Audiobus: Use your music apps together.

What is Audiobus?Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.

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Sample Slicing - Real life uses.

Sample slicing to pads. Not something I’ve much experience with.

How do you guys use this?

Is it purely a percussive element?

Only useful with drums / vocal samples?

Any wisdom/ insights/ examples / vids appreciated.

Cheers.

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Comments

  • edited January 2019

    You could also slice an evolving synth pad to achieve stepped sound modulation, or use sample slicing to reduce the number of files in your sample browser.
    Use "open append" or copy/paste in a wave editor to merge all samples into one file.

  • edited January 2019

    The thing that puzzles me is that people seem to be expect to be able to slice multi-minute audio recordings. I can understand the need to slice a 2-bar loop, but I've seen people complain when they can't slice an entire 12-minute audio track? Whatsthatabout?*

    *genuinely curious

  • Slicing as a function is very handy for re-arranging recorded audio regardless of the content type.
    It's easier to think if slicing as playing selected portions of a longer recording.

  • maybe for remixing, can't think of any other practical reason... of course then there is the impractical which could be anything

  • @kobamoto said:
    maybe for remixing, can't think of any other practical reason... of course then there is the impractical which could be anything

    Yes, it's the impractical that puzzles me, as most slicers seem to be designed to reorder short rhythmic slices - which feels to me like a really suboptimal UI for tracking audio recordings. :)

  • edited January 2019

    probably a lot of 'convenience' going on in the equation as well, I have seen a lot of folks import a whole tune to chop up whom only ended up using small pieces but for whatever reason who were averse to just sampling the small pieces outright, usually they come from a different sampling generation, maybe the same ethos behind the sampling app that doesn't sample at all phenomena.

    but to spooky's question really sample slicing is just audio editing so pretty much anything you can think of using an audio editor for you can apply to sample slicers and see how you like it. Everything from just slicing up drums and samples to adjusting vocals to fit better in a track etc..

  • edited January 2019

    I mostly use it for creative mashups of existing vocal recordings I have, for Deep Trance stuff. See "Yesterday's Echo" in "Creations" as an example. I just load a large, often multi-minute recording, and then tap random pads during playback until I find DEEP sounding bits that fit the existing harmonies :) I don't even need to see the actual waveform...

  • edited January 2019

    @kobamoto said:

    but to spooky's question really sample slicing is just audio editing so pretty much anything you can think of using an audio editor for you can apply to sample slicers and see how you like it. Everything from just slicing up drums and samples to adjusting vocals to fit better in a track etc..

    I tend to see 'slices' as 'index pointers'. That may be partially due to me being a tracker junkie and using the 9xx command from early ProTracker days to trigger the sample playback from different start points.
    (In for example Renoise I can easily add 'index pointers' to sample and easily trigger them at will using the O'Index#').

    When I had access to the EMU ESI-32 I used to map velocity to sample-start and this way I was able to 'slice' a loop by triggering it with different velocity values.

    I think part of the requests for 'buzz word features' has to do with 'just because everyone uses it' without actually knowing what it does or how to do it manually if the 'buzz word feature' is missing.

    Sure it takes longer to 'slice' a sample without auto-transient detection etc. etc. but it doesn't mean it can't be done :)
    (For example it's perfectly possible to slice & chop a sample in Cubasis and use the Mini-Sampler to trigger it but it's takes more time but it can be done).

  • edited January 2019

    @kobamoto said:
    usually they come from a different sampling generation

    Ah yes.. I'm from the generation that lusted after an S950 with 750Kb sample ram. I have trouble filling up a Volca Sample.. and sampling anything longer than 8 seconds feels wasteful to me :D

    @Samu said:
    I tend to see 'slices' as 'index pointers'. That may be partially due to me being a tracker junkie and using the 9xx command from early ProTracker days to trigger the sample playback from different start points.

    I remember using loads of 9xx commands in FT2 as well!

