Loops Overlapping in Automation

Hello

I'm not sure if this is a bug report or more of a feature request.

The mutes on the loop players currently switch on and off on automation bar boundaries -- that's probably the problem you're having.

In the future I plan to support some kind of setting for different options of when these mutes switch (bars, beats, anytime etc)... it sounds like that would help a lot in your situation. For now, mixer mutes are the only way you'll get switching anytime you want.

Not sure that's a useful answer or not...

Ross

Thanks for the comment. I was hoping you might direct me to learn about the metasurface tool, so I could create parameters for these loops which refuse to start/stop at a specific place in the song. But I suppose I would be doing the same thing I must do using the Mixer mute button/slider during recordings, which is manually sliding the metasurface elements around to get the loops to sync with the song, and to start/stop exactly where I want.

So what I was hoping for was a way out of manually adjusting sliders/knobs when I record a full song, and it appears as if, of all the great things about this software, this is one that needs to be improved. Still, it's the best software available for my line of work, which is a mashup DJ. I even bought and learned Ableton after my DJ friends bugged me about it. One week later, I was back to AudioMulch.

You can recall Metasurface snapshots by double-clicking on them, you don't have to put them on the surface. This makes it possible to create scenes and jump between them.

At present you would still need to use mixer mutes (or a Matrix contraption) to program the switching.

And the Metasurface snapshot switching is immediate, it won't lock to the beat (although that's something I'm considering for the future).

I am aware of the current limitations and am thinking about the best way to solve them for the future. If you want to let me know more about exactly what you'd like to be able to do I'm all ears.

Thanks

Ross.

I just solved the problem. And let me restate the problem specifically for anybody with this problem in the future.

When I create an arrangement using AudioMulch, and have many loop players all muting and unmuting throughout the song, and some of these loops have the phase adjusted to sync them with the beat, sometimes they do not start/stop exactly where I want them to in time with the song.

So, for instance, if I have a Rihanna acapella that says "Boy I want want want what you want want want" and I have adjusted the phase to +6, and it is a 32 bar loop, I can't get the loop to stop on the last "want" where I want, which would be the end. Instead, it stops on "Boy." Using automation, I can't seem to slide the mute slider to get it to stop on the last "want." Either it stops on "Boy, or on the sixth "want."

And so when I record, I must use a mixer to manually mute/unmute the loop at the precise moment, but that problem is solved by simply creating another version of the loop in a WAV editor. In this new version, I simply add silence to the first half (or sometimes last half) and then put that NEW loop in the place of the old loop, and put the old loop in another loop player and automate it to begin halfway down, or 16 bars in this case. And also automate the first loop to end at 16 bars. The acapella now syncs with the song and mutes and unmutes in perfect timing with the beat. Again, just use a wav editor to split the loop into two versions, both the same amount of bars, but one loop with the part silenced that contains the unwanted sounds.

Here's another approach which I think would fix what you're describing.

Just load the same WAV into two Loop Players, but set the loop length to twice the length of the sample. So if you want the sample to play every 8 bars, set the loop length to 16 bars. Then adjust the phase on one of the Loop Players so the sample plays 8 bars later than the other one.

The result is that you get the loop playing every 8 bars but you can mute one or other of the Loop Players when it's actually playing silence to ensure you don't have problems with the mute happening on the bar-line.

This doesn't work if you've got stretch on, of course. You will need the silence to stop the thing stretching out of shape. You still only need one WAV file though, just different phase points.

Would this work in your case?

Also, if you DO want silence in a file, I find it really useful to use Mulch's export function instead of an editor.

It means I don't have to do any calculations about how much silence to insert, I just set it up right in Mulch, solo the contraption, and export the timed amount I want.

Hope that helps. Always happy to upload an example if it would help.

Michael

Yes! Please elaborate on AM's exporter. I have been making mashups exclusively in Adobe Audition @ 120 bpm (.5s quarter notes, 0.25s 1/16ths, 0.125s 1/32nds etc.) and now that I've found this software, I've been looking on some insight on how to handle acapellas that have "bleed-over" notes in the beginning an end of the sample.

So far in Audiomulch I've had much success looping samples that are exact "integer" bar lengths i.e. 1 bar, 2 bars etc. but many acapellas have, and forgive me as my musical vocabulary is evading me at the moment, "borrowed" notes in the beginning/end of the samples.

The only logical solution I've come up with is to create the silence manually in Audition to round off the sample to a whole number of bars, but can Audiomulch's exporter do this for me somehow?

sorry for pirating the thread.
cheers~
nester999

Go to File > Export to Sound File.

The Help is really good for this function, but I can tell you now you just want to be sure you've chosen Clock Synchronised Segment and everything else should be fairly clear...

Oh, and Export exports exactly what you would hear if you pressed play in Mulch. So obviously you have to solo the sound you want to export.

Hope that makes sense,
Michael

Also, the reason you might want to add silence is really only if you're switching "stretch" on in your Loop Players and want to change the tempo. Hopefully it's already clear to you, but it won't fix anything in terms of bar lines or anything.

If you have a sample that's a bit more than 2 bars long, you could just take off stretch and set the loop length to 4 bars. Something like that.

If you want it to play back every 2 bars, with the extra bit overlapping, copy your LoopPlayer and change the phase on the second copy to +32. (=2 bars)

Audacity is a free app which allows you to timestretch the length of samples from one specified tempo to another. It's a much more reliable timestretch than Cool Edit / Audition, in my experience.