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Zvon's expansion packs for Caustic 2

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This comes a little late, but seeing how Zvon just released their latest expansion pack for Caustic, I thought I should give them a mention.

One of the biggest complaints I got from new users in Caustic v1 was the limited demo content. This was done for a few reasons:

1 - I wanted to keep the APK size as small as possible. The bigger the APK, the less likely people are to update or even download to try.
2 - Copyright issues. It's really hard to find free content on the 'net that you're allowed to re-distribute. Plenty of free stuff out there, you just can't include it, especially if you're charging for your product.
3 - I wanted to encourage people to use their own samples and find their style. Sample-based machines in Caustic have always accepted WAV files as a starting point.

I realized after seeing user videos and hearing songs sent in that people tend to use what came with the app. I guess as a mobile app, you're not always connected to your library of content or have the ease of browsing large sample websites for new stuff. So for Caustic 2, I wanted to add a direct way of finding new content. If you haven't seen it already, there's a "Get More" button in the preset selection popups for each instrument that launches a Market search for content packs. As a start, I created a pack from all the content sent in over the app's first 6 months of existence, donated by Caustic users. I will continue to make free expansion packs whenever I get enough content sent it to do so.

Zvon have been around the music content game for quite a while, and they offer really unique samples you won't find anywhere else. Perfect for getting those creative juices flowing and trying something new. There already have 10 packs available for Caustic: some free, some paid, but the paid ones are only a buck or two. The latest is a prepared electric piano where they heavily modified a Rhodes to get all kinds of sounds out of it.

Les Productions Zvon's packs on Google Play

They also offer a non-APK (just a zip file you install manually) set of single-cycle waveforms for use in the PCMSynth on their website. Transforms the PCMSynth into a bit of an analog synth... There's also info about their other products so feel free to write them if there's something they make you'd like to see brought over to Caustic.

Les Productions Zvon's website

For PlayBook customers, Zvon have made a dedicated site where you can get their kits for use with the PlayBook version.

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Share your Caustic Presets!

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Along with the community packs and expansion packs available on the markets out there, Single Cell Software's site now offers the community the ability to add their own original Subsynth and PCMSynth presets right on the site.

Once a preset is added, other community members are welcome to comment on the presets using the comment form below the preset page.

To add your preset on the site, you must be a registered user of Single Cell Software and be logged in to your account. To disallow hotlinks and preset mining from less credible sites, you must also be an authenticated user to download a preset file. Any one browsing the site anonymously can view the presets.

Steps to add a preset;

  • Login into your account.
  • From the right side bar, select Add content
  • Select Caustic Preset
  • Fill in the Preset Name with your unique preset name.
  • Fill in the Preset Description with information for others to read about anything interesting you found while creating it.
  • Upload an optionalscreenshot of the Preset. This is optional since some users may not be able to take screen shots from their devices. The admin might do this for them since it's always nice for people browsing to actually see the dials and how they affect the sound.
  • Upload the Preset File from you computer or device. This will vary for different users but subsynth and pcmsynth are the only allowed file types.
  • Select the Preset Type, the radio group defaults to subsynth.
  • Click Save and help the Casutic preset community grow!

I'm sure Rej will be considering great presets for future inclusions to community packs. By donating the presets to the site, you are agreeing to your presets becoming public domain.

Mike

Audiovapor Kits

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If you've ever pressed the "Get More" button from any of the preset browsers in Caustic, you'll have seen Audiovapor's kits. If you haven't taken the time to download the demos kits yet, I encourage you to do so right now.

Audiovapor has put together some of the biggest Caustic expansion kits you can find on Google Play and are offering them for next to nothing. The sheer number of PCMSynth and BeatBox presets contained in the "Substance" packs means you've got almost any style of electronic music covered. Each preset and kit was made and tweaked specifically for use in Caustic. I wish I had access to these when I first launched the app...

Check 'em out, there's a demo video showing them off on their website:
Audiovapor's Kits for Caustic

Caustic 2 on BlackBerry PlayBook

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Although it has been out for over a week now, I just thought I'd mention here that Caustic is now available on BlackBerry's tablet.

