Grooving with Cyclone DXi

Transcription

1 } bonus Cyclone DXi is a virtual instrument included with both the Producer and Studio Editions of SONAR. It represents a major step forward in manipulating audio loops, allowing you to go beyond mere triggering to the point of actually playing loops like an instrument. In this chapter, you ll learn how to: Work with Cyclone s pads Edit individual slices Trigger sounds with MIDI Trigger individual slices

2 BONUS CHAPTER } Using Cyclone s Pads Like many drum machines, Cyclone uses a set of pads to trigger its sounds. You can load a complete audio file or just a fragment on each pad and trigger them independently to build complex beats. Click on a pad s Load button. Click on an audio file in the Open dialog box. Click on Open. The file will be loaded into Cyclone and assigned to the pad. Ready to Go When you first load a file onto a pad, the file will be displayed in the Loop view and Pad Editor, ready for editing and manipulation Click on the pad. The audio file will start to play and will loop when it reaches its end. Drag the pad s volume knob. Drag the pad s pan knob. Click on the pad to stop playback.

3 Editing Individual Slices Change SONAR s Tempo. Click on the Cyclone pad. The file will play at the new tempo. 0 Click to disengage the pad s Sync button. The file will play at its original tempo, ignoring SONAR s tempo. Click to disengage the pad s Loop button. The file will not loop. Loop and Sync You can synchronize multiple loops within Cyclone. Simply assign each loop to a different pad, make sure each pad s Loop and Sync buttons are enabled, and trigger the pads. Editing Individual Slices When you import a groove clip into Cyclone, its individual slices will be displayed in the Loop view and Pad Editor. You can use the Slice Inspector to change the pitch, gain, and pan of each slice.

4 BONUS CHAPTER } Click to select a slice in the Pad Editor. Click and drag on the Pitch, Gain, or Pan knobs in the Slice Inspector. The parameters of the selected slice will be modified. Click on the pad to play the loop with the modifications. Optionally, change parameters during playback. The changes will be heard as soon as the file loops Click on the Load button in the Loop Bin. The Open dialog box will appear. Click on an audio file. Click on Open. The file will be loaded into Cyclone without being assigned to a pad.

5 Editing Individual Slices Click on the Auto Preview button. The button will be highlighted. Click on a slice in the Loop view. The slice will play. Drag a slice from the Loop view and drop it on a slice in the Pad Editor. The new slice will replace the old slice. Click on the pad to audition the change. The loop will play back with the new slice in place of the original slice. Replacing Sounds This is a great way to replace drum sounds. If you ve got a drum loop that feels right but doesn t have the sound you re after, drag the correct sounds from a different loop onto the corresponding beats of the original loop. The loops are not permanently changed by this process.

6 BONUS CHAPTER } Using MIDI to Play Cyclone Everything about Cyclone can be controlled via MIDI. That also means that you can record MIDI tracks to play Cyclone, and then apply all of your MIDI-editing knowledge to those tracks to achieve a perfect performance. If necessary, click on the Input Echo button on the Cyclone MIDI track. MIDI input will be sent to Cyclone to be played. Click on the Key Map View tab. Click on a track in the Pad Editor. The MIDI note that is assigned to trigger that pad will be highlighted in the Key Map view. On your MIDI keyboard, play the note that is assigned to trigger the pad. The pad will play. Play the same note again to stop the pad from playing. Latch By default, Cyclone s pads toggle between play and stop at each Note On message, ignoring Note Off messages entirely. You can change this behavior on a pad-by-pad basis by selecting a pad and deselecting Latch in the Pad Inspector. 6

7 Using MIDI to Play Cyclone Click on the Record Arm button on a MIDI track assigned to Cyclone. Click on the Record button. On your MIDI keyboard, play the MIDI note assigned to the pad repeatedly. Playback of the pad s loop will start and stop accordingly. Click on Stop. Click on Play. The sequence of MIDI events you recorded will play back, starting and stopping the pad s loop in the same way. Playing Loops This is another way to build a track out of loops, instead of rolling them out in audio tracks. This method has the advantage of letting you replace or alter individual slices of the loops, as you ve seen. It also lets you play the loops, building the arrangement by ear instead of by eye. 7

8 BONUS CHAPTER } Triggering Individual Slices Another Cyclone technique involves assigning each slice of a loop to a separate pad. If you play all the pads at once, you will hear the loop in its original form, but if you play only some of the pads you will hear only parts of the loop. Its feel will be the same, but you can create variations by subtracting notes this way. Drag the track handle to the beginning of beat five. The loop is now one measure long. Odd Looping You can actually create complex and interesting odd-meter loops by dragging the track handles of different loops to locations other than downbeats. By having different track-handle positions for multiple loops, you can set up interesting rhythmic counterpoints. 8

9 Triggering Individual Slices Shift+drag each slice to a separate track. Because each track corresponds to a pad, each slice is now assigned to a separate pad, and because Shift locks each slice in time, the loop s rhythm is maintained. Click on every pad. The loop will play in its original form. Click on various pads. The various slices will be silenced as you click pads off and reintroduced as you click pads back on. MIDI Control Of course, you can trigger the pads from your MIDI keyboard and record your variations to a MIDI track, then copy/paste and edit them For each pad, click on the pad and then click to disengage the Latch button in the Pad Inspector. Click to disengage each pad s Sync and Loop buttons. Drag the pad s slice all the way to the beginning of beat one in the Pad Editor. The slice will trigger without delay. After making sure that Input Echo is enabled for the MIDI track, play the various MIDI notes to trigger the pads. Each slice will be triggered immediately when its MIDI note is played

10 BONUS CHAPTER } It s a Drum Kit! You just turned a loop into a sampled drum kit! You can now play all of the sounds that make up the loop as though they were regular MIDI notes in a drum patch, playing them in any order and rhythm you desire. Of course, you can record your performance to a MIDI track, too. This is a great way to add fills and variations to a loop, because the individual drum sounds match the loop exactly. 0