DIGIDESIGN TRANSFUSER - NOW WITH CONCLUSIONS!

[Anderton]

Well, I wasn't expecting this...but then, I sort of was. It seems like Digidesign has gone through some major changes lately, specifically, implementing "Elastic Audio" (which finally allowed Pro Tools to do serious looping and stretching), and acquiring Wizoo's instrument division, now known as A.I.R. (Advanced Instrument Research). Clearly, Digi is trying to position Pro Tools as not just a tape recorder emulator, but also as a compositional/remixing platform. In that context, Transfuser - their latest RTAS virtual instrument - fits right in to this new direction.

A little bit of backstory: Wizoo supplied instruments for Steinberg, such as Virtual Guitarist and Xphrase, as well as M-Audio (KeyRig, Latigo, and Darbuka) but they were also big in content, doing quite a few sample CDs and libraries. In fact, my "Technoid Guitars" sample library for HALion was done through them. They also picked up some of the engineers behind Creamware's SCOPE system, and set up shop in Bremen, Germany prior to being purchased by Digidesign. So Transfuser didn't some out of nowhere; it fits into what Wizoo had been doing for years prior.

This Pro Review is unique as it coincides with the introduction of a preview version of Transfuser that is being made available for free, and works for three months. That was a bit surprising, as most time-limited demos run for a month; but I think Digidesign is betting that after three months, you'll be hooked. And based on my experiences so far with Transfuser, I think that's a wise bet. Meanwhile, this will make it easy for anyone with a Pro Tools setup to participate in the Pro Review, and make comments.

If you haven't downloaded it yet, you will need a Pro Tools setup (M-Powered, LE, or higher) and an iLok, as it won't run without authorization. As to links so you can download it or find more information, the main landing page is:

http://www2.digidesign.com/transfuserpreview/index.cfm?ref=transfuserpreview_hc

From there you can go to the download link, as well as get more information about Transfuser.

Short form is that Transfuser is a groove-oriented instrument with a drum sequencer, phrase sequencer, the ability to create loops via real-time slicing as well as convert loops to MIDI grooves, mixing, processing, and quite a bit more. A lot of it is oriented toward real-time manipulation as well as groove randomization and processing; it's very much a complete instrument by itself. If I had to draw an analogy, I'd say Reason meets Xphrase - if Xphrase had not been discontinued and was now up to version 27.

If Transfuser was released as a stand-alone instrument, I'm sure it would do well. In fact, I predict that quite a few people will buy the cheapest version of Pro Tools they can find just so that they have a "shell" for running Transfuser.

I've attached a screen shot to kick things off. Note that I had to reduce it to fit the "no more than 900 pixels wide" art requirement for HC; in future screen shots, we'll focus on specific parts of Transfuser, which will let us do full-size shots.

As to the genesis of the screen shot, what happened was I opened up Transfuser, and there was a big blank space that said "Drop Track or Audio Files Here." Well, okay, so I did just that, from the browser on the left. I dragged in a drum pattern, and a drum machine appeared...then dragged in a bass loop, and a phrase sequencer appeared. And then I started editing drum sounds...and then I realized I should probably launch the Pro Review!

[Anderton]

But before I could use Transfuser, I had to do the iLok thang. Now, I'll be fair: 95% of the time, the whole iLok process works just fine. People drop authorizations into my account, I download them to my computer, and all is well.

Not this time.

Somehow, my computer's year reference had changed to 2010. I'm not sure how, why, or when, as documents I'd done earlier that day had the 2008 time stamp. But when I went to call up Transfuser, I was told there were 0 days left in the license. Same with the Reel Tape Suite and Eleven guitar amp.

I contacted Digi tech support, and they obligingly dropped new authorizations into my account. So I downloaded them, but got an error message how the download couldn't complete, and to try again. I tried again, and next thing was a message saying there was a problem, and to click on the Recovery button. Except the recovery process didn't work, and it said to try again. So I did. Nothing, except that the previous authorizations had been removed and the new ones hadn't gotten on the iLok. And I couldn't use the iLok until this was resolved.

Back to tech support, and I gotta say, Digi came through. First, I was told "Whatever you do, don't try to recover again" because apparently if you try that too many times, the iLok gets locked. Instead, the tech advised trying to recover on as different a machine and browser as possible. So, I switched from 8-core Intel Windows XP running Explorer to dual G5 Mac running Safari (that seemed different enough), and tried again. It worked!

Now, I don't want this to turn into a discussion of copy protection; as far as I'm concerned, companies should protect their intellectual property, and besides, it will be much more fun to talk about Transfuser. But I mention this because Digi really shouldn't have to clean up after iLok messes, yet they did, and their tech support really did right by me.

[Anderton]

One thing I should mention is that preview software is not intended for "mission critical" applications. While it's not a public beta, I'm sure Digi wouldn't mind if you posted any repeatable bugs here :) I should also mention that this is for Pro Tools 7 and above.

I also thought you might appreciate my posting the list of known issues that comes in a PDF document with Transfuser. It's encouraging to me that they're fairly esoteric functions, not things like "Crashes if you try to hit play."

Known Issues

The following section documents some of the important known issues you may encounter when using the free preview of
Transfuser with Pro Tools, along with workarounds if they exist.

Deleting Session Audio Files (Issue #101618)
Deleting audio files in Transfuser deletes them also from the session°s audio files folder.

Mac OS X: Find and Relink disfunctional (Issue #102866)
Only under Mac OS X: Find and Relink does not work correctly, located files do not load into Transfuser.

Automating Track Solo (Issue #101934)
Assigning a track solo button to an automation lane brings no audible result. Pro Tools crashes if you enable solo manually
while automation is active.