The PlayBook is a really slick tablet, and can be picked up for pretty cheap in most parts of the world. The performance is great, the latency is low (~16ms) and the OS is really nice once you get used to it (coming from Android).

Caustic 2 is available as a free demo and full/paid version on BlackBerry AppWorld.

A big welcome to those coming here from their PlayBook, I invite you to register and join in on the forums.

Update - 15 June 2012: It seems as though AppWorld is refusing to publish the "Community Content Pack" installer because it's not a "real" app. So I"m offering it via this website in the meantime. Download the ZIP file, connect your PlayBook and open it as a USB device, browse to the misc/caustic/ folder and extract the ZIP contents there. The content should then be available through the app in "community1" folders in both the demo and paid versions.

This also means it will be harder to get 3rd-party content packs over from the Android market as well. Zvon have put their stuff on a dedicated PlayBook page here, with instructions.

Caustic 2.1 for Windows

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[12 Dec: Update for version 2.1.0]

Here's the backstory: I didn't write this especially for release. I've always had a win32 version of Caustic used for debugging (debugging on the Android device is slow and painful so I only debug on device intensively before release). So what you're getting is the exact same app as on your portable device, quirks and all. This is the version I use to make the tutorial videos by the way...more on that in another post. 

Let me answer some questions I know will come up:

Is this the full version, do I need to unlock it? This is the full version, no strings attached. I'm not going to waste time validating people's purchase status. I trust that if you've made it this far, you're legit.

How does it work? I know we all skip README files when installing software but mine is short and explains everything so do have a look please.

Can I transfer work between this version and the mobile one? Yes. Everything the song needs is in the ".caustic" file in your /caustic/songs" directory. There's a data folder in your PC version accessible from the start menu shortcut where you can copy your songs, samples and instruments.

Will there be a version for Mac/Linux/Commodore 64? Probably not. Like I said, I haven't ported an Android app to windows. I happen to use windows as my development environment and so this is my debugging version, made public.

Can you add feature X to the windows version? Please remember that the windows version is not the product. The product is a mobile app. If the feature you have in mind will work on mobile as well, I invite you to submit it to the feature request forum.

 What about MIDI support? There is very basic MIDI input code and it seems to work ok. Basically it will listen for keyboard commands on the first MIDI device it finds at startup and route messages according to what is set in the MIDI option menu. The "stop" button can be used as MIDI panic/mute.

What are the minimum device specs? Pretty low. Considering a typical PC processor is much faster than a mobile one, and that Caustic is made to run on 800MHz phones, it will run on most PCs that are still worth having around these days. I have an old 600MHz laptop running WinXP and it runs fine on that. The only real requirement is some kind of 3D graphics card supporting OpenGL. Make sure to update your graphics drivers if you're getting bad framerate. Most devices can do OpenGL, but a lot of stock drivers (including those in WindowsXP) didn't provide OpenGL support out of the box.

That's it, download the installer here (v2.1.0 - 10Mb)

 

Modular Prototype - Windows and MacOS

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Here's a peak at one of my side-projects. I've wanted to make a modular synth since I began making sense of synths a few years ago and wrote Caustic's subsynth.

Now that Caustic 2 allows for dynamic rack placement of machines, it also expands things for new machines. One of the suggestions that often comes up from gear-heads is the idea of a fully modular synth. I.e one you can make from pieces and connect however you wish. These monsters are great experimenting and learning.




I've been working on and off on this prototype since February, bits and pieces in between "serious" coding sessions for the app itself. The plan for this thing is to create a new machine to add to your rack in Caustic, but I'm also thinking of releasing it as a stand-alone iPad app to test the iOS waters.

But first I'd like to gather some feedback with a stand-alone PC/Mac version. No fancy installer this time. If you're on Windows, just unzip the package to somewhere on your hard drive and run the executable in the "bin" directory. Presets will be loaded and saved in a "presets" subfolder in the same directory where you unzipped it. If you're on Mac, open the disk image (.dmg) and follow the instructions in the provided text file. This my first ever app for Mac so it's possible I've screwed something up. Let me know if that's the case.

