, www.propellerheads.se ■ Made in Sweden Version 2.
Operation Manual by Synkron: Ludvig Carlson, Anders Nordmark and Roger Wiklander. The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Propellerhead Software AB. The software described herein is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to any other media expect as specifically allowed in the License Agreement.
D Table of Contents
2 5 Introduction 25 Opening Audio Files 6 6 6 7 Welcome to ReCycle 2.
1 Processing Audio 52 53 55 56 About the Effects Effect Parameters The Process Menu Additional Processing Items 57 Saving and Exporting 58 58 59 61 62 64 Saving ReCycle Documents Export Options Exporting Files About Sample Cell About Akai S5000/6000 About SoundFonts 65 Example Applications 66 66 67 67 68 68 69 69 70 70 Which Samples will work? The Simple Trim Slicing for Tempo Changes Slicing for Tempo Changes - Exporting to Audio File Slicing for Editing Using Silence Selected Extracting a Groo
4 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 D Introduction
Welcome to ReCycle 2.1! Copyright Issues First of all we’d like to thank you for purchasing ReCycle 2.1! You are now in possession of a unique tool which will be an enormous time saver and which will add great creative possibilities to your music making. The raw material with which you feed ReCycle is drum loops, grooves, breakbeats, or whatever sampled weirdness you find appropriate. Included in this package is a great selection to get started with.
About This Manual Mac OS vs. Windows The documentation is both for the Mac OS and Windows versions of ReCycle 2.1. Most pictures show the Macintosh version but things are identically titled and positioned in both versions. Sometimes, a key command is different in the two versions. This is indicated like this: Hold down [Option] (Mac) / [Alt] (Win) and... Everything said in the manuals applies to both platforms, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
8 INTRODUCTION
2 D Macintosh Installation
Computer Requirements Installing ReCycle You can use ReCycle on any computer that runs Mac OS X version 10.2 or later. 1. On the CD-ROM, double click the icon named “Install ReCycle”. Finding your way on the ReCycle CD-ROM 3. Click the “Install” button. Once you have turned on your system, insert the ReCycle CD-ROM. 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-ROM.
Launching ReCycle 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. Audio Card Driver After launching ReCycle, you should open the Preferences dialog (Audio page) on the ReCyclet menu and check the Audio Card Driver settings at the top. If you click the pop-up, all available drivers installed are shown. The Built-in audio controller is always available as the default output. 2.
Getting Help and Additional Info If you pull down the Contacts menu in ReCycle, you will find some menu items that allow you to contact the manufacturers and get support: ! For these items to be useful, you need to have a working Internet connection and an Internet browser installed on your computer. D Go to the Propellerhead Homepage This menu item brings you to the homepage of Propellerhead Software, where you will find information about possible new ReCycle versions, etc.
3 D Windows Installation
Requirements You can use ReCycle on any PC running Windows XP or Windows 2000. You also need a Windows compatible, 16-bit audio card. Setting Up The Computer Before proceeding, your computer should be set up and you should be reasonably familiar with its operation. You should also have the audio card installed and working properly. D To check whether your audio card works properly, try playing back audio with the Media Player application (included with Windows).
Installing ReCycle Launching ReCycle 1. On the CD-ROM, double click the icon named “Install ReCycle“. 1. Locate the ReCycle entry on the Start menu and select it. 2. Follow the instructions in the dialog boxes that appear. You will have the option to launch ReCycle directly when exiting the installer. 2. The program prompts you to insert the ReCycle CD-ROM (if not already in the drive). This is only required the first time you run the program. ! 3.
Audio Settings After launching ReCycle, you should open the Preferences dialog (Audio Page) on the Edit menu and check the Audio Card Driver settings. D If you have an audio card with multiple outputs, you can select which output pair you wish ReCycle to use by clicking the “Channels...” button. This item will not be selectable if you use a card with only a regular stereo output. D If there is no specific ASIO driver, you should select the Direct Sound driver for the audio hardware.
Regardless of which type of audio hardware or drivers you are using, you should follow these basic steps: 6. In the Audio Preferences dialog, locate the Buffer Size slider and drag it all the way to the right. 1. Make sure you have the latest drivers for the audio hardware! Please check the manufacturer’s website for the latest versions. 2. Install the audio hardware and its drivers as described in its documentation. 3.