Mac OS X: Audio Engine Crash (Issue #102049)
Only under Mac OS X: Skipping through the drum presets in the Drums module via right and left arrow buttons crashes the
Pro Tools audio engine.

Audio Files Not Saved (Issue #101624)
REX and 32 bit files are not saved when using the Pro Tools "Save session as" function.

Problems with Trigger Pads after Loading Tracks (Issue #102868)
The Trigger pads° assignment does not work correctly (wrong highlight after loading/unloading tracks with assignments).

Loop Points Not Audible after Editing (Issue #102046)
In the Phrase Module: Edited loop positions are not audible until the loop is triggered again.

[Anderton]

Referring to the screen shot, you can see several modules. Note that the left side is cut off a bit to fit in a 900 pixel wide image.

(1) is the browser, and (2) is an info pane. Anyone who's worked with Ableton Live will have a sense of deja vu with these two. FWIW, I like it when standard interface conventions start to develop, and it looks like "browser on the left with info pane below" is turning into one. This also gets across that Transfuser is a single-window interface.

(3) is the Tracks Pane, which is home to several modules - going from left to right, these are Track, Sequencer, Synthesizer, Effects, and Mix. This is a logical signal flow: (4) is the Track Module, which is where you manage MIDI channel assignments, keyranges, and select up to 12 sequences for track automation. To the right, (5) is the Sequencer section. You have a choice of three sequencers per track (or Thru): Drum Sequencer, Phrase Sequencer, and Slice Sequencer. Each has an associated module with the sounds triggered by the various sequencers, which is in the Synth section (6). The EFX section (7) modifies the sound with up to four effects, and then the output goes to the Mix section (8) when you set level and panning. Cool feature alert: In addition to Drum, Phrase, and Slicer synths, the Synth section also includes an "Input Synth" module, which allows processing audio from the track into which Transfuser is inserted.

The bottom pane (9) is the Module Editor Pane. When you select a Seq, Synth, or EFX module, an expanded GUI shows up in the Module Editor Pane that lets you edit the selected module's parameters. This picture shows the step/pattern sequencer for the Drum Seq module.

The area sandwiched between the tracks and Module Editor Pane is the Controller Section (10). It provides knobs, pads, virtual keyboard, and other performance controls. You can play these onscreen directly, or map controllers from an external control surface.

Finally, there's a master section (11). This has effects sends, "master groove" (think of it as a groove template), transport controls, and the like.

What this review will concentrate on in the days ahead is examining how each of these modules works individually, and as part of a whole. In this respect, the modular nature makes for a logical flow in a Pro Review: We can, for example, get totally into the drum machine aspects before getting into slicing, and then cover that in depth before moving on to the phrase seq.

[Anderton]

Okay, I'm trying to stick to my schedule of one hour at a time per Pro Review, because I need to get to the M3 and Euphonix control surface today as well. But I'll be back tomorrow with more...stay tuned. So far, this is an instrument that really appeals to me and I have some pretty high expectations. We'll see if they pan out or not.

Also, as usual, Digi has been invited to designate some poor guy - I mean, some company representative - to be available to answer questions and correct me if I say anything really stoopid. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that person might be Peter Gorges of A.I.R. That's good, because he really knows the product, but because he's in Germany there may be some lag time before questions get answered if he's asleep while we're posting away here in the US. So we may need to be a little bit patient.

[Anderton]

Let's start with drums because, hey, everyone likes drums. Besides when you start a mix, what fader do you push up first?

I rest my case.

As we saw previously, a track has several elements that work together, including the sequencer, synthesizer, and effects. Let's look at the synth part first, because we need some sounds before we can sequence them.

The Drum synth has a little window where you can load content, as shown in the first image. We're about to select "Hands Up Drums." I'm assuming the little number to the left of the drum name indicates the suggested tempo. Also note the two arrows to the left and right of the loading window: They let you step forward and backward through the drum sets. The only thing I'm not sure of is whether you can put the content in your own folders. All the content with Transfuser comes as one big monolithic block (like a .NKI file to Native Instrument fans).

You can't really do multisamples on the drum pads, although you can have "A" and "B" samples, as selected toward the top of the window. The pads will show sample names if "B" samples are available.

When the Drum Synth is selected, the Module Editor Pane shows your drum kit, as shown in the second image. But you're not locked into the kit you chose; you can select a different kit from the loading window above the 12 pads, and for the selected drum (as chosen by clicking on a pad), the loading window with the two little arrows at the bottom of the pads lets you step through related sounds. Clicking on a pad lets you audition the drum sound.

However, note that these sounds are highly editable. The second image shows the wave editor, and here's what you can do.

The first set of controls affect the overall sound, regardless of what editor function you've chosen. These are:

*Change pitch
*Filter cutoff and resonance
*Hold/Release Envelope
*Velocity response (note that the pads are "velocity sensitive" - click higher on the pad for higher velocities, lower for lower velocities unless you choose a negative velocity value, in which case that's reversed)
*Pan
*Level

There are also more specific editors for Wave, Pitch, Filter, and Amp. The following controls are for the pitch editor.

*Sample start and end time (drag lines, or use controls).
*Velocity parameter for sample start
*Random start (affected by sample state velocity control)
*Reverse sample, also known as elpmas esreveR. This is handy if you want to check whether the sample contains any backward satanic messages.

There are also "master" controls for whatever editing function you choose, namely Solo and Mute, and also, Pitch, Cutoff, and Decay controls that affect all drums. These are duplicated on the Drum Synth module itself, so if the Module Editor Pane is on something other than drums, you can still alter these master controls at the Drum Synth itself.