No formal instructions either so it's not for the faint of heart, but there are some basic "tutorial" presets to show you how it works. To place a new component, touch a grid square. To remove, select the X button and touch the component to remove. Toggle between the 3 views by using the top-center buttons. You can choose between "front", "rear" and "effects". Front is where the main dials are, rear is where connections are made and where signal gains can be tweaked. The keyboard's note signal comes in as "NoteCV" up top in rear view. The "gate" signal is automatic and hidden, envelopes will trigger on note press. There's a "mod wheel" that will appear if a cable is connect to its output. The app should work with MIDI keyboards on Windows, same as Caustic. Pitch and Mod wheels are hooked up, and so is volumeCC. Velocity is fed through an output signal next to NoteCV, but only varies when using a physical MIDI controller.

Try loading "too basic" for the simplest noise maker (that doesn't stop) then open "basic" to see how to control the oscillator with a simple attack+release envelope. Make sure you understand the concept of controlling oscillators with modulation envelopes and experiment from there. Connect components by dragging from an output connection onto an input jack. An output can go to many inputs but only one signal is allowed per input. Inputs start from the left and Outputs are generally on the right. It's possible to create feedback loops, the program won't complain, but there may be phase issues and horrible noises if you're not careful. Using feedback can be used to create powerful sounds from only a few components (ex: tiny trumpet uses its own output as FM modulation, disconnect the FM cable to hear what it would sound like without the feedback)

The "effects" view shows a multi-tap chorus, a delay and a reverb effects. These are chained top to bottom, connections are automatic.

There's no way to clear the rack of components so I've provided a blank preset to use for this purpose.

If you have no idea what any of this means but want to learn, SoundOnSound's Synth secrets is a great place to start learning (it's where I did!). Look at the earlier articles at the bottom, it starts getting more practical at Part 7.

Anyway, what I'm looking for right now is demo presets, bug reports and component ideas. Take your time, get to know the program and its components, and learn from the few presets that come with it. When you've got the hang of it and have made some cool-sounding ones, send them to me please. If suggesting new components, please describe whether it is required for an initial release or if it's just another "nice to have" block.

I need some demo material to ship with the app(s) and I'm offering a sneak peak in exchange for help getting it ready quicker. Submit any preset files to me via causticapp@gmail.com. Note that by sending me the files, you're handing over all rights to the work, though I will try to offer what I can to those who submit lots, at least a mention in the credits or something. Bonus points for using the velocity and mod wheel signals.

And to answer a question that might come up, I'm not sure when this will be in Caustic. It depends on how quickly I can get the next update out, because new synths are only coming in the update AFTER that. It also depends on how much demo content I can gather, on this and other new synths coming up. More on those later when it's time...

Ok, try it out, leave your comments below and let's hear those patches!

Caustic Modular Prototype - Windows XP / Vista / 7 (2.5Mb)
Caustic Modular Prototype - Intel Mac OSX 10.6 or greater (4Mb)

Discover more Android music apps

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A new website has been launched by the creator of the popular iDesignSound.com devoted to Android music apps.

Maybe it's not the smartest business move for me to lead you to others apps, but I'm confident in my product and Alex deserves some recognition for the great work he's done setting it up.

Check it out:

www.androidmusician.com

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CausticCore & CausticToolkit developer blog

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Hi Caustic lovers, passer byes and developers.

I have started to write some technical blog posts about the CausticCore and CausticToolkit on my company blog. This relates to Java Android developers, Apache Flex and Flash Player Adobe AIR developers.

See; http://blog.teotigraphix.com and http://blog.teotigraphix.com/category/caustic/

If you have any questions about any information on my blog, post a comment on the blog and I will be sure to get back to you with an answer. I'm also a committer and PMC member in the Apache Flex project, so AIR mobile developers expect some interesting things in the future.

I am also looking for beta testers that develop on these two platforms, if your interested, get a hold of me through PM on this site, my contact page on http://www.teotigraphix.com/contact or in the forums here.

Here is an excerpt from one of the first blog posts;

What is the Caustic Core?