Getting Help and Additional Info Contacts The next items on the Help menu allow you to contact Propellerhead Software for support and more info. ! If you pull down the Help menu in ReCycle, you will find menu items for getting help, support and information: For these items to be useful, you need to have a valid Internet connection and an Internet browser installed on your computer. D Go to the Propellerhead Homepage...
4 D Quick Tour of ReCycle
How ReCycle Works There are many things you can do with ReCycle. But the most common application is to slice a loop for tempo changes or editing. These are the basic steps (details follow later in this chapter): 1. Use the Open dialog to locate and open the loop audio file. The program now analyses the loop and detects the individual “hits” or “sounds” in it. It then displays the loop in the waveform display. 2.
Using ReCycle - Step By Step The text below assumes that you have installed ReCycle and a REX2 compatible sequencer program such as Reason or Cubase. If not, please see the Installation chapter for more information. 4. In the window, click the Play button. You should now hear the entire loop, from start to end, repeating until you click the Stop button.
7. Drag the Left and Right Locators until the loop is exactly 1 bar long. The left locator should be positioned at the start of the loop, on the first slice marker, and the right locator should positioned on the last slice marker. This last slice contains the “extra” downbeat (see step 4), but as the Right Locator position governs when the loop should jump back to the Left Locator, this second downbeat won’t be played, and the loop will now be exactly 1 bar.
Exporting to File Besides creating REX2 files for use in audio sequencers, ReCycle can be used to simply change the inherent properties of a file, like the tempo and/or the pitch for example. You can then export the loop (as one sample - not as separate slices) and use it in any audio application or software sampler. A typical example would be a situation where you have found a perfect loop you wish to use in a song you have recorded.
24 QUICK TOUR OF RECYCLE
5 D Opening Audio Files
About Sounds and Memory Using Open Whenever ReCycle displays audio in a window, it has to load it into the computer’s RAM memory. 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.
File Information You will not be able to play a file under the following conditions: When you select a file in the list, information about file type, length, etc. is shown in the lower part of the Open dialog. • • • If the file is in a format ReCycle doesn’t support. If there isn’t enough memory (RAM) left to load the sample. If the sample is longer than 30 seconds, the Auto Play function will not work - you can, however, audition it using Play.
About Split Stereo Files ReCycle can load Split stereo files (commonly used in Logic and Pro Tools). Split stereo files have the extension “L” or “R”. If you load a file with one of these extensions, ReCycle will automatically scan for an opposite match and load this at the same time. For the match to work, the split files have to have the same name (apart from the extension), size, bit rate and be located in the same folder. Using Drag and Drop ReCycle supports standard Drag and Drop.
6 D The ReCycle Window
Window Overview Waveform Display Slice Marker Handle Thumbnail overview Vertical Magnification Tool Bar The left half of the Toolbar contains the following items: Open/Save Effect buttons Export as One Sample Tools Export Sound Stop Preview toggle Slice Audition buttons Play Sensitivity slider Gate Sensitivity Silence Selected The right half of the Toolbar contains the following items: Length settings Left Locator Time Signature Horizontal Magnification Preview Pitch 30 THE RECYCLE WIND
Status Bar Toolbox The Status Bar is located at the bottom of the ReCycle window. The leftmost area of the Status Bar displays the following: D If you point anywhere on the Toolbar, this area will display “extended” tooltips and, if applicable, keyboard shortcuts in parentheses for any Toolbar item you point to. This area says “Ready” if you are not pointing at any item. Left corner of the Status Bar (while pointing at the Sensitivity Slider).
Handling Windows You can open as many loops as RAM permits, and they will each appear in a window. • • • For more information about window handling, see the documentation that came with your computer. ReCycle’s Windows menu contains a list of the currently open windows. Selecting one makes it active. The Close item on the File menu closes the active window. Magnification, Song Position and Scrolling The Horizontal Magnification Indicator Using The Magnifying Glass Zooming in 1.
Magnifying using the Thumbnail Overview D The method of making up a rectangle with the [Command] key (Mac OS) / [Control] key (Windows), described above, can also be used in the thumbnail overview. This changes the zoom factor of the main waveform, not of the thumbnail itself. Waveform Display Options You can customize the look of the Waveform window by using the settings in the lower half of the Preferences - General dialog: Zooming in using the thumbnail.