[Anderton]

The first image shows the Pitch editing section, which is basically an envelope with breakpoints you can draw and erase. The Pitch control sets the pitch; it basically duplicates the function of the lower control, but adds to it – for example, if the lower pitch control doesn’t go high enough for you, you can increase the Pitch editor pitch control and raise it further. The Envelope Depth gives positive and negative amplitudes for the envelope you’ve drawn, and Vel causes the envelope to respond to velocity.

The Filter editor, shown in the second image, has the same basic envelope concept as the Pitch editor. However, you can choose among Lowpass, Bandpass, Highpass, and EQ response. I get what all of them do except for EQ…maybe someone from A.I.R. can explain this.

The third image shows the Amp editor, which controls amplitude. The envelope options are pretty much the same as the other editors, with the Level control setting a “baseline” level, and velocity affects the envelope depth, positively or negatively.

[Anderton]

Now in case you're thinking "It sure would be nice to be able to control pitch or filter cutoff (or whatever) in real time, or automate them..." well, you can.

Check out the attached image, which shows what happens when you right-click (I assume it's Ctrl-click with the Mac) on a knob: You can select Learn CC (i.e., be controlled by the next controller signal you feed to Transfuser), Assign to Smartknob (which chooses one of the knobs in the Controller section we discussed earlier), or Assign to Automation Lane, which is something we'll get into later with automation. You can also set Minimum and Maximum controller excursions, which is cool if you want a hardware knob's full throw to cover only a limited range of values. This gives better resolution when making fine adjustments.

All that's left to cover for the drum editing module are the effects for the various drums (which are not the same as the master effects section for a track) - each drum can have its own effect - and output and mute group options. More to come...

[Anderton]

So about those drum effects...

You have three effects per drum sound, with the options shown in the attached image. These are pretty much EQ/dynamics/distortion effects, as opposed to, say, modulation or delay/reverb effects, which seem better suited to the effects sends.

Speaking of which...note the output stage on the right. This has two effects send to the main output, as well as a Poly and Group parameter. Group is the usual deal - you can assign different drums to one group, set the polyphony to one, and hitting one drum will cut off any drums that are playing. The classic example is grouping open and closed hi-hat so that hitting the closed hi-hat will turn off the open hi-hat.

Of the effects, the one that appeals most to my twisted sense of signal processing is the ring modulation, particularly because you can tie the Frequency and Frequency Modulation parameters to controllers :)

And that's pretty much it for the drum sounds, unless I missed something. Although I'm still waiting for someone from A.I.R. to chime in and let me know what the "EQ" option is in the filter section...anyway, let's move on to the sequencer section that actually triggers these sounds, if for no other reason than so I can record some audio examples!

[Anderton]

Whoa! We're definitely starting to get into some different kinda stuff here, thanks to MARIO (which stands for Musical Advanced Random Intelligent Operations). At first, I was disappointed, because I though that clicking on the MARIO function would transport me to a world of 8-bit sounds, suitable for Nintendo and Atari video games...or maybe there was a new Mario Brothers video game based on created dance music loops. But actually, it's more like a KARMA Lite function that adds useful variations to grooves. So far, this is an impressive feature that goes beyond the expected.

But first, the basics. Tthe first image shows the drum sequencing module, and most of it's straightforward...or at least, it appears that way at first. The deeper you dig, the more you find out that you can live comfortably in this module for quite a while.

You can see the usual step sequencer interface toward the right, with individual horizontal "tracks" of drums. But look at what I've circled in red: This isn't just a place to draw in a hit and trigger a drum, as you can choose from Velocity, Time, Pitch, Filter, Decay, and Pan. For example, if you choose pan, you can adjust the pan for each event. Or the decay, or the filtering,*or the pitch...this is wild stuff. Even better: The "time" edit parameter, which lets you lead or lag individual hits, ahead or behind the beat.

In fact, this is cool enough that I did a little WMV video. Unfortunately it doesn't include sound, for technical reasons too boring to go into here (I'll explain why if anyone's interested). Still, you can see me choose different parameters with the cursor, and adjust them. Cool beans. But we're not done yet. (FYI: I can do QuickTime movies as well, but they don't look as good as WMV...if enough Mac fans complain, I'll do QT movies but I instead recommend going to http://www.flip4mac.com and getting their free WMV player for QuickTime.)

[Anderton]

Here are some other features I like about the drum sequencer...

* Total of 64 steps. Yes, the previous screen shot shows only 16 steps, and that's all you'll see at one time. But referring to the first image, the section in the upper right has a bar/loop/auto-scroll selector. You can click on any one of four bars, so the 16 steps are those in the selected bar. You can loop just one bar, a couple bars, or all four. With auto-scroll selected, the 16-step display will scroll to the next measure that plays. Or, you can keep a static display if you want to, say, edit something happening in the third bar.

This is a really intelligent way to manage sequences longer than 16 steps, but I do have a wish list item: Being able to right-click on one of the measure indicators and select Copy or Paste. This would make it much easier if you came up with one good bar, and wanted to turn it into a four-bar loop with variations. You can do this with the Edit drop-down menu toward the top, but it's a little more time-consuming.

* Choose different sets of sequences. The second image shows the 12-key "keyboard." Clicking a key selects a different pattern, but note that the change is instantaneous: The newly-selected pattern picks up in the same place in the sequence. There's no way I can find to tell it "wait until the first sequence plays through before changing to the next sequence." I'm also surprised you can choose from "banks" of the sets of patterns as you can in Reason, but you can call up a different sequence for the drum sequencer.