The Caustic Core is the Linux .so library that holds the whole Caustic audio implementation. This library is loaded into the Android application at runtime and is fed OSC message commands. There is a couple base Java classes that start audio threads and has hooks to native methods of the shared library. Dealing with string commands is virtually impossible to manage anything worth creating and releasing into the wild. Enter the Caustic Toolkit.

When the core is released by Single Cell Software, there will be licensing fees for commercial applications (to be determined later). As it stands it looks like free apps on the market will have an indie license.

What is the Caustic Toolkit?

The Caustic Toolkit was developed by me(Teoti Graphix, LLC http://www.teotigraphix.com) and will be supported by my company. It will use the Caustic Core library so you will need some type of license to use my framework since it uses causticlib.so. The framework I have written is a bunch of classes in a hierarchy, where various parents hold instances of composites devices and/or device components.

Thanks, Mike


Caustic 2.1 goes live

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I've just submitted Caustic 2.1.0 to the various app stores, so it should be trickling in over the next few hours/days depending on your platform.

I've also updated the Windows version to the latest version.

Notable new features are:

  • Portrait view for tablets
  • Customizable UI options for keyboards and control panel
  • Software buttons for menu and back
  • Improved and standardized pattern editor for all machines
  • Ability to set patterns to 1,2,4 or 8 measures
  • Finer note resolution, up to 64th notes
  • Transpose + shift tools for patterns
  • Global song shuffle, with per-pattern override
  • Slight latency improvement on Android (see options menu)
  • Support for most WAV sampling and bit rates
  • Added built-in LFO and distortion to Bassline machine
  • USB MIDI controller support (see manual for details)
  • New parametric EQ insert effect
  • Playback follow mode in song sequencer
  • Measures can be inserted or trimmed from song in sequencer
  • Improved loop editor in PCMSynth

This is probably the most thoroughly tested release yet, but it's always possible that I've missed something, so let me know if you run into any bugs.

Synth Quiz

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Looking for a little distraction from composing?

Fellow KVR'ian Aldo Calpini has posted his first Android app and it's dedicated to synth lovers. It's a quiz where you have to name the synth model based on a picture that's shown on screen.

I'm terrible at identifying vintage synths but I did get a few right! How many can you name?

Check it out, it's a straight APK download from his website, with no Android permissions required.

 

Synth Quiz

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Caustic 2.1.2 update

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Version 2.1.2 has been submitted to Google Play, Amazon, Windows, PlayBook and to the upcoming Blackberry10 touch devices, to be launched later this month.

The new version fixes MIDI connection problems some people were having with their devices, so let me know if there are still outstanding MIDI issues.

I'm hoping that's the last bugfix build for 2.1, and I can focus on getting 2.2 out ASAP.

 

I have updated the link for the Windows version in the main post for that, but here's a shortcut if you just need the installer. 

http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/download/Caustic_2.1.2_installer.exe

The application defaults to 800x480, but you can resize the window to whatever you want, even maximize it. If you stretch it out in portrait proportions, it'll automatically switch to multi-machine view so go crazy, but not everything will render well in small size.

 

 

Something different over Easter

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I've been working like mad on Caustic these past few months, and I'll soon have something to show for it (at least for testing) but over the Easter break, I had to scratch an itch...

I'd been optimizing code for a few days when I decided to tackle the modular synth that's going into Caustic. I got a few % back but the main optimization strategy I had thought of actually turned out to yield worse performance, so I reverted a full days work and I felt like I had lost my edge.

Enter the "Falling Sand" game. Ever since I played the original Java game back in 2005-2006, it's been one of my favorite time-wasters. I have a few different versions on iPad, but most of my devices are Android and there simply wasn't a falling sand game on Android that ran as fast as on iOS and that bugged me. Well, after this latest modular synth optimization setback, I knew what I needed to do to get my confidence back.

Here's the result of a few evenings optimizing and modifying the EnigmaSand 2 source code. How fast it runs will depend on your CPU-to-screen size ratio, but I can safely say it's A LOT faster than other Android falling sand games.

It's a full native (C/C++) app so Android 2.3 or greater is required. You also need a screen 800x480 or bigger. It might work on smaller screens, but I don't have anything smaller than 800x480 to test on so no guarantees.

0 dollars, 0 permissions. Enjoy.

