BeatCleaver Manual
Contents
1. Part Il Operation 1 Loading a Sample To begin slicing an audio file you must first load one into BeatCleaver Click the FILE menu and select OPEN AUDIO to load a file into Beat Cleaver Alternatively simply drag an audio file from a folder on your computer and drop it directly onto the BeatCleaver window to load a file A list of different audio filetypes that can be sliced with BeatCleaver is shown in Table T Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7 8 and Newer Mac OS X WAV 4 A A A AIFF 4 A A A MP3 A A WMA M4A V VA FLAC 4 VA V Table 1 Audio file formats that can be opened with BeatCleaver 2 Waveform Navigation and Zoom The waveform display in BeatCleaver provides a visualization of the au dio in a file at various detail levels Zoom Zooming in and out can be accomplished by using the scroll wheel on your mouse or by using two or three finger scrolling on a Mac Book Alternatively the zoombar with mini waveform at the bottom can be grabbed with your left mouse button and dragged up and down to control the zoom Dragging the zoombar left and right will scroll through time on the waveform See Figure 1 on page 5 Loop and Transport Bar Zoom Bar Click and drag vertically to zoom horizontally to scroll Figure 1 Overview of Zoom Bar and Loop Transport Bars Technical Note The BeatCleaver waveform visualizes stereo audio in an interleaved fashi2. or click can be heard at the start or end of it This occurs when there is an instantaneous jump in the audio signal If audio is sliced when the amplitude of the signal is far from zero then this will cause a pop when played back through speakers To eliminate popping manually adjust the start and end of the slice so that they align with zero crossings A zero crossing is a place where the audio signal crosses over the time axis which can be seen in BeatCleaver as a grey horizontal line across the middle of the waveform when zoomed in The positions where the green waveform crosses or lingers around that horizontal line are the best places to slice and will eliminate popping most of the time Sample Accuracy and Real Time Time Stretching By default slicing in BeatCleaver is sample accurate meaning that the exported slices will be chopped exactly as they appear in BeatCleaver However when the tempo or pitch is changed the time stretching engine inside Beat Cleaver is activated and this fundamentally changes the waveform of the audio Because time stretching essentially resynthesizes the audio the waveform being sliced will no longer exactly correspond with the audio being heard However most of the time slices will still be close enough for there to not be an audible difference When sample accuracy and time stretching are both required this can be still be achieved by first performing offline timestretching open the TIME STRETCH
3. THIS PROGRAM The Oscillicious End User License Agreement EULA is a legal agree ment between you either an individual or a single entity and Oscil licious for the Oscillicious software product s identified above which may include associated software components media printed mate rials and online or electronic documentation SOFTWARE PRODUCT By installing copying or otherwise using the SOFTWARE PRODUCT you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA This license agreement represents the entire agreement concerning the program between you and Oscillicious referred to as licenser and it supersedes any prior proposal representation or understanding between the parties If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA do not install or use the SOFTWARE PRODUCT The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is protected by copyright laws and interna tional copyright treaties as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is licensed not sold 1 GRANT OF LICENSE The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is licensed as follows a Installation and Use Oscillicious grants you the right to install and use copies of the SOFT WARE PRODUCT on your computer running a validly licensed copy of the operating system for which the SOFTWARE PRODUCT was designed e g Windows 7 Mac OS X b Backup Copies You may also make copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT as may be necessary for backup and archival purposes 2 DESCRIPTION OF OTHER RIGH