  • @brambos said:

    @Samu said:
    I tend to see 'slices' as 'index pointers'. That may be partially due to me being a tracker junkie and using the 9xx command from early ProTracker days to trigger the sample playback from different start points.

    I remember using loads of 9xx commands in FT2 as well!

    Classic use-case was to take a sampled filter-sweep and simulate tweaking the cut-off by triggering the sample at various start-points. (I remember doing that with a TB-303 sample that was supplied on one of those Amiga Format cover-floppies). This is something that can be done with the Volca Sample as well.

    An Amiga Classic using 9xx command to do fake-cutoff :)

    Another use-case was to overcome the 31 sample 64KB per sample limit in PT by gluing two samples together :)
    (Like 'reverse slicing' instead of creating two separate samples a new one with multiple samples was created and 9xx was used to trigger the individual sounds).

  • @kobamoto said:
    maybe for remixing, can't think of any other practical reason... of course then there is the impractical which could be anything

    I am a proud practitioner of the impractical! @AudioGus is a shaman of these dark arts; check out his Egoist videos.

  • Old (not like Blaster Master audio editor or extended memory modes for run Alone in the Dark :wink: ) but self-explanatory

    From the era where warp markers were a dream, people usually load entirely songs to re-stretch grooves and blend them with other material (usually non 4x4 like classical music and lively funk/soul) but yes, a 2 bar loops was the most usual need.

    Then Sonic Foundry Acid arrived and not too later Ableton. For that era also ReCycle/Reason and Fruity Slicer plug were usual too. All of them to regroove material but also lots of people doing chop, dice and slice with them from rarities ala DjShadow (poor version)... Traktor/Serato (oh Pitch&time RTAS!) put another dot in the line for digital djs...

    Amazing memories... ITOH this past NYE I was rocking the floor with new Djay Pro 3 and spotify (without crackles or issues hellyeah!) and I feel how aging made me lost interest on turntables, slicers and live looping. All these needs from my young and Hiphop self-competition.

    ReSlice/BM3 can do more than old hardware samplers (pitch/time like VariOS in ReSlice as example) or infinite cue points in some dj apps for finger drummers aficionados...

    I miss my sp555 time to time...

  • there is still nothing in software like a sp555.... old sampling beat machines are like pianos, every bit still viable. Right now bm3's biggest competition is bm2 :)

  • edited January 2019

    @kobamoto said:
    there is still nothing in software like a sp555.... old sampling beat machines are like pianos, every bit still viable. Right now bm3's biggest competition is bm2 :)

    There’s nothing like BlocsWave in a machine neither but I look into Mc909 one day and the next day... twice :lol:

    If I had to buy new groovebox for the same purpose I was using sp555 it will be Pioneer Djs1000 without a doubt... but I can’t justify the money for a sampler in my actual needs (includding Volca range :lol:). BlocsWave do all I need or could need in sampling terms. In live looping terms Ableton/GTL or rc505... I’m setting my live looping station (iPad based) one more time but probably it will gone for a Djs1000 ASAP (or new Roland Sampler... :trollface: _it’s not gonna happen... I know...) and just forget about my personal iOS drama forever :lol:

    I’m so fucked tired about my old workflow mindset than I even considering an Mpc (1000 with jjOS) so go figure... :lol:

    Anyways... old memories, nothing truly needed in my new year purposes :loool:

  • edited January 2019

    I rarely use slicing (dividing audio into several metrically identical sections), but often chop small parts (1 to 10 seconds) from 30 minute or so recordings, which get placed on the timeline by ear. It's my personal style and I'm quick on the job.
    I'd love to use Blocs Wave for the snippets, but it always wants the number of beats (which is unknown to myself) and stretches everything... :/

  • edited January 2019

    The above is a question I've often thought of but never asked. This is a pretty enlightening conversation never having done ANY of it. Got me thinking which is always cool.

