the same dialog that appears when you select “Open” in the pro-
gram (see page 36). If you don’t want this to automatically open when
you launch ReCycle, you can turn this feature off in the Preferences dia-
log.
Read the Read Me file!
In the ReCycle folder that was created on your hard disk during installation
you will find a file called Read Me. This will contain any late-breaking up-
dates that didn’t make it into the manual. Please double click on it and read it
before proceeding.
MACINTOSH INSTALLATION 11
Setting up Audio Audio Card Driver
After launching ReCycle, you should open the Preferences dialog on the Edit
ReCycle can play back audio directly from your computer, using the built-in menu and check the Audio Card Driver settings at the top. If you click the
Macintosh Sound Manager driver. Alternatively, if you have a sound card pop-up, all available drivers installed are shown. The Apple Sound Manager
with a dedicated ASIO driver, this is usually the optimal configuration. is always available as the Default output. The Audio Preferences changes
appearance according to whether an ASIO driver or the Apple Sound Man-
If you want to use the internal audio in your computer, we recommend that ager is selected.
you connect the audio output on the back to your sound system instead of
using the Macintosh built in speaker.
➜ Although the built-in sound capabilities on a Macintosh computer
are of a high standard, there are professional samplers that are ca-
pable of even higher quality sound reproduction. This means that
when you are auditioning audio directly from your Mac, this won’t
necessarily reflect the final audio quality in the sampler.
12 MACINTOSH INSTALLATION
➜ If you have an audio card with multiple outputs, you can select General
which output pair you wish ReCycle to use by clicking the “Output
Channels...” button. This section contains info about your computer’s processor type, operating
This item will not be selectable if you use a card with only a regular stereo system, physical memory and virtual memory.
output, or if the default Sound Manager driver is used.
Audio
Sound Manager or Dedicated ASIO? This section shows information about all available audio card drivers.
ReCycle can either use the built-in Macintosh Sound Manager or a dedicated
ASIO driver to play audio. Basically, the following simple rule can be used as OMS
a guide:
This section contains information about the installed OMS version. By using
➜ If you have a sound card with a dedicated ASIO driver, you should the pop-up menu, you can check which MIDI interfaces are available.
select this. Otherwise, use Sound Manager.
➜ It doesn’t matter which interface is “selected” on the pop-up menu.
The pop-up is only there for you to view the available interfaces.
Copy to Clipboard
Clicking this button copies the contents of the System Information dialog
onto the Macintosh clipboard. You can then paste this into a text file or an e-
mail, e.g. when contacting tech support.
MACINTOSH INSTALLATION 13
Memory setting and Audio Getting Help and
files Additional Info
Every Macintosh program has a memory setting. This is used to tell the com- If you pull down the Contacts menu in ReCycle, you will find some menu
puter how much RAM memory to reserve for a particular program. This set- items that allow you to contact the manufacturers and get support:
ting can be changed from the Finder as described below.
When ReCycle ships, you will be able to load 30 seconds worth of 44.1 kHz
stereo audio (or 60 seconds mono). This is a total figure which can be di-
vided by as many windows as you like.
In addition to this, more free memory is needed when you transmit samples
to your sampler.
If you find you need to increase the amount of memory dedicated to ReCy-
cle, proceed as follows: ! For these items to be useful, you need to have a working Internet
1. If ReCycle is running, save the files you are working on. connection and an Internet browser installed on your computer.
5. Change the memory setting by clicking on it and typing in a new ➜ ReCycle! Tech Info and Support
value. This menu item brings you directly to the ReCycle Support pages on the
As a guideline, for each 100 kilobyte that you increase the setting with, Propellerhead web site. Use this option if you are having trouble with Re-
you will be able to load approximately one more second of mono audio. Cycle and need help!
6. Now, ReCycle will use this amount of memory, if it is available. If ➜ Order ReCycle Now
there isn’t that much memory for it to “grab” (you might have other This takes you to the “Prop Shop” where you can place orders for all cool
programs running which already occupy some of your memory), it Propellerhead products.
will use as much as it can get. If the program can’t even find the ➜ Register ReCycle Now
“minimum” amount of memory, it won’t start. This is where you register your copy of ReCycle. Registering means that
For more information about the memory settings in the Get Info dialog, see you get access to product updates (when available), tech support and
your Macintosh manual. more.
14 MACINTOSH INSTALLATION
WINDOWS INSTALLATION
3
Requirements Turning on your system
To use ReCycle for Windows you need the following: 1. If you have any peripherals connected to the computer or sampler,
• An Intel Pentium computer running at 66 MHz or faster. always turn these on first.
• A 800x600, 256 color monitor or better. 2. If you are using a sampler with the operating system on a floppy
• A CD-ROM drive. disk or hard disk, make sure the operating system is loaded before
• 16 MByte RAM or more. you turn on your computer.
• A Windows compatible, 16-bit audio card.
• Microsoft Windows 98 or NT 4.0 or later.
For communication with your specific sampler, you might also need:
• A Windows compatible MIDI Interface and cables, and/or...
Finding your way on the
• A 100% Windows compatible SCSI interface and cables.
ReCycle CD-ROM
Once you have turned on your system, insert the ReCycle CD-ROM and
Setting Up The Computer open it. At the root of the CD-ROM, you will find a file called “Read Me”. Dou-
ble click this to get information about what is what on the CD-ROM.
Before proceeding, your computer should be set up and you should be rea-
sonably familiar with its operation. You should also have the audio card in-
stalled and working properly.
➜ To check whether your audio card works properly, try playing back
Installing the Acrobat
audio with the Media Player application (included with Windows).
Reader
! The quality of the sound during direct playback from ReCycle de-
pends fully on the audio card. If you have a not-so-good audio card, To be able to read the online documentation, you must have the Acrobat
this may mean that the sound quality during direct playback from Reader application installed. If this isn’t already installed on your computer,
the computer isn’t immaculate. However, this does not reflect the fi- you need to install it from the ReCycle CD-ROM:
nal audio in the sampler or in exported files, since this always main- 1. Insert the ReCycle CD-ROM.
tains highest possible quality.
2. On the CD-ROM, open the folder “Acrobat Reader” and double click
Depending on whether you plan to use a sampler, and the model of the sam- on the application file “rsxxx.exe” (where “xxx” is the version of the
pler(s), you may also need to install MIDI and/or SCSI interfaces. See page Acrobat Reader, e.g. “4.05”).
17. 3. Follow the instructions in the dialogs that appear.
16 WINDOWS INSTALLATION
Installing ReCycle Installing SCSI
ReCycle works with any SCSI host adapter that is 100% Windows compati-
1. On the CD-ROM, double click the icon named "Install ReCycle". ble.
2. Follow the instructions in the dialog boxes that appear. ! Do not connect anything to the SCSI card until you have finished in-
stallation of the card and its drivers. Also read the section in the on-
3. At the end of the installation you may be required to restart your
line Sampler Supplement document about your specific sampler
computer. Do so.
thoroughly before making any SCSI connections.
