Beatcutter Released! Detailed walkthrough vid (Winners announced)

craftycurate

@Gavinski said:
@craftycurate either works - you can save them as AUM presets for example, no need to save a whole session

Thanks ... I referring to the AUM preset button in the top left of the AUv3 window rather than an AUM session. I mentioned state saving since I'm guessing if that happens in AUM with an AUv3 plugin, then AUM is able to save that same state data as an AUM plugin preset.

Have also found this in the manual, so it is possible to save a preset within the plugin too, which is a relief:

Gavinski

I think you can get fairly musical results with the randomisation. You can also go in and change individual numbers on templates and see what happens (remember to press ‘apply’ after changing those things unless ‘instant’ is selected. My main gripe currently is that without a mixer page there is not enough ease of changing track dynamics. Too many screens. So it is good that Igor will add that mixer page I asked for. In my opinion he really should have done it before release, it what can you do, devs will do their thing, we will complain about it, if it doesn’t match our desires, such is life. I think the mixer page and exposed parameters will add a lot to this. It is already pretty fun as is, but definitely hit and miss in output quality.

Charlesalbert

Randomization is the way✌️👍🤪

sigma79

@Gavinski said:

@sigma79 said:
Will it be good sampling volcas? Volca drum/modular. Be good for voice? Always trying to add value to a volca.

Good for mangling anything as long as u dig crazy shit

Cool beans as Doug would say.

pete12000

I like the crazy weirdness that this app can produce, and it'll pair well with a sampler. But literally nobody will ever learn how to use this thing except for @Gavinski, bless him.

I'd suggest an "auto mode" and interface, where the app automatically plugs channels into busses as in @Gavinski's demo: channel 1 defaults to bus 1, etc. Then, on a simple one-page interface, you get a mixer, a random button, and maybe a few dials that connect to the top 3 most interesting parameters within the app.

Auto mode: Hit random, listen to weird sounds, tweak with dials and mixer. For those that want to earn a PhD in Beatcutter, they can go deeper.

craftycurate

@Gavinski Final question (for now anyway) ... I can't see this in the manual ... what controls are there for cell recording length? Can this be beat synced?

MarkH

@craftycurate said:
@Gavinski Final question (for now anyway) ... I can't see this in the manual ... what controls are there for cell recording length? Can this be beat synced?

It's on the TRIG tab and is defined in beats. It won't sync because recording is started and stopped according to the trigger, which is completely tied to a threshold level. I think.

Gavinski

@pete12000 said:
I like the crazy weirdness that this app can produce, and it'll pair well with a sampler. But literally nobody will ever learn how to use this thing except for @Gavinski, bless him.

I'd suggest an "auto mode" and interface, where the app automatically plugs channels into busses as in @Gavinski's demo: channel 1 defaults to bus 1, etc. Then, on a simple one-page interface, you get a mixer, a random button, and maybe a few dials that connect to the top 3 most interesting parameters within the app.

Auto mode: Hit random, listen to weird sounds, tweak with dials and mixer. For those that want to earn a PhD in Beatcutter, they can go deeper.

Totally agree. It's genuinely not hard though to do good sounding things once you get the basics. Here is an ambient example that took all of two minutes to set up:

https://twitter.com/gavinski_s/status/1378019038874501122

This by the way also shows that you don't need a beat in sight. You can process drones or whatever. All the audio in this is processed from 4 instances of Fundamental, no dry signal, its all just BeatCutter processing

Gavinski

@MarkH said:

@craftycurate said:
@Gavinski Final question (for now anyway) ... I can't see this in the manual ... what controls are there for cell recording length? Can this be beat synced?

It's on the TRIG tab and is defined in beats. It won't sync because recording is started and stopped according to the trigger, which is completely tied to a threshold level. I think.

Trigger doesn't have to be tied to threshold I think. You can turn off threshold and just use the sequencer. I haven't understood that part well yet though.

Gavinski

By the way, I find twitter very dodgy for audio and video quality at times. That example I posted sounds like it is clipping to me now, but it does not clip at all in the original, and when I listened in twitter a second ago it was fine too. Maybe something to do with WiFi bandwidth? Who knows.... Anyway, you get the gist! This thing can do pure ambient

Shabudua

I’d like to hear more raw/effected comparisons, so I can get a better idea of what Beatcutter is actually doing. Obviously the output is very chaotic, but if I don’t know what the original sounded like, I can’t really tell what’s happening.

pete12000

@Gavinski said:
By the way, I find twitter very dodgy for audio and video quality at times. That example I posted sounds like it is clipping to me now, but it does not clip at all in the original, and when I listened in twitter a second ago it was fine too. Maybe something to do with WiFi bandwidth? Who knows.... Anyway, you get the gist! This thing can do pure ambient

Very nice. btw - the video was glitching and buffering for me too...

