Beatcutter: Crowdsourcing the learning curve

celtic_elk

This morning’s discovery: if your samples are too abrupt and clicky at their starts and ends, try dialing in a tiny bit of attack and release in the trigger busses to smooth the edge. Remember that those parameters are scaled in seconds, so just a little bit should do. Try tweaking one bus, soloing it, and then waiting until all the playing samples are from that trigger to assess the results (depending on your other settings, this may take a little while!).

celtic_elk

While you can’t solo the control bus, here’s a workaround: place the control bus in the same bus mode as the output bus, so that all the cells controlled by control bus 1 are sent to output bus 1, etc. Now you can solo an output bus and hear only the playback manipulations controlled by the control bus of the same number. This may be useful if you’re trying to dial in a tricky set of pitch settings, for example.

ervin

People voluntarily paying serious money (in ios music terms) for the pleasure of tying themselves in knots over trying to figure out what on earth Igor was thinking, while making dry jokes about themselves, is exactly the kind of content I'm here for. Respect! 👌

Gavinski

@celtic_elk said:
This morning’s discovery: if your samples are too abrupt and clicky at their starts and ends, try dialing in a tiny bit of attack and release in the trigger busses to smooth the edge. Remember that those parameters are scaled in seconds, so just a little bit should do. Try tweaking one bus, soloing it, and then waiting until all the playing samples are from that trigger to assess the results (depending on your other settings, this may take a little while!).

This is a good one that I was also playing with today, so glad he added that.

@ervin said:
People voluntarily paying serious money (in ios music terms) for the pleasure of tying themselves in knots over trying to figure out what on earth Igor was thinking, while making dry jokes about themselves, is exactly the kind of content I'm here for. Respect! 👌

I like the cut of your jib!

@celtic_elk, do you have any insights into creative uses of the various 40 different bus configurations. I’m trying to wrap my head around whether these would be used in a more controlled way or more just to get interesting random morphing effects while switching between them

gusgranite

@ervin said:
People voluntarily paying serious money (in ios music terms) for the pleasure of tying themselves in knots over trying to figure out what on earth Igor was thinking, while making dry jokes about themselves, is exactly the kind of content I'm here for. Respect! 👌

😂

ALB

Perhaps a silly question, but I am trying to eliminate the input audio from the mix from BeatCutter. I only want hear the wet signal. I see that I can do this with a file input, but I can’t see a way with a live input

Gavinski

@ALB said:
Perhaps a silly question, but I am trying to eliminate the input audio from the mix from BeatCutter. I only want hear the wet signal. I see that I can do this with a file input, but I can’t see a way with a live input

The live input it is automatically wet. The only way to hear the dry is to raise the input slider in the reverb section, which is down by default

celtic_elk

@Gavinski said:

@ALB said:
Perhaps a silly question, but I am trying to eliminate the input audio from the mix from BeatCutter. I only want hear the wet signal. I see that I can do this with a file input, but I can’t see a way with a live input

The live input it is automatically wet. The only way to hear the dry is to raise the input slider in the reverb section, which is down by default

Further to that: the Input slider in the Reverb section controls only the dry level of the first external input channel (C1, in the app’s nomenclature); you can’t pass-through dry signal from any of the other external inputs. I just confirmed this with an instance that had two very distinct inputs.

celtic_elk

@Gavinski said:
@celtic_elk, do you have any insights into creative uses of the various 40 different bus configurations. I’m trying to wrap my head around whether these would be used in a more controlled way or more just to get interesting random morphing effects while switching between them

I think it’s useful to think through the implications of having pairs of busses in specific configurations. I was just working in a project with two input signals: a drum loop and a bassline. I assigned the first four input channels to the drums and the second four to the bass. With a setup like that, it might be useful to place the control bus in the same or opposite position to the inputs, so that each control bus controls all of the cells from one input channel. In my project, doing that means that I can consistently apply octave-down effects to the drums but not the bass, or octave-up effects in the opposite configuration, for example. Pairing the outputs with the inputs might similarly make sense: delay on the drums produces interesting syncopation, where delay on the bassline probably just makes a mess. I’m sure we can think of other combinations with specific uses.

Of course, part of the fun is to carefully set up that configuration and then change it slightly to see what happens. I’ve found that you can get profoundly different outputs by simply moving one set of busses forward or back one position on the wheel. Likewise with the sequencer transport - a change from forward to pendulum or random can make a big difference in your output. Remember also that changes in bus mode obey the Change parameter, so it could take several beats (or measures) to switch from the original position to the new position. I’m still not clear on what happens during that morph, but I’m looking forward to messing with it some more.

