Version 0.8b2 reviewed by Mitch Bechtel - 08/13/99

Even with the loads of sequencers, software synthesizers and other music creation programs available, I've heard plenty of complaints from electronic musicians saying that most composition software is too rigidly structured and poorly setup for quick loop matching and real-time tweaking.

AudioMulch is one of the first programs that in many ways escapes the ridged structure found in most music software packages. While there are still some grids for sequencing drum and baseline patterns, AudioMulch provides an experimental and more flexible interface for creating unique musical networks of looping drum patterns, basslines, samples and tones which can be routed through various filters and effects. This all results in an inspiring environment, not commonly found in music applications.

The Interface

One of the coolest aspects of AudioMulch is how it draws from many of the successful interfaces found in various electronic music programs. It combines the familiar composition tools not usually found within a single program to form a completely original feeling environment which includes a view for graphically constructing modular synths and another view for setting up and controlling the drum and bassline patterns, effects, and other components that create the music.

The Components

You can quickly setup components by right-clicking in the left area of the main window, selecting the component you would like to add from the popup menu. Components are then linked together by clicking and dragging a connection from one component's input to another's output. Double-clicking on most componentents, opens it's visual control window on the right side of the main window where parameters can be adjusted and assigned MIDI controls (more on that later).

Drums

Sample-based rhythm patterns can be quickly and easily created and arranged. Loading a new sample is as simple as clicking on the channels button and finding the file in the open dialog. A nice touch is the ability to gate channels 1 and 2, causing an open hi-hat sample on channel 1 to be cut off by a closed hi-hat on channel 2, for example. While you can adjust each of the 5 channel volumes separately, I found the lack of individual event volumes to be a serious short-coming. Another handy addition would be a swing parameter for giving patterns a little more flavor.

Basslines

The bassline component is the melodic counter-part to the drums component. It plays either a simple triangle or square wave or any audio waveform linked to it's input at different notes/pitches with some extra features commonly found on similar TB-303 emulators including cutoff, resonance, envelope modulation, accent, decay, overdrive and LFO Rate & Depth. You can also use "Ties" to extend note lengths.

Samples

The Loop Player is an extremely simple, but powerful component. It enables you to quickly add a drum loop or other sample you'd like to repeatedly start on a specified bar interval. The stretch feature is what really gives the Loop Player it's power. When enabled, the sample playback rate is automatically adjusted to the number of bars you specify, drastically simplifying the chore of syncing up a number of beats and looping sounds. You can not however, specify an offset in the form of beats/quarter notes for samples you don't want starting on exactly the first beat of the specified number of bars.

The phase of the sample can be adjusted in the Loop Player if it doesn't quite start exactly on the bar. This parameter is super useful and saves you from having to edit the WAV file itself, but it could also be improved with finer sensitivity for more exact tweaking. It only adjusts in increments of +/- an 8th note, which may not be enough to match samples up tight.

Other Signal Generators

In addition to the signal generators mentioned above, there are also a few more included. TestGen for making simple sine-wave tones and random noise, 10Harmonics for creating more complex harmonic sounds and BubbleBlower, a weird contraption that plays sample grains in a semi-controlled fashion.

Effects

AudioMulch comes with a small group of internal effects including NastyReverb, Flanger, Phaser, DLGranulator (a delay line granulator), RingAM, SDelay and SSpat as well as some Beta effects including Shaper, DigiGrunge, MGain, SGain, QGain and OGain. A few of these effects are useful, but more are very experimental and probably won't get used often.

Fortunately, while the number of internal effects is limited, there is integrated VST plug-in support to provide access to the hundreds of free and commercial VST plug-ins available. Simply place the plug-ins you want access to in the VSTPlugins folder and they become available from the main component popup menu. On top of that, you can organize the plug-ins into sub-folders to create sub-menus in the VST plug-in menu.

Filters, Mixers and Busses

In addition to the main components mentioned above, there are also a few filters including 5Combs (5 comb filters running in parallel) and mono/stereo parametric EQ, an array of mixers including mono, stereo, panning, crossfade and matrix mixers and mono/stereo busses for applying effects or filters to a group of outputs.

Sequencing

The Drum, Bassline and Loop Player components reviewed above provide great interfaces for sequencing samples and creating basic looping arrangements. The simplicity of using just these three main components is refreshing, but there is no song oriented sequencing abilities for creating songs with complex playback arrangements. It would be nice to see some sort of master arrangement element introduced in a future version. For now, you can get away with exporting several different loops to another application capable of arranging and playing back WAV playlists.

Real-time Control

Extensive MIDI control is provided. Right-click on just about any control and you can assign it a MIDI channel and controller, program change, channel pressure, or pitch bend. The program has good response times, slowed down only by the adjustable audio latency.

A master MIDI setup dialog can also be brought up from the right-click popup for easily setting up a bunch of controls at once. Just select the parameter you want to setup from the component/parameter tree view (Windows Explorer style), assign the MIDI control and move on to the next.

Mute check-boxes unfortunately, can not be assigned a MIDI control. It would be a great addition for live performances to be able to press a MIDI note to toggle the Mute parameter of the different components for cutting sounds in and out of the mix.

The Output

All output is currently done in 44.1kHz, 16-bit, stereo. The audio buffer size can be adjusted to fine tune the latency to audio glitch ratio. In addition to the main sound card output, 7 stereo auxiliary outputs can also be setup using extra outs or sound cards that may be available on your system. This is useful for routing to separate external effects, etc. In conjunction with the Sound In component, you can actually send the programs output to an external effect and then bring it back in and process it some more before routing it back to the main output (kinda cool, although latency becomes a major issue here).

Also, you can synchronize AudioMulch's output to a sequencer or external hardware using the MIDI clock format. MIDI Time Code sync is missing from the current beta but the on-line help mentions that this feature is planned for the future.

Saving Your Results

Your projects can be saved off to reasonably sized files and your live and sequenced output can also be rendered to a WAV file for importing into other audio software. Capturing output is done by either selecting Export as Wave File on the File menu or setting up a file record mode and punch mode for the SoundOut component.

Bugs/Stability

Before getting into the programs stability, it should be noted that AudioMulch is still in beta and is not expected to be rock solid yet. Never the less, the single biggest drawback to the current version of AudioMulch is it's instability. It crashed and Windows popped up fatal exception errors throughout the time it was tested for this review. Saving your work constantly is a must (luckily this can be done while playback continues) and counting on the software in a "live" situation could be disastrous. Hopefully more attention will be focused on stability as the program progresses toward the first official release.

Final Analysis

AudioMulch is an innovative music program for electronic musicians with an excellent set of tried and true sample-, loop- and pattern-based features plus a bunch of unique and experimental components to keep things interesting. While it's still in beta and fairly unstable, I wouldn't recommend using it for serious work, but it's definitely worth trying out and great for creating original loops for importing into other music applications when you're not working on a time critical project.

I highly recommend this software to anyone who makes loop-based music, especially if you're frustrated with the ridged structure of other music programs. It's also great for anyone looking to create new and experimental sounds.

Pros

• Project creation and tweaking can all be done in real-time while playback continues
• Unique and experimental components
• Extensive and easily customizable MIDI control
• VST plug-in support
• Useful context sensitive help

Cons

• Beta is fairly unstable
• No song-level sequencing or arranging
• No MIDI control for mute parameters