4. and pitch of any loaded song can be ad justed directly from the toolbar on the main window just above the main waveform The tempo is in units of beats per minute BPM and the pitch is in semitones ST Offline Time Stretching Highest Quality To time stretch a sample in BeatCleaver 1 Begin by clicking TIME STRETCH on the main toolbar The Time Stretch ing dialog will be shown 2 Optional If the original tempo of the sample is unknown go back to the main BeatCleaver window and slice a segment that is ex actly 8 beats long Enable looping over this slice by clicking the transport bar above it Lastly go back to the Time Stretching win dow select the BPM CALCULATOR tab and click the CALCULATE BPM FROM LOOP button BeatCleaver will calculate the tempo of the sample based on the length of the loop that was selected 3 Now under TEMPO AND PITCH adjust the TEMPO to the desired tempo A sample can optionally be transposed independently of the tempo using PITCH ADJUST 4 Preview changes to the BPM in real time by clicking the PREVIEW button or by toggling playback in the main BeatCleaver window Keep in mind that final renders generally sound better than the preview 5 Experiment with the provided QUALITY PRESETS and see which one sounds best with the given sample 6 Click the RENDER button to finalize your changes and render a full high quality time stretched version of the sample 7 Back in the main BeatCleaver in
5. 4 for a list of supported audio file formats Audio Output File Formats By default BeatCleaver saves all exported audio as stereo WAVE or AIFF files at the samplerate of the original file for the highest compatibility These files are compatible with MPCs Mas chine and all major digital audio workstations Samplerates In the preferences BeatCleaver can be configured to ex port at a range of samplerates including 22500 Hz 44100 Hz 48000 Hz 96000 Hz and 192000 Hz or to match the samplerate of the original au dio file when exporting Bit Depths WAVE and AIFF files can be saved in BeatCleaver with a bit depth of 8 16 24 or 32 bits and is configurable in the Preferences dialog Compatibility with Akai MPC Samplers Most Akai MPC samplers in cluding the MPC500 MPC2000 MPC2000XL and MPC2500 do not sup port 24 bit or 32 bit WAVE samples When saving slices for use on an MPC please ensure the WAVE EXPORT BIT DEPTH is set to 16 bit in the Beat Cleaver preferences This is the default setting Part IV Legal Copyright BeatCleaver is Copyright Oscillicious 2011 2013 Time Stretching Engine BeatCleaver uses the Rubber Band Library by Breakfast Quay for time stretching Audio Editing Engine BeatCleaver uses the proprietary RapidEdit engine by Oscillicious for audio editing BeatCleaver End User License Agreement IMPORTANT PLEASE READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS LICENSE AGREE MENT CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING
6. BEATGLEAVER CUT UP BEATS BEYOND RECOGNITION Contents 3 II Operation 4 4 4 5 4 Slicing Better 6 6 7 7 Saving 9 10 n 14 14 14 16 Part Introduction BeatCleaver is a software tool for editing and splitting audio files and samples It can be used for extracting individual drum samples from a complex beat to speed up or slow down audio or to simply further seg ment an existing sample for use in a sampler or digital audio workstation BeatCleaver is available for Windows and Mac OS X Example Uses BeatCleaver can be used in a variety of ways as part of a music production workflow e Sampling melodies and beats from existing recordings and music e Trimming existing recordings e Splitting drum loops up into individual drum hits and rearranging them Slicing multi track renders of songs into 4 bar segments to help form part of a live performance Slicing loops for sequencing or mapping to the pads on a hardware sampler like an MPC BeatCleaver is unique because of the soeed with which you can create slices and adjust them From the fluid zoom to the streaming loading many small features add up to make it a convenient and easy tool to use frequently Feedback This product was created based on ideas and feedback from many musicians like yourself If you have ideas for new features you d like to see in BeatCleaver please share your thoughts with us at support oscillicious com We d love to hear from you
7. ING window adjust the tempo and then save it to disk before slicing Though this method requires an extra step BeatCleaver allows you to make the choice of convenience vs accuracy whenever either is more desirable To disable the timestretching engine and restore sample accurate slicing click the RESET button in the toolbar on the main window 5 Looping Toggling a Loop To help you find good samples and loops to cut any slice can be played in a loop by left clicking the loop bar above a slice See Figure T on page bp Adjusting a Loop Loops automatically adjust to match the length of the current slice they are placed on Dragging the slice points at either end of the loop will automatically adjust the loop length as well A loop can be moved by left clicking and dragging it in the loop bar Addition ally a loop can be expanded to span several slices by holding the SHIFT key while left clicking the loop bar above another slice 6 File Edit Slice Help Ctrl X Copy Ctrl C Paste Ctrl V Select All Ctri A Hide Ctrl Shift H Unhide Last Ctri J Unhide All Ctrl U PgUp Lower PgDown Figure 2 When EDIT is toggled effects and edits may be applied to the waveform such as the Reverse and Gain edits seen here Highlight a region and right click to apply an effect or edit 6 Editing BeatCleaver offers basic audio editing functionality by toggling by the EDIT button in the main toolbar Whe