ALB

@Gavinski said:

@ALB said:
Perhaps a silly question, but I am trying to eliminate the input audio from the mix from BeatCutter. I only want hear the wet signal. I see that I can do this with a file input, but I can’t see a way with a live input

The live input it is automatically wet. The only way to hear the dry is to raise the input slider in the reverb section, which is down by default

Thanks! As I use this, making an effort to keep it simple, it becomes much more “musical”. I have abandoned the random feature to really try to get to grips with it.

Gavinski

@celtic_elk said:

@Gavinski said:
@celtic_elk, do you have any insights into creative uses of the various 40 different bus configurations. I’m trying to wrap my head around whether these would be used in a more controlled way or more just to get interesting random morphing effects while switching between them

I think it’s useful to think through the implications of having pairs of busses in specific configurations. I was just working in a project with two input signals: a drum loop and a bassline. I assigned the first four input channels to the drums and the second four to the bass. With a setup like that, it might be useful to place the control bus in the same or opposite position to the inputs, so that each control bus controls all of the cells from one input channel. In my project, doing that means that I can consistently apply octave-down effects to the drums but not the bass, or octave-up effects in the opposite configuration, for example. Pairing the outputs with the inputs might similarly make sense: delay on the drums produces interesting syncopation, where delay on the bassline probably just makes a mess. I’m sure we can think of other combinations with specific uses.

Ah - this is a BRILLIANT insight - hadn’t thought of it in this way at all. Jeez, this app is such a mindfuck but once you get familiar with it it becomes a very enjoyable mindfuck indeed. This Matrix, the way you have just opened it up to me, is like the audio version of Hesse’s Glass Bead Game!

Toastedghost

@celtic_elk said:
A few things that have worked for me in my first day with the app:

-Start small. Don’t feed the app multiple full-range sources and inflict tons of processing and automation and expect to love what you hear. Give it a single, relatively simple source - I’ve had good luck with short drum loops and single chord hits, as examples - on all eight input busses as an appetizer.

-A corollary with the above: resist the urge to randomize the template. The likelihood of getting a result that fits your definition of "musical" is relatively small, and if by chance you do get one, you won’t know why it worked. In fact, resist the urge to do anything with the template at all, if possible. I know it’s more laborious to tweak individual parameters in individual busses, but you’ll have a far better idea about how you got the result you did by working this way. If necessary, reload the init template (with all zeros), press Apply, and then leave that page alone for a while.

-The simplest way to start with the trigger busses is by not using the Sensitivity control. At all. Turn it off on every trigger bus, crank the Sequence parameter to 100%, and make sure that the Length parameter is off. Each trigger will now fire when the sequencer step with the same number fires, and record a sample that’s the length of a sequencer step (by default, one beat). This behavior is very simple, compared to what the app is capable of, but it’s consistent, and minimizing the amount of fine detail you have to dial in during your initial sessions will reduce your frustration and help keep you focused on having fun.

Many thanks for the sequencer tip, works a treat. Igors own video describe which buses to block when randomising which helps.

Gavinski

Switching the bus modes can get you into real ASMR territory - this app could definitely be big with that crowd

celtic_elk

@celtic_elk said:
I think it’s useful to think through the implications of having pairs of busses in specific configurations. I was just working in a project with two input signals: a drum loop and a bassline. I assigned the first four input channels to the drums and the second four to the bass. With a setup like that, it might be useful to place the control bus in the same or opposite position to the inputs, so that each control bus controls all of the cells from one input channel. In my project, doing that means that I can consistently apply octave-down effects to the drums but not the bass, or octave-up effects in the opposite configuration, for example. Pairing the outputs with the inputs might similarly make sense: delay on the drums produces interesting syncopation, where delay on the bassline probably just makes a mess. I’m sure we can think of other combinations with specific uses.

Another technique I used with this project was to stagger the trigger channels. As described above, inputs 1-4 were drums and inputs 5-8 were bass. The triggers alternated: the odd-numbered triggers were listening to the drums, and the even-numbered ones to the bassline. Using this setup, it’s impossible to put the input and trigger busses into a configuration where the drums only trigger drum sampling and the bass only triggers bass sampling; there’s always going to be some cross-channel triggering, making the collection of samples more varied.

I also set the drum triggers to use different bandpass filtering: half of them were triggered by the kick drum, and half by the snare. Finally, I set one of the bass-triggered channels so that it couldn’t quite be triggered by the bass alone, and then turned up the Sequence parameter a little so that the two signals combined would push it over the top. As a consequence, that particular trigger only fires occasionally, injecting a little more randomness into the matrix. That’s an example of a place where you might pair a trigger bus with an output bus: since that trigger fires much less frequently than the others, you might give it some more extreme effects, knowing that they’ll appear as an accent or fill every so often. Or you could pair the control bus with the trigger bus and turn up the Repeat control on that particular bus, to compensate for the fact that sampling is triggered less often.

Gavinski

Really fun: let’s say the control and output busses are both set to bus mode 3. Change output to 2, then soon after change control to 4, then output to 1, then control to 5, etc etc. get really crazy dynamic changes.