Now, back to work on Caustic... I'm happy again.


Vocality Text-To-Speech app for Android

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If you're looking for some vocal clips to spice up your Caustic tracks but you don't want to use your own voice, forum member Bojeroo a.k.a. PolynomialC Software has you covered with his newly released Vocality app for Android.

Vocality is a front-end tool for whatever text-to-speech engine(s) you have on your device. It provides a simple interface for entering text, changing speed and pitch and previewing it all in real-time. Once you're satisfied with the clip, you can save it as a WAV File for use in Caustic or any other software you have that accepts WAV files. I'll be working closely with Bojeroo to streamline the workflow of getting Vocality clips into Caustic in the future.

I've been playing with it and installing various TTS engines from the play store this morning. I definitely recommend the Ivona voices, you can try them on their website and download the one(s) you want to your Android device (not all their PC voices are available). They seem to be in beta right now so all the voices are free during this period.

If you're wondering what it sounds like, well try the app for yourself (it's free!), but have a listen at a recent Caustic track from forum member Danjdob. Vocality loaded with one of Ivona's female voices was used to create the two spoken samples in the track ("the power is in the music,  the music is in the soul")

Get it on Google Play

Vocality announcement thread on the forum

For more info, visit the website: www.polynomialcsoftware.com

LoopStack and Sand! for Windows

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Following with the tradition of Caustic being available for free on Windows, I figured I might as well release these.

Contrary to Caustic, LoopStack never really worked on Windows because I couldn't be bothered to hook up the microphone code. A couple of people asked for it , so a few months back I hooked it all up and made a release package.

Yesterday someone requested Sand! for Windows, and even though there are tons of better alternatives for Windows, I'm happy to release that too.

Same as Caustic, the Windows versions are not officially supported so use them if they work for you, but please don't request support for them.

LoopStack for Windows (6Mb)

Sand! for Windows (300 Kb)

"Passive Listener" - caustic album postmortem

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Forums: 

"Passive Listener" - the finished album released 11/05/2013

Free Album Download Here -  The Music Videos Here

 

 

Greetings,

I would like to share some stuff I had experienced trying to put out my first release primarily using Caustic to create instrumental electronic music.

1) Song sketching with Caustic - the ability to whip out my phone/tablet and a set of earbuds and start experimenting with sounds and beats is priceless.  I think I have put some of my best work being in environments when I was just completely bored to death but remembered I had this application installed on my phone.  There is some sort of magic with the way the application works too with the pattern blocks, when you are working on a song and have a few measures, as you continue to create and have the app in "pattern" mode, some of your patterns will get played back with each other in unexpected and interesting ways and this can spark a lot of new ideas as your ideas sort of get remixed on the fly.  The application sort of jams along with you.  Also, take the time to learn how the piano roll feature works.  This will save you from working yourself into a corner later on.

2) Using Caustic with a DAW - I needed the use of a Digital Audio Workstation that could handle recording audio from my guitar so I picked up Reason and started exporting my tracks from Caustic into it.  I had some glitchy midi issues exporting midi data from Caustic 2.0 but nothing that took more than ten minutes to fix up and which have seemed to have been fixed in Caustic 3.  I initially thought I needed to export the midi only and then substitute "real" synthesized instrumentation from the DAW that I just paid money for - not so.  It took me a while to become convinced that a lot of the synthesized sounds from Caustic are at least as good (occasionally better) than the sounds I was after in my DAW.  The only thing for me now has become making music in Caustic that is slightly off the grid.  One song I have is predominantly played behind the beat and a lot of the notes were placed by pure feel or live performance which is not something I can currently do in Caustic.

3) Music Theory - At some point I realized I needed more understanding of music theory to help me gain a more complexed palette of colors and building blocks to work with when writing songs.  I wanted to make my demo songs more interesting and to figure out what sorts of options I might have to add things that sound "musical" or sound like they go along with the ideas I am currently working with.  This also gave me the tool to improvise over my working ideas and sort of be able to jam out with myself.  I have included links to a chart that I have compiled along with point by point instructions on how to use it.  With this understanding you will be able to turn on the radio and literally improvise over and play along with any song that comes on.  Taking time to explore this theory was invaluable and I hope you hear it in my music.