* Groove and Simplify controls. The third image shows the Groove and Simplify controls. Of these, Simplify is the more original of the two: You can literally simplify a part by just turning the control clockwise. The Groove control can either pick up the master groove, or choose from several "canned" grooves (swing, laid back, push - what Transfuser calls "ahead" - and random). The control itself determines the influence of the groove on the pattern.

[Anderton]

And what about MARIO? Well, we'll cover that next, and then we'll have pretty much dealt with the drum section. Well, of course, except for any hidden stuff I haven't found yet...

[Anderton]

Interesting...we have over 750 page views (!), but no one has asked any questions or commented on the software. Maybe that's because I'm doing such a fabulous job :) But please, don't be shy if you have comments or questions!

[audiogeekzine]

Craig you are doing a fabulous job!
Keep it coming!

I have a few questions:
Will the full version of Transfuser come with a large library? The sounds included are pretty cool and it's easy to just grab any random bunch of sounds and get something useful. I just want more!

Editing the steps in the drum sequencer is a bit fiddly, for example changing the pitch of a step to +1 takes quite a bit of trial and error, holding your tongue a certain way etc. Holding shift or ctrl didn't make any difference, any insight on that?

MARIO is awesome. not a question, I just wanted to say it. :)

Oh yeah, and in the step sequencer you can change how many steps are on each track, up to 32, including triplets and dotted if I recall correctly. Change it where it says 16 below the M and S for each drum.

[WKnelangen]

Hi Fusers,

My name is Wolfram Knelangen. I am the product manager at A.I.R. and I will chime in every now and then to answer your questions. If possible. :)

Thanks so far, Craig, for this thoughtful and detailed Transfuser Review - great job!


Regarding the content question: The final version of Transfuser will ship with about 2GB of loop and sample content. The content has been developed in cooperation with sampling pros Bigfish Audio.


When editing steps in the sequencers, hold down the Ctrl-button before you start clicking, this enables the "fine" mode where its a bit easier to set the values you need.


Regarding Craig's question about the EQ mode in the Drum pad Filter automation: (Attention, only for tweak geeks) When you select EQ, the automation line can act as an EQ boost or EQ cut depending on the Pad's resonance control. (0=neutral, negative values = cut, positive values = boost) Adjusting the cutoff (either controls or the automation line) will then adjust the frequency where the cut or boost is applied. This is a rather complex way to EQ a drum sound and it might be more easy to just use the EQ in the Drum effects section, but it does come in handy when creating complex, multi-filtered drum (sweep) sounds.


Hope this was helpful. Fuse on!

--Wolfram

[Anderton]

First of all, if you live in the USA, I hope you had a great holiday weekend :)

Second, welcome Wolfram! Feel free to add any comments you'd like.

Third, let's get into MARIO, which is an algorithm-based variation generator for the drum, slicer, and phrase sequencers (or as I prefer to call it, the "Shapeshifter" module). Let's look at how it affects drums.

Referring to the attached image, MARIO can affect your choice of targets: Rhythm, Level, Timing, Pitch, Filter, Decay, and Pan. You can choose as many or as few as you want.

The way it works is you set the amount of "MARIO-ization" you want with the knob, from minimum (fully counter-clockwise) to maximum (fully clockwise). Each time you click on the Apply button, it creates another variation.

But what happens if you click it 12 times, then decide that the 8th variation was the one you really wanted? That's the purpose of the back/forward buttons to the left and right, respectively, of the MARIO knob. You can step backward and forware through MARIO's history of variations until you find the one you want.

Now check out the WMV and Quicktime videos (note that the WMV version offers better quality for a given file size, so if you can open WMV, so much the better). I've used a split-screen video technique that places the MARIO button in the upper right corner, so you can see it being clicked, and see how it affects the pattern in the main part of the screen. Toward the end of the video, I used the back button to return to the original pattern.

I like Mario a lot, but I do wish the minimum position could be even more minimum. Sometimes all I want is a really minor variation, and it seems that MARIO likes to be a little aggressive sometimes...maybe you could dial the minimum back a bit before the final release? Then again, I suppose I could always just change the pattern a bit manually, and save a different version.

[Anderton]

Well, that's all for today...it's kind of time-consuming to do the videos, so that limits the number of posts I can do in the allotted time. On the other hand, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is probably worth 20 posts :)

If you have any problems viewing the videos, please post and let us know what browser you're using. If you can only download something that says "attachment.PHP," just change the file type to what it's supposed to be (e.g., .MOV) and you should be able to open it.

[Anderton]

So...is anyone else out there using the software? What do you think? I'm curious what opinions y'all might have about Transfuser.

[MitchG]

I downloaded the Transfuser preview as soon as it became available - I think it's incredibly exciting. I've already got several "ideas" files percolating away that I plan to turn into songs.

Though I haven't completely gotten into it, with the time I have spent, this looks to be a great tool for working with loops. But I see applications for it beyond "standard" rhythm loop sorts of things. I'll try to post back as I work with it more.

I'd love to hear what others are doing with it. It would also be great to get more Transfuser tips and suggestions from Wolfram and Peter Gorges -- straight from the developers!

I'm looking forward to the full release.

[Peter Gorges]

....
I'd love to hear what others are doing with it. It would also be great to get more Transfuser tips and suggestions from Wolfram and Peter Gorges -- straight from the developers!
...

Here ya go, Mitch - I've asked my guys for a bunch of simple but useful tricks. Paul Kellett, our senior mastermind and the guy behind a lot of stuff in Transfuser, including the effects, goes ahead:

Insert a reverb effect before the Gater effect. This fills in any gaps in the audio so makes the gating effect stronger, and is especially good on an Audio Input track used as a send effect for your other tracks in Pro Tools

For a vintage drum-machine sound, insert the Lo-Fi effect, switch on Anti-Alias and adjust the Sample Rate to between 8 and 16 kHz. This will add a vintage "crunch" without the hard edge of normal bitcrusher/decimator effects.