The View Menu The Edit Menu The View menu features the following items that relate to how the waveform is displayed: The Edit menu features the following items: If you select Magnify to Fit from the View menu, the display will zoom out so that the entire sample fits the window. If Magnify to Fit Loop is selected, the display will zoom in (or out) so that the area between the left and right locators will fit the window. You can use “Copy Loop” to copy the entire loop (i.e.
After these five actions, the Undo History will look as follows: UNDO 5. Adjust Tempo At this point, you still have the option to Redo the tempo change. But if you instead would perform another action (e.g. changed the Envelope Decay), this would become the action at the top of the Undo History - and the Redo list would be cleared. 4. Lock Slice UNDO 3. Change Sensitivity 5. Change Envelope Decay 2. Mute Slice 4. Lock Slice 1. Change Stretch 3. Change Sensitivity REDO (empty) 2.
Context Menu Items Slice Marker Strip Right-clicking (Windows) or [Ctrl]-clicking (Mac OS) in different areas of the waveform display will bring up context-sensitive menus. The context menus will contain various items also found on the Edit and View menus, but there are some additional items that are only available via context menus. Main Waveform Display The highlighted area indicates the Marker strip area.
Slice Handles Right-clicking (Windows) or [Ctrl]-clicking (Mac OS) directly on a slice handle, brings up a context menu with the following items: | Menu Item | Description Locked Toggles the “Locked” status on or off for the slice handle you click on. See page 46. Muted Toggles the mute/unmute status for the slice handle you click on. See page 44. Delete This will delete any selected slice(s). See page 48. Select All This will select all slices. See page 47. Invert Selection See page 47.
38 THE RECYCLE WINDOW
7 D Playing Audio
Audio Quality Auditioning Slices ReCycle plays back audio directly from your computer, using the sound capabilities of your specific computer (see the Installation chapters for more details). There are three methods you can use to audition Slices: Playing the entire Loop To play the entire loop, press [Enter] on the numeric keypad or click the Play button. D Using the mouse When you move the mouse over the waveform area, the pointer turns into a speaker icon.
The current Slice is indicated in the ReCycle window by a dotted vertical Slice marker. The current Slice Preview mode The Preview function lets you audition the loop exactly as it will sound when 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.
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 chapter “Processing Audio” for a full description of the Envelope parameters). This particular file was saved with non-default Attack and Decay parameter settings, which means that the Envelope effect is already turned on.
8 D Setting Slices And Loops
Using Sensitivity Using the Mute tool Most of the time when working with ReCycle, you will want to cut your loop up into slices. A slice is a section of the waveform, from one slice marker to the next. You might run into situations where there are too many slices on the screen. You could of course reduce the Sensitivity to get rid of the slice markers you don’t want, but then other slice markers could disappear too, and this might not be desirable.
Muting several Slices at the same Time If you have several slices selected (see below) they will all get muted when you click on one of them. In the example above, the Sensitivity slider had to be set to a fairly high value to get the number of slices you see. But raising Sensitivity led to one unwanted slice, splitting a sound in two. Muting is the solution. After muting the unwanted slice. Clicking on one of the selected slices...
Using the Lock Tool The Lock tool is essentially the opposite of the Mute tool. If you lock a slice, by clicking on its marker with the Lock tool, it will stay even if you drag the Sensitivity slider all the way to zero. Unlocking Slices To unlock a locked Slice, simply click on it again with the Lock tool.
Selecting Slice Markers Manual Slice Handling Slice markers need to be selected for some operations, like Silence Selected (see page 76 and page 68), or when moving and deleting slices (see “Manual Slice Handling” in this chapter): It is possible to add new, to move, and to delete slice markers manually. ! D Selecting is done with the Arrow Tool. You can have the Pencil Tool selected, but this automatically changes to the Arrow tool if you point in the Marker strip.
Adding a Slice at any position Where do I place the Slice? D If you hold down [Option] (Mac OS) / [Alt] (Windows), the snap to zero crossing is disabled and you can add a slice at any position. We do not recommend that you do this unless you have very good reason, since it can introduce clicks and pops in the sound during playback. Zoom in far enough for the display to clearly show how the cursor jumps between zero crossings. Try to find the first position before the beginning of the sound.