WINDOWS INSTALLATION 17
Verifying that the Sampler is registered by Windows
When Windows starts you should get an alert saying that “Windows has
Launching ReCycle
found new unknown hardware”. This indicates that Windows has found your
1. Locate the ReCycle entry on the Start menu and select it.
sampler. The “Add New Hardware Wizard” will then appear, asking you to in-
stall device drivers for the hardware. Proceed as follows: 2. The program prompts you to insert the ReCycle CD-ROM (if not al-
1. On the first page of the Wizard, just click “Next”. ready in the drive).
This is only required the first time you run the program.
2. Next, select the option “Search for the best driver for your device”
and click “Next”. 3. A dialog box appears, asking you to enter your name, company and
The Wizard will now display a page with options for where Windows serial number. Do so, and click OK.
should look for the new driver (floppy disk, CD-ROM, etc.). The serial number is printed on the Registration Card which is included in
the ReCycle package. Again, this procedure is only required the first time
3. Make sure none of these options are selected, click “Next” and then you run the program.
“Next” again.
The Wizard will now inform you that Windows hasn’t installed a driver for 4. Now, you will be asked whether the program should search for con-
the device, which is precisely what we want. nected samplers. If you have any samplers connected, click Yes; if
you plan to use ReCycle without external samplers, click No.
4. Click “Finish”. When ReCycle finds a properly connected sampler, it is automatically
added to the Sampler list. You can modify the Sampler list later if you
! Depending on the type of sampler, the “Unknown Hardware” alert wish to add, remove or rename samplers. This is described on page 32.
may be shown again and you may have to perform the steps above
several times. This is perfectly normal - just go through with it. You 5. Finally, an Open dialog appears, asking you to locate an audio file
will only have to do this the first time you start the computer with for opening.
the sampler connected. This is the same dialog that appears when you select “Open” in the pro-
gram (see page 36). If you don’t want this to automatically open when
you launch ReCycle, you can turn this feature off in the Preferences dia-
log.
18 WINDOWS INSTALLATION
➜ If there is no specific ASIO driver, you should select the Direct
Audio Settings Sound driver for the audio hardware.
This makes ReCycle communicate with the hardware via Direct Sound (a
After launching ReCycle, you should open the Preferences dialog on the Edit part of the Microsoft DirectX package). For this to be possible, you need
menu and check the Audio Card Driver settings. to have DirectX installed on your computer, and there must be a Direct
Sound driver for the audio hardware. The Audio Preferences dialog
changes appearance if a Direct Sound (or MME) driver is selected.
Selecting an Audio Card Driver The Direct Sound driver for a Creative SoundBlaster PCI card selected.
The first thing to do is to select a driver for your audio card. All available driv- ➜ If the audio hardware doesn’t support Direct Sound (i.e. there is no
ers are listed on the Audio Card Driver pop-up menu. Select after the criteria Direct Sound driver for the audio hardware), select the MME driver
listed below: for the audio hardware.
This makes use of Windows Multimedia Extensions, the part of Windows
➜ If you are using audio hardware for which there is a specific ASIO that handles audio, MIDI, etc. Using MME may result in a noticeable la-
driver, you should select this. tency, causing the audio playback to be slightly delayed. In the case of
With an ASIO driver written specifically for the audio hardware, ReCycle ReCycle, you would notice this in that playback started slightly after you
can communicate more or less directly with the audio hardware. clicked the Play button, for example.
If you select an ASIO driver, some additional items will be available in the Regardless of which type of audio hardware or drivers you are using, you
Audio Preferences: should follow these basic steps:
➜ If the card and its driver supports it, the “Clock Soutce” pop-up al- 1. Make sure you have the latest drivers for the audio hardware!
lows you to set an external source to which the audio playback can Please check the manufacturer’s website for the latest versions.
synchronize its sample rate. 2. Install the audio hardware and its drivers as described in its docu-
Please refer to the documentation that came with your card for details. mentation.
➜ The ASIO Control Panel may contain settings specific to your audio 3. Connect the stereo outputs of your audio hardware to your listening
card. equipment (speakers, mixer, headphones or similar).
Please refer to the documentation that came with your card for details.
4. If possible, test that audio plays back properly with the audio hard-
➜ If you have an audio card with multiple outputs, you can select ware.
which output pair you wish ReCycle to use by clicking the “Output In the case of audio hardware with ASIO drivers, you will need some test
Channels...” button. application for this (often included with the audio hardware). If you are
This item will not be selectable if you use a card with only a regular stereo using DirectX or MME drivers, you can use Windows’ Media Player appli-
output. cation for this.
WINDOWS INSTALLATION 19
Setting the Audio Card Buffer
Getting Help and
ASIO
If an ASIO driver is selected, there will be no “Buffer Size” slider in the Pref-
Additional Info
erences dialog.
If you pull down the Help menu in ReCycle, you will find menu items for get-
➜ If you are using an ASIO driver specifically written for the audio ting help, support and information:
hardware, you can in some cases make settings for the hardware by
clicking the Control Panel button.
This opens the hardware’s ASIO Device Control Panel, which may or
may not contain parameters for adjusting the number and/or size of the
audio buffers - the fewer and smaller the audio buffers, the lower the la-
tency. Please consult the documentation of your audio hardware and its
ASIO drivers for details!
DX/MME
For DirectX or MME drivers, it is important that you trim the buffer setting
properly. The buffer setting is a balance between fast response to playback
commands on one hand and “safe” audio playback on the other.
1. Select “Open” from the File menu.
2. In the dialog that appears, navigate to the ReCycle program folder. Help Contents
Make sure the “All Files” option is selected on the “Files of type” pop-up
menu. ➜ If you select “Contents” the Help Contents appears. The on-line
help contains descriptions of all menu items, allowing you to
3. Open the file “Drum Tools Demo.aif”. quickly find the desired item.
You can also perform a keyword search.
4. Activate Playback by clicking the Play button.
➜ You can also get help by clicking the Help button or [F1] in ReCycle
5. Open the Preferences dialog from the Edit menu.
dialogs to get specific information about each dialog.
6. In the Preferences dialog, locate the Buffer Size slider and drag it all
➜ Pressing [F1] (with no dialog open) will launch help for the main Re-
the way to the right.
cycle Window where you can click on the item or section you want
to know more about.
7. Now drag the Buffer Size slider to the left, a bit at a time. Try posi-
tions further and further to the left, until the sound starts ”breaking
up”.
8. Drag the slider a little bit to the right, so that the sound is OK again.
9. Close the dialog.
You are now finished with your audio settings for ReCycle. The settings you
just made are stored automatically.
20 WINDOWS INSTALLATION
Contacts System Information
The next items on the Help menu allow you to contact Propellerhead Soft- If you select this item, a dialog will open, displaying information about your
ware for support and more info. computer and the MIDI and SCSI configurations:
! For these items to be useful, you need to have a valid Internet con-
nection and an Internet browser installed on your computer.
General
This section contains info about your computer’s processor type, Windows
version, physical memory and DirectX version.
Audio
This section contains a list of the available Audio Card Drivers. If you select
one of the drivers from the pop-up menu, the version and type (ASIO/MME/
DirectX) of the driver are displayed below.
MIDI
This section contains a list of the available MIDI ports. If you select a port
with the pop-up menu, its driver version is displayed below.