  • Don’t forget about Glitch Breaks or have a look at it if you haven’t already and you like slicing, chopping and mashing. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/glitchbreaks/id520451538?mt=8

  • @robosardine said:
    Don’t forget about Glitch Breaks or have a look at it if you haven’t already and you like slicing, chopping and mashing. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/glitchbreaks/id520451538?mt=8

    Looks swell. Does it do stuff that Reslice cannot? How would you compare the two? I can read features but ya know, not knowing what I don't need and all ...
    I have ReCycle on Mac, but have not jumped into it. Was thrown in with a purchase.

  • You just load in up to four samples at a time then off you go. I don’t use reslice myself- never really got on with it.

  • I use apps like Egoist, Reslice, BM3, or Samplist to work with larger audio files (usually samples from Spotify or from my own record collection) to find chops to make hip hop beats. More often than not for me, I need to explore the sample and find chops I like, rather than knowing exactly what portions of the song I'll be using before hand.

  • @bcrichards said:
    I use apps like Egoist, Reslice, BM3, or Samplist to work with larger audio files (usually samples from Spotify or from my own record collection) to find chops to make hip hop beats. More often than not for me, I need to explore the sample and find chops I like, rather than knowing exactly what portions of the song I'll be using before hand.

    So I think some of the confusion might be in the language used. I do not use slicers in the sense that I need a clean loop broken up in even slices. I chop my audio, but its much more intuitive for me to do this in an environment that allows me to isolate portions of the sample and play them back in the same workflow, rather than chopping in one app and assigning to a pad or key for playback in another.

  • Here’s a short demo using some samples from WaveMapper in SampleWiz, which i think is as cool as Samplr, and does some unique kind of things. Would be nice to have both as AU someday! 🤞😊

  • @kobamoto said:
    there is still nothing in software like a sp555.... old sampling beat machines are like pianos, every bit still viable. Right now bm3's biggest competition is bm2 :)

    I had to stop using my SP-555 because of one stupid reason:
    You cannot change the pitch of samples, not even fine-tune them.
    That's a bad joke from Roland.
    If you're sampling any tonal material from anything but a pitchable SL1210 you know what I mean, and please don't tell me that it has a pitch shifter effect on board ;)
    Its looper is probably the only special feature left.

  • edited January 2019

    Isn’t sample slicing precisely what “DJ’s” like Deadmau5 do live? Take a popular track, slice it into X segments, then touch the pads in the proper order to reproduce the song? Then maybe get creative and have a few “isolation pads” that feature just the drum track, and/or bass track, lead synth track, etc from the song and play around with them for the “live performance” feel/aspect.

    I believe he said as much himself at one point and got some backlash.

  • edited January 2019

    Sample slicing is just defining start and end points around usable content of any recorded audio, different software offers different ways to define slices or trigger them, but at the end of everything it is just editing audio.

    Shorter samples most common uses.
    Retiming, changing speed without pitching or artifacts, resequencing.
    Longer samples most common uses.
    Making content fit with other content for remixes/mash ups, resequencing long form freestyle jamming of instruments.

  • edited January 2019

    @rs2000 said:

    @kobamoto said:
    there is still nothing in software like a sp555.... old sampling beat machines are like pianos, every bit still viable. Right now bm3's biggest competition is bm2 :)

    I had to stop using my SP-555 because of one stupid reason:
    You cannot change the pitch of samples, not even fine-tune them.
    That's a bad joke from Roland.

    yeah, know it from their RC50 looper pedal. It could pitch shift, but at a quality plainly ridiculous (this was a $500 pedal).
    While they had perfect (so called) vari-pitch samplers in their portfolio...

  • edited January 2019

    @haulin_notes said:
    Here’s a short demo using some samples from WaveMapper in SampleWiz, which i think is as cool as Samplr, and does some unique kind of things. Would be nice to have both as AU someday! 🤞😊

    This has the other VariOS features like timestretch for chorus voice chords :wink: ...