How many Slices do I need? Left and Right Locator — Setting the Loop Well, it depends... By dragging • • • ! If you plan to edit the loop a lot in your MIDI sequencer, you should try to get one slice per sound in the loop, or in some situations (very busy sections for example), one slice per eighth note or sixteenth note (to simplify editing in the sequencer). If you want to create a groove, you should try to get approximately one slice per eighth note, sixteenth note or whatever the loop requires.
Tempo, Time Signature, Bars and Beats Many of the operations in ReCycle require you to specify how long the loop between the Locators actually is, meter-wise. This information is then used to calculate the tempo of the loop. 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 “assemble” a correct Time Signature using the Bars and Beats settings, see below.
9 D Processing Audio
About the Effects ReCycle features three effect processors, Envelope, Equalizer, and Transient Shaper, that can be used to further manipulate audio loops. D All effects are applied globally, i.e. they will affect all slices equally in a loop. Activating Effects Effects can be active regardless of whether the panel is visible or not. There are two ways you can activate effects: D By clicking on the Effect On/Off button on an open panel.
Effect Parameters The Amount of Stretch Envelope The percentage values tell you how much longer the entire sample will be after stretching. If you select the largest value (100%), for example, the slice will become twice its original length when exported. To open the Envelope processor, click on the Envelope button, or select Envelope from the View menu.
Transient Shaper Equalizer Transient Shaper parameters... The main Equalizer parameters. ...and the Gain meter. The Transient Shaper is a type of attack/release envelope control, which produces 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 Process Menu In addition to the three Effect processors, there are several other “offline” (nonrealtime) audio processing functions available on the Process menu. You do not have to use Preview mode to apply offline processing. The Process menu items are as follows: • • • • • • Convert to Mono This Process menu item will convert stereo files to mono. It is only selectable for stereo files.
Crop Loop D Crop Loop allows you to trim files, by removing all audio data outside the left and right locators. If you have set up a perfect loop with the locators, and the file contains audio outside this locator range you can use Crop Loop to remove this superfluous data. D You can boost the gain by up to 18 dB, or lower it down to silence (-80 dB). You should avoid boosting the signal to the extent that the Level Meter clip indicators light up often.
10 D Saving and Exporting
Saving ReCycle Documents If you have opened an audio file and worked on the slices and other settings, you can save it as a ReCycle (REX2) document. Export Options On the Process menu, you will find two Export settings (or “options”); ”Export as One Sample” and “Silence Selected”. These options can also be toggled on or off using the two Export Option buttons on the Toolbar: Export as One Sample Silence Selected D Saving is done using the regular “Save” and “Save As” commands.
lution is to open the file in ReCycle, then slice it up and set the length of the loop using the normal techniques. Enter Preview mode, set the new tempo and/or pitch, and lastly export the file in it’s original format but with a new tempo and/or pitch etc. A step by step example of exporting to file can be found on page 23. Export as One Sample can also be used in conjunction with Silence Selected to separate sounds from a loop (see below and on page 68).
File Formats Export Settings The following Export file formats are supported: | Name | Ext. MID Allows you to export a MIDI file (see page 60 for details). Wave WAV The standard Microsoft file format for audio. Exports one or several files, with one slice in each file, depending on the “Export as One Sample” setting on the Process menu. Audio IFF (AIFF) AIF Audio Interchange File Format; Apple’s standard audio file format.
In either case you are prompted with a regular File dialog where you can specify a name and location for the file. ReCycle always creates MIDI Files of type 1. However, they only contain one Track plus a Tempo Track. “Export As One Sample” and MIDI Files • • If Export as One Sample is turned off, the MIDI File will contain a number of short events, each triggering a slice, to recreate the loop. This is the mode to use if you want to create a “groove map”.
The tuning parameter in the Miscellaneous group of parameters for an Instrument doesn’t really tune a sample, instead it shifts the MIDI input up or down along the “keyboard”. This means that instead of changing the pitch of all the slices in a loop, it will make the MIDI file play the wrong slices in the loop. If you want to tune the slices in a loop you have two options: • • Either go into the key map and set the tuning individually for each slice in the loop, or...