WINDOWS INSTALLATION 21
SCSI
This section indicates which version of ASPI (the protocol for SCSI commu-
nication under Windows) is installed. The pop-up menu contains a list of the
available SCSI buses.
Copy to Clipboard
Clicking this button copies the contents of the System Information dialog
onto the Windows clipboard. You can then paste this into a text file or an e-
mail, e.g. when contacting tech support.
About ReCycle
Selecting this item brings up a dialog listing the fine people involved in creat-
ing this program.
22 WINDOWS INSTALLATION
QUICK TOUR OF RECYCLE!
4
How ReCycle Works 3. Once all this is done, you are finished with ReCycle. Now you load
the MIDI file into your sequencer program and play it back from
there.
There are many things you can do with ReCycle. But the most common ap- This will perfectly recreate the way the loop originally was. But now that
plication is to slice a loop for tempo changes or editing. These are the basic the loop is broken down into slices, you can change the tempo in the se-
steps (details follow later in this chapter): quencer and the loop will follow. You can also perform detailed editing,
quantizing and other operations on the MIDI file. This will be equivalent to
1. Load the loop in from your sampler, or, if you have the loop as an editing the loop, since each note in the MIDI file directly represents a
audio file on your hard disk, open it. sound in the loop!
The program now analyses the loop and detects the individual “hits” or
“sounds” in it. It then displays the loop in the waveform display.
Using the Loop in another Program
2. The second step is to work with the Sensitivity slider and the tools
to set up a number of slices. 1. Save the Loop.
Each slice represents an individual sound in the loop. Slices are dis- This operation produces a REX2 file, the native file format used by ReCy-
played as vertical lines across the waveform. cle. REX2 files contains both the audio data of the loop, the slice informa-
tion and the original (calculated) tempo.
3. The slices are now used for setting up loop points using the left and
right locators. Play back the audio to check that the loop is correct. 2. Launch the program (Cubase for example), and import the REX2 file
The loop settings are used by ReCycle to calculate the tempo of the sam- onto an Audio Track.
pled loop, among other things. The slices will now appear in their correct order and positions, and you
will be able to change tempo and manipulate the slices much like when
4. Once you have set the loop points, you can enter the length of the using a sampler.
loop in Bars/Beats, and change the Time Signature if required.
Finish by pressing [Return], and the original tempo will be calculated and ! The handling of REX2 files in Cubase is described in detail on page
displayed on the toolbar according to the settings made. 78.
5. Now you can enter Preview mode, and change the tempo and pitch
independently, add processing and much more. On the following pages you will find a quick tutorial. After this are handling in-
Everything you do in Preview mode will be present in the resulting REX2 structions for all different aspects of the program. In the chapter “Example
file or when transferred to your sampler - what you hear is what you get. Applications” you will find more practical examples of what you can do with
ReCycle.
Once you have tweaked the loop to your liking in Preview mode it’s time to
put the loop to use. At this point the procedure is different depending on
About ReCycle and Reason
whether you are using ReCycle with a sampler or in conjunction with another
computer program that can read REX2 files (such as Propellerhead Reason Reason, another program by Propellerhead Software, features a dedicated
or Steinberg Cubase): ReCycle file player (Dr. REX). In addition to playing back ReCycle files, Dr.
REX allows you to further process files with various synth parameters, to
Transferring and Using the Loop in a Sampler change the pitch of individual slices and much more. The Reason sequencer
also has a separate REX editor for editing slices.
1. First you need to transmit the sliced-up loop back to the sampler.
Only this time, each slice is transmitted as an individual sample.
The samples are automatically mapped across the “keyboard” in the
sampler, chromatically. This means that if you play the new samples in
succession, you get the original loop back. This would be very hard to do
by hand, so...
2. Next, let the program create a MIDI file that will play the slices, one
after the other each with the correct length.
6. Position the mouse pointer over the “L” handle (the Left Locator)
and drag it to the left a bit and release it.
As you will see, it winds up exactly on one of the slices, and on the next
lap, playback starts from this point.
Now you can make various settings to the loop, and hear the results in real-
time. Preview mode lets you hear exactly how the loop will sound after being
saved as a file or transmitted to your sampler:
dialog move samplers from the list if they are not connected. You may tem-
porarily disconnect your sampler between sessions, without having
to set it up in ReCycle again.
! If you are not using ReCycle with a sampler connected to the com-
puter, you can skip this chapter. Finding all Connected Samplers
There are special considerations regarding the following sampler models or
! For file-based samplers (SampleCell, Mixman or SoundFonts) and setups:
the AKAI S5000/S6000 series, this dialog is not used. See the “Sam-
➜ Ensoniq samplers (all models).
pler and File Format Reference” Acrobat documentation for details.
These cannot be automatically found by ReCycle.
➜ Generic SDS and SMDI (Generic and Extended).
These cannot be automatically found by ReCycle.
➜ Multiple instances of the same model samplers that require a MIDI
connection for SCSI transfers (i.e Kurzweil K2000/Yamaha A3000/
Roland S-760).
There may be problems if you have two or more of the above mentioned
sampler models (that is, two or more instances of the same model) con-
nected via MIDI, and one of these is also connected via SCSI.
In all the above mentioned cases, you should instead add the samplers man-
ually, see page 31.
ReCycle can scan the SCSI and MIDI connections and automatically add all
properly connected samplers to the Sampler List:
1. Open the Sampler Settings dialog.
You should have turned on and booted all connected samplers before
The Sampler Settings dialog on the Edit menu is where you set up and edit you turned on the computer and launched ReCycle.
the Sampler List. The samplers you have included on this list will be avail-
able on the Sampler menu in the main ReCycle window, for transmit and re- 2. Click the “Find All...” button at the bottom of the dialog.
ceive operations. ReCycle scans for samplers.
3. When a properly connected sampler is found (that isn’t already on
the Sampler List), you will be asked if you want to add it to the list.
Click “Yes” to add the sampler to the list.
4. If a sampler is found, that is already included on the Sampler List,
ReCycle will tell you this.
Click “Skip” to continue the search.
The items on the bottom of the menu are taken from the Sampler List. ! ReCycle will only find one sampler of each model - if you have more
than one sampler of the same model connected, you need to add
these manually (see page 31).
30 SAMPLER SETTINGS
➜ If a sampler is found, that isn’t properly connected, ReCycle will in- 2. Use the Model pop-up menu to select the sampler model you want
form you of this and tell you what you need to do. to add.
For example, you may have a Yamaha A3000 sampler connected via Note that each actual sampler model may have more than one entry on
SCSI only. The program will find it, but since this sampler requires a MIDI the pop-up menu, if there are different ways to connect the sampler (e.g.
connection, it will not be added to the Sampler List. Instead you will be via MIDI or via SCSI).
asked to check your MIDI connection and MIDI interface.
Once the Find All process is complete, all properly connected samplers have
! There are special considerations for some E-mu samplers - please
been added to the Sampler List (provided that you clicked “Yes” for each one read the E-mu chapter in the Sampler and File Format Reference on-
of them in step 3 above). You can check this by pulling down the Sampler line document!
pop-up menu at the top of the dialog.
3. If you know that the sampler is connected and booted, click the
“Find...” button.