The Modes Chart
The Modes Chart Info

4) Soundcloud/Bandcamp - Once you have created a tune you feel good about, you are going to want to share it straight away.  I know for myself that after I work on the song for an extended period of time, I truly cannot give it an objective listening until some time has passed.  My new perspective is to give the song a waiting period.  You cannot go back in time and erase someone's first impression of your music.  I remember most specifically that there was some high frequency hiss that I had created using a maximizer on one of my instruments.  I could not hear it after spending so many hours on the track however another person pointed it out to me and I felt fortunate I did not post it prior to addressing this issue.  Also, look for Soundcloud style appropriate groups to post your song to so you can get more exposure if that is something you want and don't forget Youtube as a resource for sharing music.

5) The Loudness War - I had attempted to master the album myself at one point which requires the ability to loudness match tracks, work a dynamic mutliband compressor as well as limit and harmonically excite and configure dithering but I realized I just did not have the skills to confidently do this and know the recording was going to sound the best that it can.  I mean I put all this time and effort into writing and recording these songs, I wanted the end result to sound as good as possible.  I then had to make a decision, did I want it to be really loud and have some of the dynamics compressed out of it or did I want a richer sound but at a lower volume level.  I went back and forth about this for a while and read on up on the Loudness War in commercial music.  My final verdict was that since it was my initial release and many of my tracks were not going to be listened through all the way (they tend to be long) that I had to go loud.  

In my opinion, if you want to get heard and build any type of audience, there is nothing worse than your audience listening to other music and then your track comes on and it sounds quiet.  To many who do not have much trained listening experience (this includes myself) louder = better quality (though of course this is not true).  It honestly took me a little time to hear the negative impacts of heavy limiting on music and you shouldn't expect most of your listeners to hear the difference.  My suggestion is to personally master every track using the Caustic mastering tools but if you decide to release and album, have a professional do it and A/B it with your version to make sure you hear what you are paying for.  David Klug was able to make my drums have more snap and removed a lot of the low end muddiness that I never even knew existed until I heard his masters.

6) Official Release - This is where you have your all your shiny mastered tracks and a high-res version of your album art and you want to make it available in some online retail stores.  For this album I did everything in 44.1k sample rate and 16-bit CD quality resolution.  This is sort of the standard that all these online stores will sell and the format they expect to receive your music in.  I used DB Music Converter to edit the ID-Tag info to create the 320kbps Constant Bitrate mp3s for uploads for the CD Baby music service (there is also Tunecore and some others).  I went with what I felt was most convenient to just get my music out there and available to buy.  It is now available for licensing and it is in all of the big online stores -iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and many more.  Do I expect to make a cent? No. Then why did I do it?  It is a starting point.  A proof of concept.  I have now gone through the entire process once.  I have seen it from start to finish and if I want to continue and pursue it, I now have clear view of the entire process.

(enlightenedID-Tag info refers to the name, credit and image attached to your mp3 file so it gets displayed properly when it gets played in an mp3 player.  It is meta data.)

Just to finish up here, Cuastic is awesome.  It is not just a tiny app you can only use on your phone or tablet.  You can use it as a sketch pad, a synthesizer rack for another DAW, a drum machine,  an audio workstation, and stuff sounds really good exported from it.  I even had my guitar hooked up to it last week :)  If this was a $50 app, I would buy it without a second thought. Period. End of story. 

Cheers yes,

M.K.

My demos for comparison:


Announcing Caustic 3

Caustic 3.1 update is ready

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Although it didn't happen as fast as I would have hoped, the Caustic 3.1 update is live. This update brings the much requested AudioBus and virtual MIDI support for iOS as well as a brand new synth, machine routing, velocity drum pads, undo/redo, UI skins, stability improvements and much more.

Check out the "what's new video" for a quick look at the new stuff. And be sure to watch all the other new videos too...

 

Android - Google Play

iOS - Apple App Store

 

Desktop versions. Free, full version, but no support. New is a MacOS version and a standalone (no registry access required) Windows application. 