Load a vocal sample into a Phrase track (or any sound that is both pitched and rhythmic), switch Tempo Sync OFF and adjust the speed knob to zero or a very low value. Now move the sample start marker while playing to find interesting textures within the sample. The different Mode settings will also play the sample with different textures.

Crossfade between drum sounds with velocity: In the Drums module, load samples into both "Sample A" and "Sample B". Then on the Amp tab set the Vel knob to 100% for one sample and -100% for the other. [check terminology matches user guide]

Add a sub-octave using the BeatCutter effect as a send. Turn down Repeat, Reorder, Gate and Freeze, but set Scratch to 100% and "Oct Down" Type.

....to be continued ....

[Peter Gorges]

Next in line: Mario Reinsch (yes, the guy behind M.A.R.I.O) - part 1 of 2:


***Applying complete FX sections to an existing track***

Many of the the tracks you find in the tracks folders have complex and perfectly worked out FX sections. To apply their complete sections to an existing track browse to a folder you expect to have tracks with cool fx settings, such as "Percussive Textures" and drag one of the tracks, dropping it onto the fx section of the existing track. You will find TF extracting all FX settings and applyig them to your track. Notice that in a similar way you can copy FX section between existing tracks.

*** Burn audio ***

If you prefer to work with Audio rather than MIDI-triggering loops, just replace MIDI-triggered Transfuser tracks by audio - using the Recorder Module:
Once you’ve created a bunch of loops, sequences and variations for your song in Transfuser (which may already be ALL the material for your song), solo a track, start playing inside Transfuser and drag the result from the recorder module into ProTools. Set an adequate bar length in the recorder before. Repeat for all tracks – done.

Save the TF setting to be able to re-create stuff or add more variations later, then close TF and work with Audio Regions only.


*** A few words about M.A.R.I.O. ***

We’re getting asked many times about what the difference between M.A.R.I.O and conventional randomization is. The full answer would be complex and give away proprietary secrets, but I can give away some:

M.A.R.I.O algorithms analyze what the user has programmed so far. Then they tag the material with properties in terms of musical meaning, use these properties for a search in smart tables containing all kind of musical styles to find sort of similar (or less similar when Depth is high) phrases resp. rhythms, randomly select some of them and merge them randomly to create one unique but still similar phrase or rhythm. Finally that result gets merged with the original phrase. Sounds complex, is complex – but real easy to use.

I’m a dance musician, and M.A.R.I.O allows me to skip inventing new basslines. Here’s what I do: I’d just program a bassline that`s typical for my style. Then, with target=phrase and low-medium depth, I start applying M.A.R.I.O.. Bassline galore, and most of them are real good.

....to be continued ....

[Anderton]

This is great stuff, Peter!!! Thanks for pitching in while I'm on the road...I'll be back home on Friday, when I can get back to posting movies and other fun stuff :)

[memyselfandus]

I am thinking of adding Hd to my setup for certain projects.

How can I "try" this software out ?

[Anderton]

To try out Transfuser, follow the link in the first post of this thread.

[Anderton]

It's good to be home, so it's back to Pro Reviews. Having pretty much nailed the Drum Synth and Drum Sequencer (we'll cover some more details later), let's move on to Phrase-land. First, a little background.

The Phrase section is designed to load audio clips into the Phrase Synth shown in the first image, and beat-match them to the tempo. You can think of this as the "Sony Acid" or "Ableton Live" module, but there are additional interactions with the Phrase Sequencer. (The Slicer section also allows time-stretching, but it uses the REX "slice the audio into little bits and sequence them" model instead of the DSP-based time-stretching used in the Phrase Synth. We'll cover the Slicer section after we've finished up with the Phrase section.)

Once the audio is in the Phrase Synth, you can open up the GUI as shown in the first image, and do a whole bunch of stuff - from changing the stretch mode to adding envelopes for Amp and Filter, as well as alter pitch. There's also a corresponding Phrase Sequencer, seen in the second image, that allows changing the phrase itself as well as filtering, decay, level, and panning via MIDI or the most excellent MARIO control we met while in Drum-land.

The PDF that comes with the Preview version isn't very specific about the Phrase section, so I'm probably going to miss a fair amount of stuff. Hopefully the A.I.R. guys will chime in to give a more complete picture.

Overall, it seems to me that the Phrase Sequencer is more about creating rhythmic patterns based on the phrase loaded into the synthesizer via step-sequencing type techniques. Think "Power chord played through AdrenaLinn with step sequencing applied," but that's only one element (although it's the one I gravitated to first, because I like the whole MARIO thing). Let's dig deeper into the Phrase Synth and Seq.

[Anderton]

Let’s look at the Phrase Synth. First off, though, I think I found a bug: When I loaded the Rich Strings Cm7+9 phrase (a lush string pad) and set play mode to loop, it only played through once and then the audio died – even though the sequencer continued to play. I noticed that the sound was being triggered by a long MIDI note from the Phrase Seq that extended through all four bars, which made me suspect that the Phrase Seq was seeing the note-off, but the next note-on happened so quickly thereafter it was missed when the loop returned to the beginning. Sure enough - if I shortened the note, even by just a tiny bit, all was well.

Anyway, looking at the Phrase Synth in the attached image, you see the waveform used to construct the phrase at the top of the window, and below it, envelopes for filter and amplitude. As expected, the filter offers various responses – lowpass, bandpass, highpass, and EQ. There are also master filter controls for cutoff, resonance, envelope, and level.