ReCycle scans the MIDI and/or SCSI connections for a sampler of the
selected model. If it finds one, you are asked whether you want to add it
to the Sampler List. If you click “Yes”, the sampler is added to the list with
the correct SCSI ID and/or MIDI SysEx ID settings.
You can now rename and edit the settings for samplers on the list, as de-
scribed below. ! Please note that ReCycle will only find one sampler of each model -
if you have more than one sampler of the same model connected,
you need to add these by clicking “OK” instead, and adjust the
Adding a Sampler Manually MIDI/SCSI settings manually in the Sampler Settings dialog, as de-
scribed on page 32.
You can manually add a sampler to the Sampler List at any time, regardless
of whether the sampler is connected or not. This is useful if you want to set 4. To add a sampler without “finding” it, click OK.
up your system before you connect your samplers, or if you have several A sampler of the specified model is added to the Sampler List, with de-
samplers of the same model connected (since ReCycle only “finds” one sam- fault values for SCSI and/or MIDI settings. You will probably have to
pler of each model): change the SCSI and/or MIDI settings manually later.
1. Click the “Add...” button at the bottom of the Sampler Settings dia-
log. About the Generic SDS and SMDI Samplers
The Add Sampler dialog appears.
! Samplers that may be compatible with the Generic SDS/SMDI and
Extended SMDI formats cannot be automatically “found” by ReCy-
cle, nor can the connection be verified! To check if these protocols
for transferring samples works with your sampler is a matter of trial
and error (see the Sampler and File Format Reference documenta-
tion for details).
These are not samplers as such, but rather protocols for transferring sam-
ples between two devices. If your sampler model isn’t supported by ReCycle
you may still be able to transfer audio files using one of the generic sampler
formats.
• SDS stands for “Sample Dump Standard”, and is a protocol for
transfer of sound sample data between devices via MIDI.
• SMDI stands for “SCSI Musical Data Interchange” and could be de-
scribed as “SCSI SDS”, i.e.the purpose of the SMDI protocol is to
use the superior data transfer ability of SCSI to serve the same pur-
pose as SDS.
SAMPLER SETTINGS 31
Common to both protocols is the ability to send samples between any two ➜ MIDI settings.
devices in a commonly recognized format. See the “Sampler and File Format If the selected sampler uses a MIDI connection, you will find settings for
Reference” online document for details. MIDI In/Out ports and SysEx ID. To change these settings, use the re-
spective pop-up menu.
Adding an Ensoniq Sampler ➜ SCSI settings.
For technical reasons, Ensoniq (and other sampler models in some cases - If the selected sampler uses a SCSI connection, you will find settings for
see page 30) samplers cannot be automatically “found” by ReCycle. This SCSI Bus and SCSI ID. To change these settings, use the respective
means you have to add Ensoniq samplers manually, without “finding” them pop-up menu.
(by clicking OK in the Add Sampler dialog as described above), and then ad-
just the MIDI settings in the Sampler Settings dialog. ! If you change the MIDI or SCSI settings manually this way, you
should always use the Verify function to check that the sampler is
! Make sure the Ensoniq sampler isn’t in “Load Mode”, as this will on-line.
disable MIDI communication!
Read the Sampler Information!
Verifying the Connection with a Sampler
Near the lower left corner of the Sampler Settings dialog, you will find a small
icon next to a “Verify” button. The icon indicates whether the currently se-
lected sampler on the Sampler pop-up menu is properly connected (on-line)
or not.
For example, if you add a sampler manually without using the “Find” func-
tion, the icon will be a red cross, indicating that the sampler isn’t on-line. If
the selected sampler is found automatically by ReCycle, the icon will be a
green check mark, indicating that the sampler is on-line.
Sampler on-line. Sampler not on-line. When a sampler is selected (on the Sampler pop-up menu), you will see an
image of its front panel displayed to the right in the Sampler Settings dialog,
along with model and connection information. Below the image, you will also
➜ To update the status of the icon and check the connection to the
find the following information:
currently selected sampler, click the “Verify” button.
For example, you may want to do this after having changed SCSI or MIDI ➜ Required OS.
settings, as described below. This is the operating system required for the sampler to work with ReCy-
cle.
➜ Each time you launch ReCycle, the program automatically Verifies
the connection with all samplers on the Sampler list. ➜ Found OS.
If a sampler isn’t on-line, it will not be available on the Sampler menu. This is the operating system currently used by the sampler. If this is an
older OS version than the “Required OS”, you need to upgrade the sam-
Making Settings for a Sampler pler.
In the area to the left in the Sampler Settings dialog, you can adjust the set- ➜ Stereo Support
tings of the currently selected sampler. There are three sections: This tells you whether the sampler supports stereo audio files or not.
➜ Name. ➜ Notes.
This shows the name of the sampler as it will appear on the Sampler Under this heading you may find additional important information.
menu in the main ReCycle window. If you wish to rename it, click the “Re-
name...” button and enter a new name.
32 SAMPLER SETTINGS
Deleting a Sampler from the list
If you wish to remove a sampler from the Sampler List, proceed as follows:
1. Pull down the Sampler pop-up menu and select the sampler you
want to remove.
2. Click the “Delete...” button at the bottom of the dialog.
3. Click “Yes” to confirm that you want to remove the sampler.
SAMPLER SETTINGS 33
34 SAMPLER SETTINGS
OPENING AND RECEIVING AUDIO
6
About Sounds and Using Open
Memory
Whenever ReCycle displays audio in a window, it has to load it into the com-
puter’s RAM memory.
MacOS Note: If you want to be able to load a lot of sound files or if you want
to have many windows open at the same time you will need to assign the
program more memory. See page 14 for more info.
How much audio you can load into the program at one time depends on how
much memory you have in your computer (total) and how much of it that
other programs are currently using. If the program tells you there is not
enough memory for a certain operation, or if you can’t open an audio file (in
any of the supported formats), the first thing to try is to quit other programs.
You can open files (mono or stereo) that are up to five minutes in length, if
you have enough memory for it. To open a five minute stereo file ReCycle
has to have access to 52 MByte of memory. Please note though, that Trans-
mitting audio requires even more memory (the exact amount depending on
the length of the Slices and the Stretch factor).
3. In the dialog box you will find a pop-up which allows you to select a
sample in the sampler.
4. Clicking Receive transfers the sample into the computer and opens
it in a new window.
Tool Bar
The left half of the Toolbar contains the following items:
Open/Save Effect buttons Stop Slice Audition buttons
| Tool | Description
Left corner of the Status Bar (while pointing at the Sensitivity Slider). Arrow Used for selecting Slice markers by clicking on their handles.
➜ Pointing in the waveform display will show the position (in seconds Hide Used for deactivating slices by clicking on their handles.
or samples depending on the Preferences setting). Lock Used for locking slices, by clicking on their handles.
In addition, the Status Bar always displays the following properties regarding
Pencil This is used for adding slices manually.
the currently selected file in the right half of the Status Bar:
• Stereo/Mono status of the file.
• The sample rate at which the file was recorded. Level Meter
• The number of slices between the locators.
• The length of the file in seconds.
• The size of the transmitted/exported data in bytes. Clip indicators
Window Title
The level meter indicates the output level of the selected file during playback.