8. TS AND LIMITATIONS a Maintenance of Copyright Notices You must not remove or alter any copyright notices on any and all copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT 16 b Distribution You may not distribute registered copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT to third parties Evaluation versions available for download from Oscilli cious s websites may be freely distributed c Prohibition on Reverse Engineering Decompilation and Disas sembly You may not reverse engineer decompile or disassemble the SOFT WARE PRODUCT except and only to the extent that such activity is ex pressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation d Rental You may not rent lease or lend the SOFTWARE PRODUCT e Support Services Oscillicious may provide you with support services related to the SOFT WARE PRODUCT Support Services Any supplemental software code provided to you as part of the Support Services shall be considered part of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT and subject to the terms and conditions of this EULA f Compliance with Applicable Laws You must comply with all applicable laws regarding use of the SOFT WARE PRODUCT 3 TERMINATION Without prejudice to any other rights Oscillicious may terminate this EULA if you fail to comply with the terms and conditions of this EULA In such event you must destroy all copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT in your possession 4 COPYRIGHT All title including but not limited to copyrights
9. a MIDI file a feature which is sometimes called Slice to MIDI which can be useful for reconstructing a drum break or rhythm in a DAW or with a sampler For each slice a new note will be placed in the resulting MIDI file with each note increasingly chromatically When combined with the SAVE SLICES item in the menu which saves each slice as a WAVE the slices can be loaded into a third party sampler bank and triggered with the MIDI file to reproduce the original break SAVE AS MIDI can also be used for groove extraction If you have an song or beat which contains a funky rhythm or groove that you would like to reconstruct simply load it into BeatCleaver place slice points on the beats and save it as a MIDI file If you import the resulting MIDI file into your favorite DAW and you can then use it to trigger different samples synths or drum sounds while maintaining the groove of the original song or beat Quick Export The Quick ExPORT button immediately saves any slices di rectly to your hard disk All slices are exported a 44 1 kHz 16 bit stereo WAVE files and can be found in the same folder as the original file Ex ported slices will have a number prefixed to their filename eg song 1 wav song 2 wav File Edit Slice Help nm mes A Play Edit Slice in4 Slicein8 Slice in 16 Clear Sliding Time Stretch Tempo 81 00 BPM Pitch 1ST O Single All Figure 3 Drag Export mode allows any sli
10. ce to be dragged out of Beat Cleaver and into a folder the desktop or a DAW Drag Export Toggling the DRAG EXPORT button enables the dragging of slices directly out of BeatCleaver Slices can be dragged and dropped into a folder your desktop or most DAWs Dragged slices will be ren dered and saved immediately in the user s My Documents BeatCleaver folder Windows or Documents BeatCleaver Mac To drag all slices out of BeatCleaver at the same time first click the ALL radio button in the bottom right corner of the BeatCleaver window after DRAG EXPORT is enabled Then left clicking and dragging on the main waveform will grab all the slices at once This is particularly useful when dragging slices to an external sampler 8 Advanced Slicing Additional slicing options are available by selecting ADVANCED SLICING from the SLICING menu The Advanced Slicing window allows you to en ter a tempo BPM and interval in beats or bars and slice a recording based on that For example BeatCleaver can slice a recording every 4 bars for you if you know the tempo Slicing at Intervals Tempo BPM Time Signature 4 Slice by Beats Interval Slicing every 4beats Figure 4 The Advanced Slicing window Slicing Multi Track Renders The Advanced Slicing window is particu larly useful in the following scenario If you have produced a song in a digital audio workstation DAW and you wish to perform parts of
11. d Users use of or inability to use the SOFTWARE PRODUCT even if Oscillicious has been advised of the possibility of such damages In no event will Oscillicious be liable for loss of data or for in direct special incidental consequential including lost profit or other damages based in contract tort or otherwise Oscillicious shall have no liability with respect to the content of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT or any part thereof including but not limited to errors or omissions con tained therein libel infringements of rights of publicity privacy trade mark rights business interruption personal injury loss of privacy moral rights or the disclosure of confidential information Additional Notices Please consult the About menu inside the software application for other sample licenses and acknowledgments www oscillicious com