Where it gets interesting is the Mode option. I think these are different stretching algorithms and playback options, as they all have a major effect on the sound. Sample seems to be your basic change-sample-rate-to-change file sort of thing; I don’t know for sure about Vocodize, like whether you get an input from somewhere else, but it’s all very interesting. There’s also a Tempo Sync button and Pitch controls for Semitones (plus and minus 24 semitones) and cents (plus and minus 100 cents).

I’m hoping someone from A.I.R. can give a brief description of the purpose of each algorithm, but I’ll just add it seems that “wrong” settings can produce some great results if you’re into strange processing effects. For example, check out the attached videos (WMV or QuickTime) to see/hear what happens when, in Lo-Fi mode, you change the Grain setting while a sustained file plays (and remember, the Grain setting, like just about everything else, can be tied to a continuous controller for real-time fun). The little added yellow highlights indicate when I’ve clicked on a button to make it more obvious.

But what really makes the Phrase thing come alive is when you get the Phrase Sequencer into the action. But I've already gone way over my allotted time for today, so...see you later!

[Anderton]

As mentioned previously, the Phrase Sequencer really gets interesting when you use it to create rhythmic patterns. There are quite a few "canned" phrase patterns that come with Transfuser, as shown in the first image.. Of course, I expect there will be a lot more when the production version of Transfuser is released with the full set of content. The main value of the Phrase Sequencer is that when used with the drums, it's great for generating a rhythm section from scratch. I find it inspirational, much better than just having a metronome click, and the combination makes me want to come up with melody lines and chord progressions that work with the rhythm.

Now would be a good time to check out the Swing option, as well. Check out the attached video. What's happening is that you'll hear the pattern just by itself, then I'll kick the Groove amount up in the master Groove section (after varying it first, so you can see in the display how the timing is affected). Then, note how you can "dial in" the precise amount of groove you want with the Groove control on the Phrase Sequencer itself.

[Anderton]

The MARIO "algorithmic fun and games generator" comes into play with the Phrase Sequencer as well. Referring to the first image, you can have MARIO affect affect any one of several parameters - Phrase (the actual notes used in the phrase), Level, filter Cutoff, Decay, and Pan. In the screen shot, all are selected except for Level and Cutoff.

I found that with melodic lines, it takes more "tries" with Mario before coming up with something I liked compared to using MARIO with drums; random rhythmic variations seem to have a better chance of working than random melodic variations. But as often happens with MARIO, you can hit Apply a bunch of times without getting interesting results, and then - wham! - it dials up something great.

Check out the attached video (in WMV or QuickTime format) to see MARIO in action. Thanks to the miracle of split-screen video :), you can see when MARIO gets applied (in the upper left corner) and how this affects the notes (the rest of the screen). As you'll see, it took quite a few tries before I got something I liked. I did go past that point, but then used MARIO's "go back through the changes" the revert to the one I liked.

I don't know if there's a way to do this, but I think MARIO would be more effective if you could specify a min/max range for a parameter. That would avoid situations like bass notes going too low or too high, or filter cutoffs going so low that you can't hear the note. There is a Note Range function that does allow some degree of constraint, but I'd like something more universal.

Also note that there's a constrain to scale option, as shown in the second image. This is really cool if you just want to draw in a bunch of notes, and then decide you want them all to fit in, say, an E minor scale. However, your only scale choices are Major or Minor. In a future update, I've love to see two drop down menus under Constrain to Scale: One for key, and one for mode. That would allow other scale options, like Pentatonic, Blues Scale, various ethnic scales, etc.

[Anderton]

We still have one major synth/seq module to go - the slicing section. Rather than use the included content, I thought I'd drag a REX file into it to see what would happen. Surprise (well, at leat to me!): The first image showed up, and let me decide how I wanted to import it. So of course, I selected Sliced Audio and Slice Sequence.

Transfuser recognized it, and Slice Seq and Slicer appeared (second image). You can see that the MIDI aspects of the imported file translated over perfectly into MIDI data, as shown in the Slice Seq screen.

[Anderton]

Well first of all, it works! Now referring to the first image, let's check out the options in the Slice Seq section.

if you hit the Play button, the loop will simply repeat ad infinitum at the host tempo. But there are also ways to trigger from the keyboard, as specified by the three options under "Note Range" parameter (the name doesn't make any sense to me, maybe someone from AIR can explain). These options are:

* Trigger loop. This means that if you play any key, the loop plays. If you hit a key before the loop has finished playing, it re-starts from the beginning.
* Transpose loop. This does the same thing as trigger loop, except different keys transpose the loop to different pitches. Of course, the tempo remains constant, so this is a decidedly cool feature for when you want the loop to follow a chord progression. But it's also handy when you're composing, as you can hit different keys and try out different chord progressions.
* Play slices. The maps each slice across the keyboard, so you can trigger individual slices and treat them as one-shots, or a way to "deconstruct" the loop.

To the right of the Note Range options, you'll find Groove and Quantize. Groove determines the amount of groove added from the master groove section, but also offers seven other preset groove options (second image). By the way - are my eyes starting to go, or do these menu items need more contrast? Dark blue against black doesn't work for me...how about a lighter shade of blue?

The third image shows the Quantize options. I'm surprised there are only four; an eighth note option would allow "collapsing" 1/16th notes on top of each other, which could be interesting. And while the triplet options are welcome, I find dotted note values to be really useful for propelling dance tracks. Maybe AIR can add a few more quantization options before the final version drops.

Both of these techniques are non-destructive, by the way. But what about MARIO? And editing? And if you import a standard WAV or AIFF file, will Transfuser attempt to slice it, or do you have to use REX files? Let's find out.