The window title displays two things: Two meter bars are shown for stereo files and one bar for mono files.
• The name of the file. You should check that levels never cause the Clip indicator(s) at the top of
• An asterisk that indicates if the file hasn’t been saved yet. the meter to light up.
• If Preview mode is selected, the meters indicate the level post any
applied effects.
• You can boost or cut the level with the “Gain” parameter in Preview
mode.
In case of boosting the output level, watch the meter (and listen) carefully to
avoid clipping.
Zooming out
➜ Zooming out is done the same way as zooming in, except you also
Magnification, Song hold down the [Option] (MacOS) / [Alt] (Windows) key.
If you click or drag in the vertical magnification indicator, the amount of verti-
cal zoom changes. The vertical scale is displayed in decibel, and the zoom
factor changes in steps of 6 dB. Minimum zoom will show 0 dB as the top
and bottom waveform amplitude boundaries in the window, the next factor
will show -6, and so on.
Dragging the Thumbnail rectangle. To make the size of stereo files in the ReCycle window more compact, the
left and right channels of stereo files can be summed to one channel, instead
of being stacked on top of each other. Note that this is a display option only,
The Scroll Bar the actual audio material is not affected in any way.
The scroll bar can be used to scroll the view of the waveform.
Waveform Look
Use this pop-up menu to select one of three different waveform "looks";
Plain, 3D or Shaded. Plain displays the waveform with normal graphics, 3D
adds a depth effect to the graphics and Shaded adds a progressive shade to
the lower part of the waveform.
Waveform Color
Click this button to select a new color for the waveform. On the Macintosh,
this brings up the standard Apple Color Picker, under Windows this brings up
the standard Windows Color dialog. The color field to the right shows you the
current color selection.
Contrast Slider
This slider sets the amount of contrast between the background display and
the waveform. For maximum contrast, position the slider all the way to the
right. Moving the slider to the left progressively adds more of the chosen
waveform color to the background display.
Playing the entire Loop secutive slices (dragging to the left will not play slices “backwards”, it only
reverses the order that the slices are played back in).
➜ The “hot-spot” (the part of the pointer that you aim with) is indi-
To play the entire loop, press [Enter] on the numeric keypad or click the Play cated by a cross.
button.
The “hot-spot”.
The Play Button
To stop playback, press [0] on the numeric keypad or click the Stop button. ➜ Using the Slice Audition buttons
The three Slice audition buttons are located to the right beside the Play
and Stop buttons. They have the following respective functionality:
Play Slice and move to next (making the next Slice the current).
By repeatedly clicking this button, you can step through the Slices
from left to right and audition each one.
50 PLAYING AUDIO
The current Slice is indicated in the ReCycle window by a dotted vertical
Slice marker. Preview mode
The Preview function lets you audition the loop exactly as it will sound when
The current Slice transmitted to a sampler, or saved as a file. In Preview mode you can change
the pitch or tempo independently from each other, change the gain of the
loop, add processing and more. Note that all Preview settings will be applied
to the resulting saved file or when transmitted to your sampler!
PLAYING AUDIO 51
4. Click the Envelope button, or select “Envelope” from the View
menu.
The Envelope panel appears below the main toolbar. Envelope allows
you to adjust three parameters; Attack, Decay and Stretch (see the chap-
ter “Processing Audio” for a full description of the Envelope parameters).
This particular file was saved with non-default Attack and Decay param-
eter settings, which means that the Envelope effect is already turned on.
This is indicated by the darkened and lit On/Off button (the leftmost but-
ton on the panel).
! For all Preview settings, the principle “what you hear is what you
get” applies to the resulting saved or exported file or when trans-
mitted to your sampler!
52 PLAYING AUDIO
SETTING SLICES AND LOOPS
9
Using Sensitivity Using the Hide tool
Most of the time when working with ReCycle, you will want to cut your loop You might run into situations where there are too many slices on the screen.
up into slices. A slice is a section of the waveform, from one slice marker to You could of course reduce the Sensitivity to get rid of the slice markers you
the next. don’t want, but then other slice markers could disappear too, and this might
not be desirable.What you need to do in a situation like this is to “Hide” an in-
dividual slice, and this is just what the Hide Tool lets you do: When you select
the Hide Tool and click on a slice marker it gets diminished and its line disap-
A slice marker
pears.
A slice
➜ You can use the Select All item on the Edit menu to select all mark- The vertical line snaps to zero crossings.
ers. 4. When you have found the correct position, click with the Pencil tool.
➜ If you have a selection of markers, you can invert the selection by The slice appears.
using “Invert Selection”, also on the Edit menu. The following rules apply to manually added slices:
After this operation, the markers that were previously selected are now
deselected, and vice versa. This is mainly useful together with Silence • Manually added slices are locked. They will therefore not disappear
Selected, see page 71 and page 84. when you lower Sensitivity.
• If you unlock a manually added slice and drag the sensitivity slider
down lower than halfway (below 50), it will disappear, just as other
slices.
2. Select the existing slice marker that you wish to move. ➜ To delete one or more slice markers, select it/them and press [Back-
space] or [Delete], or select Delete from the Edit menu.
➜ Place it in the proximity where you want to move it to by dragging
the slice marker. ! Deleted slices that were originally ”discovered” by the slicing algo-
As you drag, the vertical line of the slice marker is superimposed across rithm can be made to appear again by using Re-Analyze (see page
the waveform. This line indicates where the slice will be placed when you 67).
release the mouse button.
3. After having placed the slice marker in the general area where you
would like to move the slice to, zoom in on it very closely and move
the slice marker to where you want it.
The line snaps to zero crossings in the waveform (positions where the
amplitude is close to zero) exactly like when adding slices, so manually
moved slices won’t introduce any clicks or pops. If the amplitude is zero
for a period of time, the line will move continuously over this area.
4. When you have found the correct position, release the mouse but-
ton.
Time Signature
The Sign pop-up menu allows you to choose between a few of the more
common Time Signatures. If none of them fit your purpose, you can still “as-
semble” a correct Time Signature using the Bars and Beats settings, see be-
low.
As stated above, you can use Bars and Beats to “create” some unusual Time
Signatures:
Original Tempo
When the Left and Right Locators are set, and the correct Time Signature
and loop Length (Bars and Beats) has been specified, this area will show the
calculated original tempo of the loop.
The three Effect buttons (from left to right); Envelope, Transient Shaper and
Equalizer.
The three Effects each have their own panel, containing the parameters. By The Effect Presets button.
clicking on one of the effect buttons located to the left of the transport con-
trols on the Toolbar, the corresponding panel is shown below the toolbar. ! It is not possible to store user presets.
You can also open the effect panels from the View menu.
➜ The top to bottom order of the Effect panels also reflects the inter- About the Parameter Controls
nal signal path of the effects.
If all are activated, Envelope is always the first effect in the signal path, For all effect parameter controls, the following applies:
the Transient Shaper is the second, and Equalizer is the last.
➜ [Shift]-clicking a parameter increases the resolution of the adjust-
able range.
Use this for a finer tuning range.
➜ [Ctrl]-clicking (Win) / [Command]-clicking (Mac) a parameter resets
The three effect panels. the parameter to the default value.