12. in and to the SOFT WARE PRODUCT and any copies thereof are owned by Oscillicious or its suppliers All title and intellectual property rights in and to the content which may be accessed through use of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT is the property of the respective content owner and may be protected by ap plicable copyright or other intellectual property laws and treaties This EULA grants you no rights to use such content All rights not expressly granted are reserved by Oscillicious 5 NO WARRANTIES Oscillicious expressly disclaims any warranty for the SOFTWARE PROD UCT The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is provided As Is without any express or implied warranty of any kind including but not limited to any warranties of merchantability noninfringement or fitness of a particular purpose Oscillicious does not warrant or assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any information text graphics links or other items contained within the SOFTWARE PRODUCT Oscillicious makes no war ranties respecting any harm that may be caused by the transmission of a computer virus worm time bomb logic bomb or other such com puter program Oscillicious further expressly disclaims any warranty or representation to Authorized Users or to any third party 17 6 LIMITATION OF LIABILITY In no event shall Oscillicious be liable for any damages including without limitation lost profits business interruption or lost information rising out of Authorize
13. it live or remix it on the fly sometimes it is desirable to have the song exported into separate tracks for sequencing with a hardware sampler or looper With BeatCleaver s Advanced Slicing feature you can split up multi track renders by bars giving you clean segments that can be played live as loops forming a basis for the performance of the song 9 Time Stretching and Pitch Adjustment Tempo and Pitch Advanced Settings BPM Calculator Tempo BPM 8100 Quality Preset Default rac a O Drums Semitones Offline Rendering Settings Apply Time Streching to Current Loop Final rendering is performed at higher quality than real time previews Ready Restore Defaults Save Figure 5 The Pitch Adjust and Time Stretch window allows the pitch and tempo of a sample to be changed independently Overview Time stretching is a technique that allows you to change the tempo of a sample without changing the pitch or the vice versa It is a common technique often used in hip hop sampling where a sample is taken from a vinyl record and its tempo adjusted to fit into a new com position In BeatCleaver time stretching works by stretching a sample from some original tempo BPM to a new tempo so the original tempo of the sample is a prerequisite However BeatCleaver can also calcu late the original tempo of a sample if a loop is sliced to a given number of beats in length Easy Method The tempo
14. n Edif Mode is active portions of the waveform can be selectioned and edited Additionally slice points will act as a grid to which selections can be snapped This makes it easier to edit individual slices Applying Edits or Effects To edit a region of audio begin by left clicking on the waveform and dragging the cursor across it until the desired re gion is highlighted If needed this selection can be resized by clicking and dragging either edge of it Next choose the edit or effect you wish to apply by right clicking on the selected region A menu will appear displaying a list of possible effects and edits that can be made Select any effect from the menu to apply it instantly Alternatively the list of edits is accessible from the EDIT menu at the top of the screen under EFFECTS Available Edits and Effects As of BeatCleaver 1 4 the following types of edits and effects can be applied to any region of audio e Fade In Linear Fade Out Linear e Reverse e Duplicate Gain Amplify Normalize 3 dB e Mute Trim to Selection Editing with the RapidEdit Engine A unique feature of BeatCleaver is that after applying an edit like Fade In to an audio file each edit can be adjusted and moved around on the fly There is no need to undo the edit if you wish to adjust it and other edits can be additionally layered on top of it This innovative approach to audio editing keeps the work flow moving forward and provides m
15. n increase in the stereo width of the audio ENHANCED tries to preserve the original stereo width of a sample at the expense of quality Tempo and Pitch_ Advanced Settings BPM Calculator Transient Control Crisp T Mixed gt Smooth Transient Detector D Percussive Compound D Soft Analysis Window Size gt Crisper Standard Smoother g off Preserve Spectral Envelope O Yes 8 No Stereo Processing Standard Enhanced Focus Final rendering is performed at higher quality than real time previews Ready Restore Defaults Save Figure 6 Advanced time stretching quality options may be adjusted to better suit the source material Don t be afraid to experiment and use your ears Part Ill Support For registration problems lost registrations or questions about BeatCleaver itself please see the support information available atiwww oscillicious com support 10 System Requirements Operating System BeatCleaver 1 4 is compatible with Windows XP Win dows Vista Windows 7 Windows 8 and newer Windows operating sys tems BeatCleaver 1 3 is also compatible with Mac OS X 10 5 Intel and newer Hardware System Requirements BeatCleaver requires an Intel Core pro cessor or greater at least 1 GB of RAM and 60 MB of free disk space 11 Audio File Format Compatibility Audio Input File Formats Some file formats may not be supported with certain operating systems Please see Table l on page