Windows installer [26 Mb]

Windows stand-alone ZIP​[27 Mb] (for use on public computers or when you can't install programs, can be run directly from a USB drive once unzipped)

MacOS disk image (OS/X 10.6 Intel required) [28 Mb]

Caustic Editor for Volca Sample

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Christmas comes early for Volca Sample owners.

KORG were nice enough to open up their volca sample SDK to 3rd parties so I took a few days to rip out Caustic's WAV editor and turn it into a stand-alone, multi-platform tool that lets you import, load, record, edit and upload samples for use with your KORG Volca Sample device. It was taken from my Caustic 3.2 working branch, so it even has a few more functions than what's in Caustic 3.1!

  

  

 

Features:

- Record your own samples using your device's built-in microphone.
- Load any uncompressed, mono or stereo WAV, at any sampling rate or bit depth.
- Apply any of 16 of Caustic's effects and preview them in real-time, then stamp down and apply more.
- Process waveform audio with Fade In/Out, Normalize, Amplify, Reverse, etc.
- Use Caustic's C-SFXR to generate retro video game sounds.
- Trim audio precisely, down to individual samples.
- View the frequency spectrum of your audio.

- iOS: Audiobus compatible (receiver)
- iOS: AudioShare compatible (import/export)
- iOS: AudioCopy/Paste compatible (import/export)
- iOS: iTunes file sharing support
- iOS: Open In... support for .wav files.

Volca Sample-specific features:
- Upload to any of the 100 sample slots and keep a database of your device's state.
- Clear all samples
- Restore factory samples
- Monitor device memory

This is not an official KORG app, it is made by me, Rej Poirier / SingleCellSoftware using the KORG volca sample SDK.

The app is free, with no ads and no IAPs. If you'd like to support my work, please buy Caustic or any other of my apps. If you have them all... make a donation to the Red Cross. There are people out there who need the money more than I do this holiday season.

Have fun sampling, merry Christmas, and happy Saturnalia.

 

Download links: (App size is ~5 Mb)

 

Android Google Play - Direct APK

Windows Installer - Stand-alone ZIP (Unzip to run from a USB drive for example)

MacOS X - DiskImage (run directly from the dmg first if you get issues running from Applications)

​iOS - AppStore

Linux: From reports of Caustic users, the Windows versions should run fine under WINE. You might need to first run "winetricks vcrun2008" to get the right DLLs.

 

If you've never used Caustic's WAV editor, check out these video tutorials:

Sample (wave) Editor Tutorial - Caustic 3

C-SFXR tool

 

Sample & Loop Acoustic Guitar with PCM Synth

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Forums: 

OGG or MP3 (optional): 

In this tutorial (Part 1 & 2, so far), I show how to record and loop simple acoustic guitar parts with Caustic's PCM Synth. The process works for any type of instrument/vocals/whatever that you want to include alongside your Caustic synth and drum tracks.

It's not like recording audio in a multi-track DAW. Your don't record into a timeline, you simply record parts "live" as you play along to your Caustic project. You then edit the audio - and loop it if you want to - with PCM Synth and assign each recording to it's own key on the keyboard.

This method works best for recording short phrases and loops - not long recordings for the duration of the song. But since you're using Caustic in the first place, there's a good chance that this fits your production style anyway. There's a lot you can do with it.

In Part 1 of this tutorial, I show how to record into PCM Synth, using 3 simple acoustic guitar parts that I'm playing live. I then show how to edit and loop the 3 parts and assign each to its own key. The final loops play in sync with each other and to the Beatbox track.

In Part 2, I show how to use the 3 loops as separate tracks, and how to use PCM Synth's Filter and LFO to process the loops and create some rhythmic tempo-synced effects

In Part 3, I show how to process the 3 loops even further and create some interesting rhythmic variations using PCMSynth Patterns.

No one swings like the Volca Sample - KORG's sync signal explained

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I was looking into adding sync signal capabilities to my CEVS app to mimic what KORG have in their SyncKontrol app for iOS. Their app generates an audio pulse which can be used to control tempo on Monotribe and Volca machines. Adding it to CEVS would mean people on all platforms could benefit from the extra control as well as adding swing capabilities to machines without a swing knob such as the Volca Keys, Bass, etc.