@celtic_elk would love to hear some audio examples

Gavinski

The possibilities for taking the chaos of this, recording a few minutes, chopping those into loops of various kinds and building something structured and amazing are immense

celtic_elk

@Gavinski said:
Really fun: let’s say the control and output busses are both set to bus mode 3. Change output to 2, then soon after change control to 4, then output to 1, then control to 5, etc etc. get really crazy dynamic changes.

@celtic_elk would love to hear some audio examples

Yeah, that would involve other people hearing (supposedly) musical ideas that I created. I’m still working up to that. 😄

@Gavinski said:
The possibilities for taking the chaos of this, recording a few minutes, chopping those into loops of various kinds and building something structured and amazing are immense

For sure. You could take it even further by setting up some reasonable matrix-morphing parameters in the sequence bus, starting a recording in AUM, and leaving it on in the background while you scroll through Twitter or whatever. When you hear something you like, make a note of the timestamp. Continue for an hour or so, then put it aside and come back to it with your notes in a couple days/weeks/months and decide if those bits still appeal. It’s crate-digging, but in some weird fourth-dimensional record boutique or something.

celtic_elk

@Gavinski said:
Really fun: let’s say the control and output busses are both set to bus mode 3. Change output to 2, then soon after change control to 4, then output to 1, then control to 5, etc etc. get really crazy dynamic changes.

Building on this idea: set up the app in a way that seems pleasing to you in terms of the use of pitch, effects, trigger sensitivity, etc. Block template randomization in all positions except the five positions with a # at the end of the label (positions 2, 5, 14, 21, and 34) - these are the positions that control the bus mode for the various bus groupings. On the Sequencer page, set Template to some number in the teens or tweens, and leave Numbers at 1. On the main page, set Change to a value around 2/3 of the Template value you just set. The sequencer will now move one bus at a time to a random location, slowly morphing between settings but still giving you a few cycles to hear the results before something else shifts.

Toastedghost

A lttle experimentation using some of the guides supplied. Thank guys.

celtic_elk

@Toastedghost Very nice!

Obo

Thanks for the tips guys. I’m loving this app. Not sure what I would have done without YouTube and this community but as it stands, very little frustration with the app from my seat, just a lot of fun.

Here’s something I came up with. Or should I say, here’s something IT came up while I supervised to make sure nothing got too out of hand? 🤣

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/M6DC6hwhtxCarXFH6

Obo

@Toastedghost - nice, I dig it!

Toastedghost

@celtic_elk said:
@Toastedghost Very nice!

Thanks, this app is amazing totally up my street, though I must admit at first I thought I’d bought a duck. Love Igor’s other app but often fail to get anything musical where as this baby is so tweakable. I find now I am taking a new approach, at first I was producing small snppet samples with Enso but now find when setup I can let it unwrap. Lovely

cuscolima

@Toastedghost said:
A lttle experimentation using some of the guides supplied. Thank guys.

Nice !

celtic_elk

@Obo Sweet! The rhythm on that really helps keep it grounded.

Thanks for sharing your creations, everyone. It’s fun hearing other people put this app to work, especially because y’all are getting extremely varied but very musical results - it helps overcome this notion that Beatcutter is only for glitch/abstract music, or has a certain "sound" that you either like or you don’t.

Toastedghost

@celtic_elk said:
@Obo Sweet! The rhythm on that really helps keep it grounded.

Thanks for sharing your creations, everyone. It’s fun hearing other people put this app to work, especially because y’all are getting extremely varied but very musical results - it helps overcome this notion that Beatcutter is only for glitch/abstract music, or has a certain "sound" that you either like or you don’t.

Definetely, it is governed by the choice of material you feed it and then how you have designed your template. The results are infinite and varried by your input and imagination. Lets take the hood off this beast.

mojozart

Any opinions about combining Radio Unit(s) and Beat Cutter(s) in apeMatrix?

Toastedghost

Weird there is a start button on almost every page, sometimes I cna click it and it shows it is selected, othertimes I can’t. Though sometimes everything plays without it being pressed. Anyone throw any light on this please?

cuscolima

@Toastedghost said:
Weird there is a start button on almost every page, sometimes I cna click it and it shows it is selected, othertimes I can’t. Though sometimes everything plays without it being pressed. Anyone throw any light on this please?

Start button works only if you have a file loaded. If you are only using external source, then it cannot be pressed

Toastedghost

@cuscolima said:

@Toastedghost said:
Weird there is a start button on almost every page, sometimes I cna click it and it shows it is selected, othertimes I can’t. Though sometimes everything plays without it being pressed. Anyone throw any light on this please?

Start button works only if you have a file loaded. If you are only using external source, then it cannot be pressed

I see said the blind man. Cheers