Using ReCycle with ak.Sys ReCycle can export S5000/S6000 Program files (AKP) together with the audio files which can be loaded in ak.Sys. Proceed as follows: 1. Open the Export Sound dialog on the File menu. 2. Select “S6000 Program File” from the Type pop-up menu. The S5000 uses the same format. 3. Select a destination for the exported files.
Three types of files will be exported (given you have chosen to export a MIDI file in step 7): Requirements D A Program file with the extension *.akp. There are no actual requirements for ReCycle to be able to export SoundFont files, but to make use of the files, you need the following: D Audio files in the Wave format, one for each slice. If “Export as One Sample” is ticked on the Process menu, a single wave file will be exported. D A MIDI file.
11 D Example Applications
Which Samples will work? The Simple Trim All. Although ReCycle does a very intelligent analysis of the sample to find the individual “hits” or “sounds” in it, the sample has to meet some basic criteria to enable the automatic algorithm to find all the individual sounds: • • • Each sound in the sample must have some kind of perceivable attack. You will for example run into problems with legato playing on a flute. The sample must be adequately recorded.
Slicing for Tempo Changes 1. Open the sample in ReCycle. Slicing for Tempo Changes - Exporting to Audio File 2. Raise the Sensitivity Slider until a lot of slices appear. 3. Activate playback and move the loop points until you find a good loop. 4. Work on the slices with the Mute and Lock tools until you have one slice per sound in the loop. It is important that no slice plays two consecutive sounds, so audition them one at a time to check. 5.
Slicing for Editing Using Silence Selected If your main goal is to edit the loop, rather than changing its tempo, you may take a slightly different approach compared with slicing for tempo changes: Even if you don’t want to cut up a loop in slices, you can still use ReCycle to send different sounds in the loop to different channels in the application that will reproduce the file outputs on your sampler to apply processing to only one drum in a loop for example.
Extracting a Groove Quantizing Audio If you think about it, you will realize that all ReCycle MIDI Files are actually timing maps of how the drums were played in the loop. Many sequencer programs have the ability to load MIDI Files and apply their timing to the sequenced parts. The terminology used is “Match Quantize” or “Groove”. If you have sliced a groove or other recording, you can apply quantizing to it in the sequencer, if you like.
Extracting Sounds 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 one drum loop into a file and want to save each one as a separate file. 1. Open the sample. 2. Raise the Sensitivity Slider until the desired number of slices appears. Sometimes you don’t have a full bar of a loop. Set up the loop and the Bars and Beats fields for as much as you have. Then slice the loop.
D Index
A E Acrobat Reader 10, 14 AIFF files 27, 60 Akai Samplers 64 Arrow Tool 31, 47 Audio Buffer Size 17 Audio Card Driver 16 Audio Playback Loop 40 Memory for 26 Open dialog 27 Setting up 11 Slices 40 Auditioning Audio files 27 Auditioning Slices 40 Auto Play 27 Effects Activating 52 Envelope 53 Equalizer 54 Opening Effect Panels 52 Presets 52 Transient Shaper 54 Export As One Sample 58 Export Groove MIDI File 60 Extracting Sounds 70 F File Formats 27 Info 27 Opening 26, 28 Saving 58 B Bars 50 Beats 50 Buf
Memory And Sounds 26 Fragmentation of 26 MIDI Files Exporting Groove 60 Multiple Undo 34 Mute Tool 31, 44 N Normalize 55, 66 O Open 26 P Pencil Tool 31, 47 Pitch 56 Play Loop 40 Open dialog 27 Slices 40 Preferences View stereo files as sum of L+R 33 Preview mode 41 Preview Pitch 56 Preview Tempo 56 Processing Crop Loop 56 Gain 56 Normalize 55 Pitch 56 Re-Analyze 56 R RCY files 27 Re-Analyze 56 ReCycle Documents 27 S Sample Rate Window title 31 Save/Save As 58 Selecting 47 Sensitivity slider 44 Sign 50
W Wave files 27, 60 Waveform Display Options 33 Window title 31 Z Zero Crossings 47 Zooming 32 74 INDEX
