A machine for recording, editing and sequencing audio.

Latest beta version

Buzzchurch thread

Introduction

Requires a recent buzz build. There's a generator and an effect, so make sure you unzip them to the right directories. The generator is the main attraction, the effect is only required when you want to record.

"Record, you say?" Yep, record. You will need:

• an "AudioTrack Input" machine with something connected into it (if that something is a soundcard input or something else that has latency, experiment with AudioTrack Input's "latency compensation" parameter);
• the input machine selected as "Record source" in AudioTrack's rightclick menu;
• a tick next to "Arm" in AudioTrack's rightclick menu (note that machines disarm themselves when you press stop, and the arm status isn't saved in the song -- this is intentional);
• a pattern to record into;
• to press Buzz's "Record" (F7) button.

Things might get a bit strange if you change the tempo or the song position while it's recording, so don't do that. Jeskola Groove 1 doesn't actually change the tempo as far as this machine is concerned, so that should be safe.

New in beta 080920

• UI tweaks (mystery toolbar icons replaced by menu and dialogbar)
• Select regions with left mouse button, uses grid snap setting in toolbar (hold Ctrl to temporarily disable snapping)
• Editing functions: cut, copy, paste, delete, trim. The clipboard used by cut/copy/paste is shared by all instances of AudioTrack within the same instance of Buzz.
• Zooming (toolbar or Ctrl + mouse wheel) and scrolling (scrollbar or middle mouse drag). Warning: zooming in too far causes high memory/CPU usage, this will be fixed later.
• Preview current selection with spacebar
• Adjustable grid resolution
• Export selection to wavetable
• Import wav file from disk
• Send to external editor (edit "Gear\\Generators\\BTDSys AudioTrack settings.xml" to define your editors)
• Wave data is losslessly compressed (wavpack format) in the bmw/x
• Display waves in sequence editor boxes
• Misc bugfixes

New in beta 081029

The main new thing is multi-take recording. Each pattern now consists of several waves ("takes"), with exactly one take being active at any given position in the pattern.

When recording, a new take is created on each pass through each pattern. Importing from files or wavetable also creates new takes. To set a take as active over a given time range, simply select (left mouse drag) the appropriate range in the appropriate take, and hit the "A" key (or click Menu -> Take -> Set Active). If a range is covered by a red circle, this means that no take is currently active, and the pattern will be silent for this time.

Takes can be rearranged by shift+left-dragging them up and down.

The input machine has gained some parameters, the main one being the "punch" switch. AudioTrack records everything, but the punch switch controls when the newly recorded take will be made active. Of course you can go back later and edit the active take assignments manually. The punch switch can be toggled in the usual ways (manually, in a pattern or by peer machines), and can also be toggled by MIDI note.

There is also an "auto-punch" mode -- this automatically toggles the punch switch based on the input amplitude. Experiment with the threshold and release settings for your particular input signal.

To reduce clicks, AudioTrack cross-fades between takes. The length of this fade can be changed in AudioTrack's attributes window. You can't turn it off, but you can set it as low as 1 sample which is basically the same thing.

New in next beta

• User configurable shortcut keys via settings.xml
• Streaming wave data to/from hard disk (for smaller bmxs and smaller RAM footprint)
• Fix the bug which puts clicks at the beginning of recordings in certain mysterious circumstances
• Timestretching