Both Groove

[Anderton]

Turns out Transfuser does indeed slice incoming WAV and AIF files if they aren't already sliced...cool. Let's try it with an MP3...nope, that doesn't work.

Okay, now let's look at the Slicer synth editing options. There's actually quite a lot going on here, and this is definitely one of those "if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth 29.97 pictures per second."

Looking at the first image gives a general idea of what's going on, with the track's Slicer synth at the top, and its associated edit view below (I moved the lower module up in Paint so the image wouldn't be too large). We'll concentrate on the "waveform" view for now.

First up, I can't find any way to zoom in on the waveform, which makes it hard to position slice markers really exactly. Maybe I'm just missing it...AIR people, is there a zoom in function?

Anyway, if you're familiar with Propellerhead Software's ReCycle, this will all make sense. If not, here's the deal: You want to position a slice at each percussive transient to create discrete "blocks" of audio. Each slice is triggered by a MIDI note. So, if the host tempo speeds up, the slices are triggered at a faster rate and play "closer together," whereas if you slow the tempo down, the slices are triggered at a slower rate and play "further apart." This is how slice-based time stretching works.

Slicing is not effective with sustained parts that don't have easily recognized "blocks" of sound. However, what I have found is that you can slice sustained parts to create special effects, like slicing up a pad to give it rhythmic qualities.

Now let's look at the slice editing options.

[Anderton]

Referring to the video (WMV or QuickTime), the arrow tool lets you play individual slices.

You can use the cross tool to move slices, and the X tool to mute particular slices - this last tool is very handy, as it can help thin out a part.

There's also an eraser tool, but I can't quite figure out how it works as it seems to erase not just the slice marker, but associated audio. Check out in the video what happens when I erase the second eighth note in the pattern: The sound itself goes away. Ditto the pencil tool: If I add a slice, it seems to mess up the rhythm. Maybe the problem is I'm expecting this to work like ReCycle, and I'm missing something.

In any event, if you screw things up too bad, you can always hit Reset and start over.

[Anderton]

If you select Level to edit instead of Slice, little lines show up for each slice, which you can then drag up or down to change the slice's level. The video (WMV or QuickTime) shows this process in action, as the level is changed to emphasize the kick downbeat and snare backbeat.

[Anderton]

Okay, here's something I haven't seen before - check out the WMV or QuickTime video.

If you select "Flag" as what you want to edit, slices are shown "flagged" with high, medium, and low indicators. Three buttons to the left of the waveform indicate high, medium, and low; by clicking on these buttons, you can choose to hear only particularly combinations of these (e.g., only high, only medium, only high and low, etc.). However, note toward the end of the the video that you can also alter the flag level for individual slices.

So what does this mean? Well, it's the ultimate DJ kill switch! You could select, say, only the slices with kick as the high flags, and when you want to remove the kick, just disable the high flags. Or, come up with different permutations of slices, and select between them. It's pretty cool, and again, something I haven't seen before.

[Anderton]

Referring to the video (WMV or QuickTime), let's check out some of the filtering options. You can choose any one of several filter responses, then vary cutoff, resonance, and envelope for every slice (this doesn't seem to work with individual slices, which doesn't surprise me).

As the video shows, you can vary all of these parameters seamlessly, in real time - a nice touch for live performance. Also note toward the end of the video, where I apply negative envelope filtering for a "whoop-whoop" kind of sound.

You can also see there's an amplitude envelope that works similarly, so you can make slices more percussive or, say, add an attack time.

[Anderton]

Well, that's all for now because I'm off to Summer NAMM. One of the things I don't like about Pro Reviews is that going on the road pretty much puts a halt to the Pro Review process; NAMM is even worse, because when I get back, I need to spend a lot of time editing videos. So, I'm hoping that while I'm away, the People of AIR can answer some of the questions I've posed...and also, that other Transfuser uses can post their experiences, and hey, post some music if you have it!

I will be checking this thread while I'm away, and will answer any questions posed to me to the best of my ability, given that I won't have Transfuser on my laptop. But I'm really curious to see your comments.

Also, are any of you having problems seeing the videos? I noticed that the view counter isn't working quite right, because I've downloaded the videos to verify they're working yet some of the counters show no views, and some do. But as long as y'all are able to see them, that's all the matters to me :)

[Peter Gorges]

This is great stuff, Peter!!! Thanks for pitching in while I'm on the road...I'll be back home on Friday, when I can get back to posting movies and other fun stuff :)

Bunch more tricks from Mario:

*** Use Pumper FX for pumping pads like a "kick in the sidechain" ***

The Pumper effect was designed specifically for imitating the sound that you get when you feed the kick drum into a compressor’s sidechain. But that doesn't mean you can't get creative with it:
Turn off automatic triggering, assign the manual trigger pad to an automation lane and create your own trigger pattern. Or assign it to MIDI and trigger it from ProTools.

*** "Never" ending automation variations ***

To get a "never" repeating automation in track automation, assign 3 parameters like filter, resonance or decay to 3 automation lanes. Use 3 different loop lengths and step (mostly long) resolutions there, and maybe one lane even working in alternating direction.


*** Create a DrumSeq pattern from a slice track **

In the pattern section of any sequencer you can drag the current pattern data into any others sequencers pattern editor display. If it`s a sequencer of a different type the pattern gets converted intelligently. It`s nice to use this feature to drag any slice track's MIDI Pattern into a DrumSeq pattern. It will get converted into a sequence with kick, snare, HiHat, OpenHat in the first 4 lanes.


*** Using send FX master input for performing dub delays **

On the preferences page you`ll find the send FX' master input dials. In case you like to perform dub delays or similar things to more than one track at once, assign them to a CC, and keep the track's Send FX Level constant.

