The Wormwood Star - loop torture with AudioStretch

Svetlovska

I’m a big fan of Pauls Extreme Sound Stretch on Mac or Windows for creating insanely long granular soundscapes out of almost any sample, http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/ and the nearest thing to it that I’ve found on iPad is AudioStretch, https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/audiostretch/id571863178 , a utility actually designed to help guitarists practice their twiddly bits.

The free ‘Lite’ version lets you dabble in the shallows, but the full versions’ ability to let you independently repitch and re tempo samples over a huge range, forward and back, strip the audio from screen recordings or other videos (finally making those pesky experimental and interesting but unconnected audio apps finally useful) and export seamlessly back to AudioShare officially makes it my New Favourite Thing. I used it here to turn a short loop created with Mood and Cykle into a full piece, using multiple loops run at different speeds in AUM:

waka_x

good stuff.
this app as auv3 would be great
but I doubt the coder will do that...
maybe Drambo will implement an extreme stratcher or miRack...

Krupa

You can use one of the audible modules to really stretch things out, I used it on a short guitar recording to make the soundtrack of this

Actually, thinking about it, I learned the technique in mirack but did the actual take of this in the spectrum au equivalent...

Svetlovska

@waka_x : thanks for the listen. An extreme stretcher in Drambo would indeed be awesome. Maybe @giku_beepstreet could smile kindly upon us in a future update? @Krupa : excuse my ignorance, what are the audible modules? Are these something in mirack? Also: excellent vid/audio!

waka_x

Svetloska:
there is also evolved PaulStretch as vst plug!:)
PaulXStretch plugin
https://xenakios.wordpress.com/paulxstretch-plugin/

Krupa

@Svetlovska thanks, I’m still pleased with it, which is unusual for my own work 😂

The audible one is a mirack module called ‘texture synthesiser’ which is based on mutable’s ‘clouds’. It’s also the ‘granular’ effect in the spectrum bundle, so much good for so little, free in fact!

reasOne

this is cool, i love using audio stretch..
have you tried doing similar sample stuff in miracks sampler... you can get really crazy in there with sequencing samples in different pitches, speeds, directions etc

barabajagal

@Krupa said:
You can use one of the audible modules to really stretch things out, I used it on a short guitar recording to make the soundtrack of this

Great work gentlemen. Don’t know why I’ve never considered this app before now, looks right up my street....off to buy now! 👍

Svetlovska

@reasOne : no, but I’m going to try it now I have mirack but as a total modular noob, I’ve relied on just fiddling with other people’s presets thus far. Definitely keeping my fingers crossed for some Drambo granular/audio stretch action, as that, whilst also being fairly intimidating, at least meets my ignorance half way by doing most of the connection stuff automatically.

barabajagal

Loving audiostretch. First result reminded me of a track I did a while back called berg, so I decided this is the next in the series called Second iceberg

BITCRUSHER

Reminds me of Esoteric Synth...

Svetlovska

@baudious, @barabajagal : yep, I love that synth, and I get what you mean. Second Iceberg is great

My, for want of a better word, own ‘method’ relies a lot on chance and happy accidents, and as it turned out my own three massively slowed and detuned copies of an 8 note loop sequenced in Mood by Cykle ended up sounding not dissimilar to something I arguably could have achieved more easily by noodling just with Esoteric!

I’d use that very interesting synth more if I could find an easy way to automate the main x/y ‘performance’ parameters. It’s a rare case of an app exposing too many, or at least too many not usefully described, as I haven’t found out, even by trial and error which, if any parameter could control that motion. Do you happen to know? I’d love to throw MIDILFOs at that to create random but controllable motion.

MonkeyDrummer

Enso can get pretty strung out when you speed up the recording head.

Svetlovska

@MonkeyDrummer : yes, that’s a good thought. I have used it a bit, mainly for glitchy loops, but if I recorded sped up and played back super slow, could be interesting. I’ll try it.

LinearLineman

Well done!

[Deleted User]

@Svetlovska very nice, once again! Interesting procedure, I would not have the patience ha

Svetlovska

@hibjshop : thanks for the listen, & comment.

Actually, it was, to borrow a phrase, super easy, barely an inconvenience! It took maybe 5 minutes to tweak the initial Cykle loop and Mood sound, another 5 to record it in AUM, maybe 20 minutes trying out different speeds, sections, and directions for it in AudioStretch, then another 5 making three pitch shifted loops there (something AudioStretch makes very easy, even labelling them for you) and dumping them back via AudioShare into AUM.

Then it was just trying out tempi and FX there, throw in a Mix bus for the final mix record in AUM, and upload to Soundcloud from AudioShare.

I did it , like most of my stuff these days, in bed, in the hour or so total between waking and breakfast! (For some reason I seem to do things I am happiest with in the mornings, the earlier the better). It took almost as long finding and prepping the accompanying image, (a wonderful piece of witchy art by the fascinating occultist Marjorie Cameron, The Wormwood Star herself, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Cameron , check out one of her strange art vid performance pieces from the 50’s here:)

Also sourced and edited via the iPad. Not a trick you can pull off so easily with hardware, I suspect...

When I think back to the roomfuls of gear I tried, and failed, for years to make anything I was happy with on, and compare it to this devilishly moreish little app guzzler... well, at least I’m not spending thousands any more. (Though Apple must still be very happy when they tot up my monthly App Store tab.)

Svetlovska

@waka_x : belated thanks for the heads up. I’ll take a look.

zvon

@Svetlovska nice track!
For those interested, a few months ago, I made a short video showing Audiostretch modifying samples!