62 PROCESSING AUDIO
Effect Parameters ! Please note that the attack of the sound is not affected in any way.
PROCESSING AUDIO 63
Transient Shaper | Parameter | Description
Release When the signal level drops below the set threshold, this de-
termines how long it takes before the compressor lets the
sound through unaffected. Set this to short values for in-
Transient Shaper parameters... tense, “pumping” compressor effects, or to longer values for
a smoother change of the dynamics. The range is 13 ms to
1.4 s.
Gain meter This shows the amount of gain reduction or increase (in dB),
...and the Gain meter. caused by the combined compression and gain compensa-
The Transient Shaper is a type of attack/release envelope control, which pro- tion.
duces a result that could be likened to compression. Compressors level out
the audio, by making loud sounds softer and vice versa. The result is that the
levels become more even and individual sounds can get more power and
“punch”.
• “Normal” compressors are activated by peaks and volume changes
in the actual audio. The Transient Shaper is instead activated by the
individual slices in the loop.
Regardless of method, if you have ever used a compressor, you will find that
the Transient Shaper will affect the sound in a similar way. It is, however, im-
portant to be aware of this difference, as the Transient Shaper won’t work as
intended unless the file contains slices!
To compensate for the volume loss that can be caused by this effect, the
Transient Shaper has automatic gain compensation, that raises the overall
level by a suitable amount. The parameters are as follows:
| Parameter | Description
Threshold This is the threshold level above which the effect sets in. Af-
ter the initial slice attack, signals with levels above the
threshold will be affected, signals below it will not.
In practice, this means that the lower the Threshold setting,
the more the signal will be affected by the Transient Shaper.
The range is -6 to -40 dB.
Amount This lets you specify the amount of gain reduction applied to
the signals above the set threshold. The range is 0 to 99.
Attack This governs how quickly the compressor will apply its effect
when signals rise above the set threshold. If you raise this
value, the response will be slower, allowing more of the sig-
nal to pass through the compressor unaffected. Typically,
this is used for preserving the attacks of the sounds. The
range is 0 to 91 ms.
64 PROCESSING AUDIO
Equalizer | Parameter | Description
Hi Cut A lowpass filter allowing you to set the upper limit
of the overall frequency range. You can progres-
sively cut frequencies from 20 kHz down to 100
The main Equalizer parameters. Hz.
| Parameter | Description
Lo Cut A highpass filter allowing you to set the lower
limit of the overall frequency range. You can pro-
gressively cut frequencies from 15 Hz up to 12
kHz.
Low Frequency The center frequency for the low-end equaliza-
tion. Around this frequency, the sound will be
boosted or cut according to the Low Gain setting.
The available frequency range is 20 Hz to 3 kHz.
Low Gain Governs the amount of boost or cut around the
set frequency. The range is ± 18dB.
Low Q Determines the width of the frequency band
around the center frequency to be affected. The
narrower frequency band, the more drastic effect
of the boost or cut. Range is 0.5 to 10.
High Frequency The center frequency for the high-end equaliza-
tion. Around this frequency, the sound will be
boosted or cut according to the High Gain set-
ting. The available frequency range is 1.5 kHz to
16 kHz.
High Gain Governs the amount of boost or cut around the
set frequency. The range is ± 18dB.
High Q Determines the width of the frequency band
around the center frequency to be affected. The
higher the Q setting is, the narrower the fre-
quency band will be, and this will cause a more
drastic effect of the boost or cut. Range is 0.5 to
10.
PROCESSING AUDIO 65
The Process Menu Convert to Mono
This Process menu item will convert stereo files to mono. It is only selectable
In addition to the three Effect processors, there are several other “offline” for stereo files.
(non-realtime) audio processing functions available on the Process menu. ➜ When this item is selected, a dialog appears asking which chan-
You do not have to use Preview mode to apply offline processing. The Pro- nel(s) you wish to use as the basis for the converted file.
cess menu items are as follows: The options are Left, Right or a mix of both Left and Right channels.
• Normalize
• Convert to Mono
• Convert Sample Rate
• Crop Loop
• Remove DC
• Re-Analyze
➜ Normalizing each slice can be useful when you use ReCycle to pro-
cess individual sounds that don’t belong to a loop.
66 PROCESSING AUDIO
Crop Loop
➜ Crop Loop allows you to trim files, by removing all audio data out-
Additional Processing
side the left and right locators.
If you have set up a perfect loop with the locators, and the file contains Items
audio outside this locator range you can use Crop Loop to remove this
superfluous data. There are a number of additional real-time processing items available on the
Toolbar (Preview mode must be activated):
Remove DC
Processing Gain
This function will remove any DC offset in the audio. DC offset is when there
is too large a DC (direct current) component in the signal, sometimes visible
as the signal not being visually centered around the “zero level axis”. DC off-
set can introduce clicks if the slices are later moved around in a sequencer,
and it also affects zero crossing detection (see page 57) and certain pro- This function allows you to change the gain (volume) of the loop. The applied
cessing functions such as Re-Analyze and Normalize. gain change will be present when the loop is saved/transmitted/exported.
The main use of this function is to compensate for possible clipping or level
Re-Analyze changes introduced by other processing items, like equalization for example.
Re-Analyze re-runs the slice-detection algorithm on the waveform data. You ➜ You can boost the gain by up to 18 dB, or lower it down to silence
may have deleted slices that were detected when the file was first sliced. (-80 dB).
This command will ”re-discover” those slices. You should avoid boosting the signal to the extent that the Level Meter
clip indicators light up often. If they momentarily light up once, you should
➜ Re-Analyze will add all slices that lies on a position in the file not al- listen carefully to see if it sounds o.k (a slight amount of clipping on per-
ready occupied by a slice. cussive material is not necessarily even noticeable). The final judge
Note that the added slices may not be visible, as this depends on the should always be your ears!
Sensitivity setting!
PROCESSING AUDIO 67
Gate Sensitivity
Preview Pitch
You can change the pitch of a loop up or down two octaves (+/- 24 semi-
tones). Hold down [Command] (Mac) / [Ctrl] (Win) and click the Pitch knob to
reset the pitch back to original. Hold down [Shift] for adjusting values in finer
increments.
Preview Tempo
You can change the tempo of the loop. Tempo values between 20 to 450
BPM can be set using the Tempo knob or by typing directly in the Tempo box
and pressing [Enter].
Hold down [Command] (Mac) / [Ctrl] (Win) and click the Tempo knob to reset
the tempo back to the original. Hold down [Shift] for adjusting values in finer
increments.
68 PROCESSING AUDIO
TRANSMIT AND SAMPLER OPTIONS
11
Selecting a Sampler to Transmit Options
Transmit to On the Process menu, you will find two Transmit settings (or “options”);
”Transmit as One Sample” and “Silence Selected”. These options can also
be toggled on or off using the two Transmit Option buttons on the Toolbar:
To route the Receive and Transmit functions to a particular sampler, select it
from lower section of the Sampler menu. If your sampler is not on the menu Transmit as One Sample Silence Selected
you must add it in the Sampler Settings dialog, see page 30.