The Volca Sample does have a swing knob but many have noticed that it doesn't seem to send its swing signal via the "sync out" jack unfortunately. The following post is the result of my research into KORG' s sync signal and explains why other Volcas just can't swing like the Sample. If someone from KORG wants to chime in and correct or confirm my findings (paging Takahashi-san) , that would be awesome.

Open the following image to follow along. It might look a bit technical but I'll do my best to keep to simple terms.

Figure 1 shows KORG's basic sync clock in pink. A clock signal is just that, a reliable voltage pulse either from the machine itself or from another source that comes around on time, regularly, like seconds on a clock. Synths "listen in" on this signal to sync up their sequencers, LFOs, etc. Below that are 16 step boxes which represent the steps on a Volca machine. Notice how they appear at regular intervals. This is because their timing relies on the sync clock. 

The first thing to notice is that the clock skips a 16th note step, it actually lines up with 8th note timing instead. This is very important and the main reason why we're seeing some strange things between machines. Having a clock that runs slower than your smallest step isn't a big deal, electronics can easily work out sub-step timing as soon as they receive 2 pulses. The problem comes when you want to create effects like swing.

Swing (sometimes called shuffle) is the change in timing from a straight, evenly-spaced sequence. It's often used to create more human, less-mechanical rhythms. An example in nature would be the human heart. It doesn't go BOOM-BOOM-BOOM, it goes, BOOOM-baBOOOM-baBOOOM due to the timing of the various squishy valves in there. In musical notation, this is often represented by dotted notes. One note is held a bit longer, at the expense of the next note which comes in a bit later and gets shortened by an equivalent amount.

The size of the note we chose to stretch is what defines the type of swing. If we use 8th notes as our measure of the "note",  and then play fast (16ths) notes we get a swinging effect that sounds more rigid, like a military snare march. If we use 16th notes as the swing unit of measure, we get a more groovy "house / hiphop" sound. (see audio examples at the bottom of this post)

Looking at Figure 2, you'll see how the SyncKontrol app creates swing by delaying every other 8th note pulse. The timing delay is defined by the swing amount in the app and goes from barely noticeable to extreme where the second note has barely started before the next comes in again. When we apply this to a machine with a 16-step sequencer, we see that the two first steps are longer and the second two are shorter and delayed. This is because we're essentially splitting our swung 8th notes into halves to get our 16ths note steps.

Now in Figure 3, we see how the Volca Sample does its own thing and (I presume) modifies the sub-divided internal clock of higher precision to control swing when you turn the physical knob on the unit. The swing modifies every second 16th note this time (dark red clock), giving us the nicer swing effect. When it comes time to generate a sync signal for the Sync Out jack, it uses every other clock pulse in order to create a compatible signal to the standard already established. (pink clock). You'll notice how those pulses aren't affected by the Sample's swing, which is why we perceive the Sample to not send its swing across to others.

Conclusion: Apart from working with hacks like working in double-time (and spreading out your beats over 2 parts), the other machines simple will never be able to swing like the Volca Sample. The timing protocol is established to 8ths notes and changing that in the future would mean old machines would play twice as fast. Why KORG chose this is a mystery, seems odd given that most synths since forever have relied on 16-step sequencers... Maybe a decision was made in the name of simplifying things for low-cost machines, maybe it was historical reasons to be compatible with even older machines (I'll admit I'm pretty new to hardware synths). Maybe an oversight with regards to ever offering swing in the first place. But hey, at least knowing why helps quell the frustration, right?

And to answer a question which I'm sure will come up: Yes, I'll be adding my "SyncKontrol" module to CEVS anyway. Just don't expect miracles from it.

Here are some audio examples to help explain the difference between no swing, 8th note swing and 16th note swing (same beat used, created in Caustic, shuffle set to 50%)

As an interesting side-note: What happens if you send a swung synckontrol signal to a Volca Sample that's got its swing knob turned up? A multiplied result which sounds really weird. Every step in a 4-step sequence starts long and gets shorter and shorter. I'll save you the graph this time but you can try for yourself.

 

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