Sample groove generator & tempo control software

ReCycle goes way beyond simply solving groove problems and cleaning up your loop act – it’s a highly creative tool that helps you make the most of your grooves. In simple terms, ReCycle lets you do with sampled loops what you can do with beats programmed from individual drum sounds – like alter the tempo, or replace sounds and process them individually. ReCycle turns concrete-rigid loops into musical modeling clay, allowing you, the loopist, to do pretty much what you desire.

HOW IS IT DONE ?
Start out with a regular audio file or a sample in your sampler, preferrably one of a groovy nature. Load the groove into ReCycle, and the program will “look” at the groove, analyze it, and break it up into its rhythmic components. Each part is called a “slice”. The process itself is fully automated, but once the slices are there, they are yours to move, monitor or delete, using the programs on-screen tools and controls. Other tools allow you to set the length, attack and decay of the slices, and to change your grooves’ overall tempo or pitch, without one affecting the other! It’s not magic, but it’s probably as close as you can get.

THEN WHAT ?
The next step is of course to bring your improved groove into one of your songs. At this point, the procedures differ depending on your equipment and preferred working method: If you like, you can use ReCycle simply as a problem solver for loops. Load a drum loop into ReCycle, set a new tempo or pitch, and save the results as a new file. Or load up any groove, and use ReCycle’s on-screen signal processors: Compressor, EQ and Transient Designer, to give it some punch and distinction. Anything you choose to do in ReCycle can be applied to your loop, and saved as a new file.

To use your loop directly in Propellerhead Reason, Steinberg Cubase VST or other programs supporting REX2 files, all you need to do is save your sliced-up loop as a REX2 file and import it onto an Audio Track in your sequencer. The imported loop will play back like the original, but you can change the tempo freely, and you will have full control over the original slices! Silence, move or replace individual hits, change volume and panning – your loop has come to life!

If you’re using a sampler, ReCycle creates a soundbank containing the samples/slices, and transmits it to your sampler. ReCycle then creates a MIDI file based on the timing of the original groove. Import the MIDI file into your sequencer, and it will trigger the slices in your sampler, playing back the groove you started out with. Only this time – you make the rules. Quantize it, change the tempo, retune or replace the sounds – Total Loop Control!

Tempo Change - mp3

Before ReCycle, the way you changed the tempo of a loop was by changing its tuning, or by using a time stretch program. With ReCycle, the loops simply follow the tempo of your song. Listen to the varying tempo in the following example. It was created simply by making tempo changes in the sequencer! No processing or sampler adjustments are needed after the loop has been ReCycled!

Pitch Change - mp3 | mp3

ReCycle allows you to change the pitch of a groove, without affecting its tempo. This is done by simply by re-tuning in your sampler or by sending simple MIDI commands to it, like pitch bend. The first example applies this technique to a drum loop, the second example applies the same technique to a guitar loop, demonstrating how it is possible to fit a riff to any key, again without affecting the tempo.

Adding external effects - mp3

ReCycle also makes it possible to send different instruments in a loop to different outputs, for example to add outboard effects. In this example this is applied to a drum loop. First you hear it dry, and then with effects.

Rebuilding a loop to create variations and fills - mp3

The program even allows you to rebuild the loop to create variations and fills. This example first plays an original loop and then some variations that we created simply by editing MIDI notes in Cubase!

Rebuilding a loop completely - "Ghosting" - mp3

ReCycle can extract the timing information from a loop. This information can be used for your own drum patterns. In the next example we start out with an original loop. Then we'll gradually fade over to a programmed loop which was created from the feel of the first.

Quantizing - mp3

The timing information that ReCycle extracts from the loop can also be applied to other parts of the music. Listen to the bass in the next example. In the first half it uses regular mathematical quantizing. Pretty stiff! For the second half we used the unique Match Quantize function in Cubase, to apply the timing from the drums to the bass. In the pocket!

Layering loops - mp3

Making two loops fit in a groove can be tricky. If one loop is shuffled and the other is straight you usually end up with a very untight sound. With ReCycle it's easy! Just use one loop as a groove template for the other loop. In this example we have one 100 bpm loop and a 114 bpm shuffled loop. They are first played separately and then together at 114 bpm - pretty sloppy, eh? Finally they are played together with the shuffled loop quantized to the straight loop. Better?