! For file-based samplers such as SampleCell and for the Akai S5000/
6000 sampler series you do not use the Transmit dialog, but the Ex-
port dialog on the File menu. See the Sampler and File Reference
pdf manual for details. ➜ Transmit as One Sample has no effect on playback in ReCycle. Si-
lence Selected, however, can be auditioned in Preview mode.
➜ Each document has its own settings.
If you are working with a lot of windows, be sure to check that the settings
are correct before you Transmit. The settings are also saved to disk with
the file when you Save.
An Akai S3000 selected.
You can have several samplers connected, either of different types or of the Transmit as One Sample
same type, but only one at a time can be selected.
You can switch samplers while you are working with the program, which al- Deactivated
lows you for example to Receive a sound from one sampler and Transmit it
to another. When Transmit As One Sample is turned off, the audio gets sliced into indi-
vidual samples when transmitted, and the MIDI files created will contain one
note for each of those slices.
Transmit and Memory ! This is the preferred mode if you want to use your MIDI sequencer
to edit the loop, change its tempo or use the MIDI file as a groove.
The program needs free memory in the computer for Transmitting. In a worst
case scenario (with Stretch set to 100%) it needs twice the memory of the Activated
longest slice. This means that if you have “Transmit As One Sample” turned
on and use high Stretch factors, you need to make sure you have enough When Transmit As One Sample is turned on, the program will transmit the
memory left when you Transmit. part that stretches from the Left Locator to the Right as one sample. Also, in
this mode, the MIDI File will only consist of one event, with the length set us-
For more information, see page 14 (MacOS only) and page 36. ing the Bars and Beats settings.
Silence Selected
When this function is activated, the slices that have selected markers will be
The Transmit button.
silenced when transmitted or exported. Preview mode has to be activated for
Silence Selected to be available. ➜ By pressing [Command]+[T] (MacOS) or [Ctrl]+[T] (Windows).
➜ By selecting “Transmit to...” from the Sampler menu.
! If you use exactly the same name as the Template, the new Program
may replace the Template.
Transmit
This button creates a Program and samples for it as described above, with-
out creating any MIDI File.
The Export Sound is similar to the normal Save dialog, but contains a few ex-
tra items. The Export dialog is used if you want to save your files for internal
samplers and other formats (see the online Sampler and File Format Refer-
ences document) for which the program saves audio files on your computer’s
hard disk.
It can also be used to change the inherent properties of a sound file. You
could for example load a Wave file, change the file’s tempo and export it as
a new Wave file.
82 EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS
Slicing for Tempo Slicing for Tempo
Changes - Sampler and Changes - Exporting to
REX Audio File
1. Open or Receive the sample. In the previous example, the result was a number of slices - in a sampler key-
map or contained in a REX2 file. However, if you plan to use the file in an ap-
2. Raise the Sensitivity Slider until a lot of slices appear. plication that only reads regular Wave and AIFF files, you want to export your
3. Activate playback and move the loop points until you find a good loop as one file, in any specific tempo or pitch that you decide. Proceed as
loop. follows:
1. Follow steps 1 to 6 in the previous example.
4. Work on the slices with the Hide and Lock tools until you have one
slice per sound in the loop. 2. Enter the tempo, and/or the pitch that you wish the file to play back
It is important that no slice plays two consecutive sounds, so audition in (you can also add additional processing if you like).
them one at a time to check. If you have lowered the tempo by a large amount, check (listen for “gaps”
between the slices) if you have to raise the stretch amount.
5. Set the Time Signature and length (Bars/Beats) to whatever the
length of the loop. 3. Activate “Transmit as One Sample” on the Process menu.
The Tempo is calculated.
➜ Export the file in the format of your choice using the Export File di-
6. Click the Preview Toggle button to enter Preview mode. alog - see page 76.
The result is a single file that plays in the tempo and ptich specified by
➜ The Stretch factor is by default set to 40%.
the Preview settings.
Use the Preview Tempo knob to check how the loop plays back at differ-
ent tempi and change the Stretch setting according to how much you
want to lower the tempo.
From here you have three ways to go, depending on what you would like to
do with the loop:
➜ You could select your sampler from the Sampler menu and choose
“MIDI File +Transmit”.
➜ You could export the file in another format using the Export dialog.
See next page.
➜ You could save the file as a REX2 file.
See page 76.
In case of it being a Transmit to sampler operation (and some of the Export
formats), you proceed as follows:
7. Set things up so that the sequencer plays the new program file in
your sampler.
8. Load the MIDI File into your sequencer and play it back.
Try varying the tempo.
EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS 83
Slicing for Editing Using Silence Selected
If your main goal is to edit the loop, rather than changing its tempo, you may Even if you don’t want to cut up a loop in slices, you can still use ReCycle to
take a slightly different approach compared with slicing for tempo changes: send different sounds in the loop to different outputs on your sampler to ap-
1. Set things up as in the previous example. ply processing to only one drum in a loop for example. The example below
If you activate “Show Grid” on the View menu, finding exact positions be- assumes you only want to pick out one sound, but the same technique can of
comes much easier. course be applied to separate as many sounds as you need.
1. Open or Receive the sample.
2. Work on the slices with the Hide and Lock tools until you have ap-
proximately one slice per eighth note, sixteenth note or whatever 2. Raise the Sensitivity until a lot of slices appear.
you need, depending on how detailed an edit you want to do.
If a slice plays more than one sound, please remember that you won’t be 3. Activate playback and move the loop points until you find a good
able to edit these two sounds independently. There are occasions when loop.
this will be perfectly OK though, for example when you just want to shift 4. Set the Time Signature and length (Bars/Beats) to whatever the
the order of the beats around in the loop. length of the loop.
3. Proceed as from point 5 in the previous example. The Tempo gets calculated.
4. In the MIDI Sequencer, open the MIDI File for editing. 5. Click the Preview toggle button to enter Preview mode.
When you move slices around, make sure they keep their relative posi- 6. Make sure “Silence Selected” and “Transmit as One Sample” are
tion to the beats, eighth notes etc., to maintain the integrity of the timing activated (ticked) on the Process menu.
in the groove.
7. Work on the slices until they play one sound each when you click
on them.
8. Select all slice markers which play the same sound, for example the
snare drum.
Play it back to check that all snares are silent.
9. Select your actual Sampler from the sampler menu and select
Transmit or MIDI File+Transmit, or simply export the file in the for-
mat of your choice using the Export dialog.
The MIDI File you get will contain one event which plays the entire loop at
the calculated tempo.
10. With the selection still set up as before, select “Invert Selection”
from the Edit menu.
Now all sounds that are not snares are selected.
11. Transmit the sample again to the sampler, but under another name.
12. Set up the sampler and sequencer so that the two samples are
played back at the same time. Also set up the sounds to one output
each.
They will together recreate the loop as it was, but the snare will be sepa-
rated to its own output, which means that you have independent control
over its volume, that you can process it separately etc.