    @rs2000 said:

    @kobamoto said:
    there is still nothing in software like a sp555.... old sampling beat machines are like pianos, every bit still viable. Right now bm3's biggest competition is bm2 :)

    I had to stop using my SP-555 because of one stupid reason:
    You cannot change the pitch of samples, not even fine-tune them.
    That's a bad joke from Roland.
    If you're sampling any tonal material from anything but a pitchable SL1210 you know what I mean, and please don't tell me that it has a pitch shifter effect on board ;)
    Its looper is probably the only special feature left.

    That’s why I used VariOS instead Akais. I used a padKontrol to get dedicated pitch (y) and time (x) from the touch sensor. It let me do things similar to a beatjuggling with tones way earlier than fretless fader that I could loop inside a ehx 2880.
    Sp555 was great with voice transformer for beatboxing but never was the same for chop/slice... I missed both each one for its own glory but in the end I have same or better technology nowadays and I’m more interested in keytars/roli than pads or grids (launchpad/apc or pushes). There is still space in my heart for a turntable shape groovebox but in the end a D2 with traktor will bring me all I still could enjoy... once again too much money for so little function (clip/stem launch with turntable control) when I can do the same need (backing tracks) with GTL and footpedal. Simplicity...

    @Telefunky said:

    @rs2000 said:

    @kobamoto said:
    there is still nothing in software like a sp555.... old sampling beat machines are like pianos, every bit still viable. Right now bm3's biggest competition is bm2 :)

    I had to stop using my SP-555 because of one stupid reason:
    You cannot change the pitch of samples, not even fine-tune them.
    That's a bad joke from Roland.

    yeah, know it from their RC50 looper pedal. It could pitch shift, but at a quality plainly ridiculous (this was a $500 pedal).
    While they had perfect (so called) vari-pitch samplers in their portfolio...

    And this is why expected a new sampler (sp888) from Roland over years but they delivered dj808 with Serato, vp3 boutique and 808s. Lately the vt4... damn! Vsynth xt, vsynth gt, fantom xr... regular search at my daily tresaure hunt but these rarely go price down (when appear at second hand market)

    Pioneer unfinished toraiz/djs1000 do all I want better and stable (that’s why I didn’t look into mpclive when it was released... @kobamoto how is going with the latest firmware? Maybe I should jump into one of them...)

    Also Rc line is another great history about looping and midi clocks... loopyHd was my main reason to jump into iPads...

  • @TheDubbyLabby said:
    Also Rc line is another great history about looping and midi clocks... loopyHd was my main reason to jump into iPads...

    the RC50 had great tone and it's control tap dance was easy to learn...
    But everything else on that machine just sucked - it swallow the initial part of the beat in the first loop run, only after that it was complete, you had to switch into USB mode to load/export tracks, you had to name your input files after a cryptic scheme, all by hand, no supporting software, etc.
    Unusable and replaced by an iPad One with Multitrack-DAW, SamplR, SampleWiz... and many more B)

  • Aren’t a lot of the Amen Break/DnB Beats based on this technique?

    My take on slicing is it is just specialized audio wave editing. Slicers have special tools built in that general audio editors may lack. Slicing to pads makes it easy to spontaneously sequence the playback of the sample slices.

  • edited January 2019

    @Telefunky agreed... I was using loopy like rc505 one year before it was released. At the moment of releasing sp505 was just too late I was more on pushing @Michael into Loopy Masterpiece to turn it into was is more or less GTL nowadays (multiple synced loop launch with one just trigger, load previous, next song, quantized song part launch...)

    @CracklePot said:
    Aren’t a lot of the Amen Break/DnB Beats based on this technique?

    My take on slicing is it is just specialized audio wave editing. Slicers have special tools built in that general audio editors may lack. Slicing to pads makes it easy to spontaneously sequence the playback of the sample slices.

    In part... artist like aphex twin also used tools like maxmsp to sample mangling more in the form Samu pointed with 9XX command in old trackers.

    An example... Few examples...

    (Wait for it)

    No single pad touching more than algo/stockausen programming madness...

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