Gavinski

@pete12000 said:

@Gavinski said:
By the way, I find twitter very dodgy for audio and video quality at times. That example I posted sounds like it is clipping to me now, but it does not clip at all in the original, and when I listened in twitter a second ago it was fine too. Maybe something to do with WiFi bandwidth? Who knows.... Anyway, you get the gist! This thing can do pure ambient

Very nice. btw - the video was glitching and buffering for me too...

Hmm, Twitter is annoying on so many levels. Does it sound glitchy if you listen in Twitter?

Gavinski

@Shabudua said:
I’d like to hear more raw/effected comparisons, so I can get a better idea of what Beatcutter is actually doing. Obviously the output is very chaotic, but if I don’t know what the original sounded like, I can’t really tell what’s happening.

Sure. Here is the same session. First 25 seconds is processed by Beatcutter, then it switches to raw input, only the sound of 4 instances of fundamental droning, after about 40 seconds mark it goes back to being Beatcutter processed.

Poppadocrock

So is this somewhat like an AU Sector with more features? Really interested in this because I’ve always wanted sector but this is the AU version of a better type sector then I might spring for this.

Gavinski

Similar example to the above, but with drums

Gavinski

Note that when I stop bypassing the beatcutters, and bring them on again, it takes a while before they make noise as they need to record a buffer first. Must say, I think this app is pretty damn cool. Like all Igor’s stuff, it takes a bit of getting used to

McD

Thank you for the timely posting of this video. It really helps to understand how it fits
in the world of IOS music production.

Gavinski

@McD said:
Thank you for the timely posting of this video. It really helps to understand how it fits
in the world of IOS music production.

Would it be the kind of thing would tickle your fancy @McD ?

Charlesalbert

I’ve never reached 97 percent of cpu so fast😂😂😂 begin to think my iPad is faulty😂😂😂

Shabudua

@Gavinski said:
Similar example to the above, but with drums

Thanks! That makes me wonder, what does it sound like when you feed more ‘conventional’ music into it, like songs, chords, basslines, melodies, etc? 😀

Gavinski

Deleted - checking something....

Gavinski

When new AU instances of the app are opened they will always default to whatever the parameters of the last instance where. This is a bit annoying to me, I would prefer that every new instance opened in a certain default state - more predictable that way. What do others think?

michael_m

Default - I’m unlikely to want to replicate another instance.

Gavinski

@Shabudua said:

@Gavinski said:
Similar example to the above, but with drums

Thanks! That makes me wonder, what does it sound like when you feed more ‘conventional’ music into it, like songs, chords, basslines, melodies, etc? 😀

Someone else can check that for you maybe lol, I don’t mess with that conventional stuff 😝

Gavinski

@Shabudua had a quick try - doesn’t sound great - too atonal

gusgranite

@Gavinski said:
When new AU instances of the app are opened they will always default to whatever the parameters of the last instance where. This is a bit annoying to me, I would prefer that every new instance opened in a certain default state - more predictable that way. What do others think?

Not sure I follow. So it does state save the most recent parameters?

Gavinski

It does state save correctly. But if you open a new instance it will have the same parameters that were in the last instance you used. That can be annoying. Eg. I finished off a session where I put all channels 1 by 1 on to mute. Cos I wanted to use the gradual muting of each channel to thin out the sound.

I then opened a new blank aum session and opened new beatcutter. It took me forever to figure out why I was getting no sound. It was because it had opened it with everything muted. It should instead open new instances to some kind of default, it would be more predictable. Its already a complex app without adding more things like this coming at you out of leftfield

Gavinski

@Shabudua said:

@Gavinski said:
Similar example to the above, but with drums

Thanks! That makes me wonder, what does it sound like when you feed more ‘conventional’ music into it, like songs, chords, basslines, melodies, etc? 😀

I could maybe do this in. Away that would sound good, but probably not by using randomisation. You'd have to go into the Control panel and pay careful attention to the pitch sliders there

McD

@Gavinski said:

@McD said:
Thank you for the timely posting of this video. It really helps to understand how it fits
in the world of IOS music production.

Would it be the kind of thing would tickle your fancy @McD ?

Honestly... I'm trying really hard to control my spend. I have so many toys to play with.
I have so many ways to mangle using the tools I own already and I rarely mangle.

The top of my wish list is "Solo" because learning the guitar fretboard is a noble pursuit.
I also think "Solo" might have applications for ear training if it can recognize my singing voice. I could also use it for keyboard drills... so for $15 I might develop better practice habits
to improve my music making skills.