16. on drawing audio samples from the left and right channels alternating in sequence The advantage of this approach for slicing is that it is easier to see zero crossings that occur close together in both audio channels Slicing near zero crossings is recommended to reduce the chance of a pop or click in the audio when playing back an exported slice 3 Slicing Manual Slicing To insert a slice point in BeatCleaver right click on the waveform and select SLICE HERE Slice points can be adjustment by click ing and dragging them left or right Quick Slicing Buttons The toolbar at the top of the BeatCleaver inter face provides several quick slicing buttons When no loop is set these slice buttons will chop the current file into 4 8 or 16 slices placing slice points that can be manually adjusted later If a loop is set the slice but tons will chop the current loop into the chosen number of slices Similarly the CLEAR SLICING button will clear slice points in the current loop or in the whole file if no loop is set To eliminate audio clicks when slicing a small amount of manual adjustment may be needed see Section 4 Chopping on the Fly Placing slice points during playback at the play back cursor position is also possible During playback click the SLICE AT CURSOR button on the toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut key S to insert a slice point 4 Slicing Better Eliminating Pops and Clicks When previewing a slice sometimes a pop
17. ore flexibility than found in other editors Layering Edits and Effects Edits and effects can be layered by dragging them around such that they overlap The order that they are applied in is determined by the order in which they were added however an edit can be lowered or raised by using the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys on the keyboard or by selecting RAISE or LOWER from the EDIT Menu An example of where this matters is when creating a Duplicate edit that overlaps with a Gain edit If the Gain is below the Duplicate the duplicated audio will not have its volume affected by the gain and this will be reflected in the waveform If the Gain is moved above the Dupli cate then the waveform will show instantly that the duplicated audio is now having the gain applied to it Hiding Edits and Effects During heavy editing the waveform may get filed with many edits or edits that apply to very large sections of the waveform For example it is common to apply Normalization to an entire audio file In this situation it is advantageous to hide some edits in order to make further editing easier To hide an edit right click on it and select HIDE Edits may be unhidden later by selecting UNHIDE LAST or UNHIDE ALL 7 Saving Saving Slices Slices can be saved individually by right clicking them and selecting SAVE SLICE All slices can be saved at once in a folder by selecting SAVE SLICES from the FILE menu Save as MIDI Slice points can be saved as
18. terface now make sure you save the time stretched sample by right clicking on the main waveform and selecting SAVE SLICE Advanced Quality Options The advanced time stretching engine in BeatCleaver provides a number of options for power users A brief de scription of each option is provided below but the best advice is to experiment and go with your ears Different settings might sound better or worse depending on the sample being time stretched and so exper imentation is encouraged to achieve the best quality Transient Control Adjust the mechanism by which certain aspects of the time stretching engine are reset around transient points to help add clarity to transient events like percussive hits Transient Detector Controls the type of transient detector used COMPOUND produces good results for most samples Analysis Window Size Set the heuristic preference for the FFT pro cessing window STANDARD generally provides the best results but SHORTER can be better for audio with characteristics that change quickly like drums LONGER usually results in a smoother less crisp sound This could sound better with smoother sounds like strings Preserve Spectral Envelope Controls whether or not the spectral envelope formant shape of a signal is preserved when pitch shift ing Stereo Processing Controls how stereo channels are processed when time stretching With STANDARD each channel is processed separately but this can lead to a
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