84 EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS
Extracting a Groove Quantizing Audio
If you think about it, you will realize that all ReCycle MIDI Files are actually If you have sliced a groove or other recording, you can apply quantizing to it
timing maps of how the drums were played in the loop. Many sequencer pro- in the sequencer, if you like.
grams have the ability to load MIDI Files and apply their timing to the se-
quenced parts. The terminology used is “Match Quantize” or “Groove”. ! When Transmitting, always use at least a small amount of Stretch,
If you use a ReCycle MIDI File as a “groove template”, you can make your to avoid the gaps between slices that might otherwise occur.
sequenced parts play back with the timing of the drum loop. For this, you
could of course use the MIDI File you get when Transmitting slices to the Please note that if you have two REX2 loops in Reason, applying the timing
sampler. But, you can also create a timing file only, by exporting the file as a of one of them to the other is really easy. Use the “To Track” function in Dr.
Standard MIDI File. Proceed as follows: Rex for one of the loops, and select the resultant MIDI notes in the se-
quencer. Now select “Get User Groove” on the Edit menu. Now you can
1. Open or Receive the sample. quantize the other loop’s MIDI note data using the User Groove (see the
2. Raise the Sensitivity Slider until a lot of slices appear. Reason manual for details).
If you don’t like what you get, Undo the Quantize, and try the other way
3. Activate “Show Grid” on the View menu and work on the slices with
around, for example.
the Hide and Lock tools until you have one slice per eighth note or
sixteenth note.
In many situations there will be no sound on a certain eighth or sixteenth
note. There’s not much you can do about this. You can copy another
MIDI note in the sequencer later, or insert a new one “by hand”. You can
also add a slice manually, at any position.
4. Set the Time Signature and length (Bars/Beats) to whatever the
length of the loop.
The Tempo gets calculated.
5. Make sure “Silence Selected” and “Transmit as One Sample” are
not activated on the Process menu.
These items should not be ticked.
6. Select Export from the File menu and save as a Standard MIDI File.
➜ If you use Propellerhead’s Reason, applying a groove to existing
music is a piece of cake. Just Import the MIDI File (or open a REX2
file - you can simply use the “To Track” function to create MIDI data
from the REX2 file) in Reason and select “Get User Groove” from
the Edit menu.
EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS 85
Extracting Sounds Using Loops with unusual
This can be used to extract single sounds (snares, hi-hats etc.) from a loop
or other recording. It can also be very useful if you have recorded more than
length or cutting
one drum loop into a file and want to save each one as a separate file.
Sometimes you don’t have a full bar of a loop. Set up the loop and the Bars
1. Open or Receive the sample. and Beats fields for as much as you have. Then slice the loop. Finally, use
your sequencer’s editing capabilities, on the MIDI notes, to recreate the
2. Raise the Sensitivity Slider until the desired number of slices ap-
missing parts.
pears.
You will also encounter situations where the best loop doesn’t really start on
3. Set “Bars” to any value but zero. a downbeat. It might for example happen that you get the best loop when you
4. Click the Preview Toggle button to enter Preview mode. position the Left and Right Locator on the last quarter note of two consecu-
tive measures.
5. Work on the slices with the Hide and Lock tools until you get the If this happens, you can fix it in your sequencer, by cutting the last quarter
sounds you want when you audition. note of the MIDI Part and pasting it in at the beginning, to position the down-
In the case of the “multi-loop” file outlined above, this would mean one beat correctly. If you don’t want to slice the loop completely, at least allow a
slice per loop. slice at the downbeat (the Lock tool is ideal for this). Then, repositioning that
6. Set the Loop point to enclose the first and last sound you want from last quarter note to the beginning of the loop will be very easy.
the audio file.
This might mean unwanted sounds are transmitted, but these can always
be deleted in the sampler. Or you can use “Silence Selected” to prevent
some slices from being sent.
➜ Also in the case of the multiple loop or Silence Selected scenario,
you could use the Gate Sensitivity parameter to prevent silent pas-
sages from being transmitted.
See page 68.
7. Select your Sampler from the Sampler menu and select Transmit.
The slices get transmitted. Alternatively, you can use Export Sound to
save each slice as a file in a format of your choice.
86 EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS
INDEX
A E
Acrobat Reader 10, 16 Effects
Add Sampler 31 Activating 62
AIFF files 37, 77 Envelope 63
Arrow Tool 43, 57 Equalizer 65
Audio Buffer Size 20 Opening Effect Panels 62
Audio Card Driver 19 Presets 62
Audio Playback Transient Shaper 64
Loop 50 Export Groove MIDI File 78
Memory for 36 Export to ReCycle REX file 78
Open dialog 37 Extracting Sounds 86
Setting up 12
Slices 50 F
Auditioning Audio files 37 File
Auditioning Slices 50 Formats 37
Auto Play 37 Info 37
Opening 36, 38
B Saving 76
Bars 60 Find 31
Beats 60 Find All 30
Buffer Size 20
G
C Gain 67
Color 45 Gate Sensitivity 68
Contacts 14, 21 Grooves 85
Contrast Slider 45
Copy to Clipboard 13, 22 H
Copyright 6 Help Contents 20
Crop Loop 67 Hide Tool 43, 54
Cubase VST 78
I
D Internet 14, 21
Drag and Drop 38
L
Lightning icon 71
Locators 59
Lock Tool 43, 56
Loop 59
88 INDEX
M R
Magnification 44 RCY files 37
Magnify To Fit 46 Re-Analyze 67
Memory Receive sample 38
Allocating 14 ReCycle Documents 37
And Sounds 36 ReCycle Export file 78
Fragmentation of 36 REX file 78
Transmit and Export 70
MIDI Connection (Macintosh) 11 S
MIDI Connection (Win) 17 Sample Rate
MIDI Files Transmit 72
Exporting Groove 78 Window title 43
Transmitting/Exporting 73 Sampler
Adding Automatically 30
N Adding Manually 31
Normalize 66, 82 Deleting from list 33
Information 32
O Selecting 70
Open 36 Setting Up 11, 17
Verifying connection 32
P
Sampler List
Pencil Tool 43, 57 Adding Samplers to 30
Pitch 68 Editing 32
Play Viewing 30
Loop 50 Sampler Settings dialog 30
Open dialog 37 Save/Save As 76
Slices 50 SCSI
Preferences Installing (Win) 17
View stereo files as sum of L+R 45 Settings 32
Preview mode 51 Verifying Connection (Win) 17
Preview Pitch 68 Selecting 57
Preview Tempo 68 Sensitivity slider 54
Processing Sign 60
Crop Loop 67 Silence Selected 71, 84
Gain 67 Slice Audition buttons 50
Normalize 66
Pitch 68
Re-Analyze 67
INDEX 89
Slices W
Adding & Moving Manually 57 Wave files 37, 77
Adding using Sensitivity 54 Waveform Display Options 45
Auditioning 50 Window title 43
Hiding 54
Locking 56 Z
Selecting 57 Zero Crossings 57
Song Position 44 Zooming 44
Sound Designer II 37
Sound Manager Audio 13
Speaker tool 50
Status Bar 43
Stretch 63
Support 14, 21
System Information 13, 21
T
Templates 72
Tempo 68
Calculated 60
Changes, Slicing for 83
Thumbnail
Scrolling 45
Setting Magnification 45
Time Signature 60
Toolbox 43
Transmit As One Sample 70
Transmit button 71
Transmitting
Memory for 70
Sample rate 72
Templates 72
U
Underruns 20
Undo/Redo 46
V
Verify 32
90 INDEX