[WKnelangen]

Hi Craig,

here come my comments and answers to your questions: :idea:

Q: The PDF that comes with the Preview version isn't very specific about the Phrase section, so I'm probably going to miss a fair amount of stuff. Hopefully the A.I.R. guys will chime in to give a more complete picture.

A: What you already wrote about the Phrase Sequencer and Synthesizer says pretty much everything you need to know. This module is meant to creat mostly melodic patterns out of simple tonal samples. Drag in Vocal Phrases, Guitar Chords, one-note samples...


Q:Let’s look at the Phrase Synth. First off, though, I think I found a bug: When I loaded the Rich Strings Cm7+9 phrase (a lush string pad) and set play mode to loop, it only played through once and then the audio died – even though the sequencer continued to play. [...]

A: Eagle eye! :) This is a bug valid in the free preview of Transfuser. It is fixed in the final version.


Q: I’m hoping someone from A.I.R. can give a brief description of the purpose of each (Phrase) algorithm, [...]

A: The Mode setting determines how Transfuser analyzes and processes audio for beat matching (time compression and expansion).

Solo/Vocal Select this option for monophonic vocal or solo instrumental material (such as a flute).

Mix/Chords Select this option for polyphonic harmonic material, such as a guitar chords, piano, or even full mixes.

Drum/Perc Select this option for non-pitched rhythmic material, such as drum loops.

Vocodize Select this option for vocoding-type time compression and expansion where the pitch of the audio is forced to match the MIDI notes you play. Vocodize works best on solo material, otherwise the pitch mapping can be obscured.

Lo-Fi Select this option for low fidelity re-sampling for “grainy” sounding time compression and expansion. Lo-Fi uses granular synthesis for TCE.

Sampler Select this option to simply play back the audio without time compression and expansion processing.


Q: I don't know if there's a way to do this, but I think MARIO would be more effective if you could specify a min/max range for a parameter.

A: This is a great idea and will be on our feature wish-list for future Transfuser versions. As you already found out, you can at least constrain the scale of your Phrase sequence which comes also in handy after applying Mario to squeeze the reult into your harmonic context.


Q: if you hit the Play button, the loop will simply repeat ad infinitum at the host tempo. But there are also ways to trigger from the keyboard, as specified by the three options under "Note Range" parameter (the name doesn't make any sense to me, maybe someone from AIR can explain).

A: The Note Range selector simply gives you options for what the "Note Range" (as opposed to Pattern Switches) of your MIDI keyboard does. Sorry for no better naming.


Q: I can't find any way to zoom in on the waveform, which makes it hard to position slice markers really exactly. Maybe I'm just missing it...AIR people, is there a zoom in function?

A: With the multi-tool that is selected by default you just click and drag. Horizontally to move through or vertically to zoom in to the waveform.


Q: There's also an eraser tool, but I can't quite figure out how it works as it seems to erase not just the slice marker, but associated audio.

A: It deletes the slice marker AND the corresponding event in the Slice Sequencer. Otherwise - because markers are subsequently mapped to MIDI notes in the sequencer - any removing of markers would immediately screw up the whole loop timing.


I hope this was helpful and I'm looking forward to more questions and feature proposals. As always, have fun transfusing! And kind regerds from the AIR group.

-- Wolfram Knelangen

[Anderton]

Thanks Wolfram! I'm back from NAMM and working with Transfuser right now so I can post more material.

And thanks Peter for the tips and techniques. I'm sure that as more copies of Transfuser get out into the world, people will check back here for that type of information.

Okay, let me figure out what to cover next...

[Anderton]

We've covered most of what's going on with slicing, but of course, it's always fun to see what MARIO does to a function and the Slice Seq is no exception. The attached video, as usual in WMV or MOV format, shows a typical drum sequence in the process of being MARIOized. You can definitely hear that the results are reasonably interesting, no matter what you do - it certainly seems to support AIR's contention that this isn't a totally random process.

[Anderton]

After covering what the three main modules are about, let's check out something different before moving on.

When you click on the little wrench button, it opens up a preferences-type screen where you can make some basic settings. Also, note the block diagram that shows the signal flow - very helpful. I also like the circuit board "look" - fun stuff. (You can tell it's not one of my circuits, though, or one of the diodes would be all charred.)

Anyway, if you look at the attached image, the options are pretty obvious: Trigger pads MIDI input, send FX routing, record quantize on/off, click level, show warning messages (yes! you can turn them off!), where the content is located, etc.

Okay, so this isn't the sexiest part of Transfuser, but the window looks so cool I had to figure out an excuse to at least post this picture!

[Anderton]

You know, I just keep finding more stuff in this program...sort of like going through an attic, and uncovering some really cool magazine from the 50s or whatever.

Take automation. The way it works is you have 12 assignable lanes of automation per module (Drums, Slicer, or Phrase). To assign a control for automation, you right-click on it, and select the desired lane. Check out the first image, which shows the assignment process for a drum's pitch control (I was going after a sort of tabla or talking drum effect, where the sample changes in pitch). I also assigned the snare cutoff frequency to another lane.

But what's really interesting is that this an exceptionally flexible system. In fact, I'd say it's the first time I've seen automation re-invented for the world of step sequencing and groove music instead of following the same ol' protocols.

Look at the second image to see what I mean. This is the window that shows up if you click on a module's automation button (circled in red).

The first lane is set up to control pitch. The control section circled in blue has three main parameters: The top one determines the step value, which includes 1/32, 1/32 triplet, 1/1/6, 1/16 triplet, 1/8, 1/8 triplet, and 1/4. The important thing here is this is a per-lane parameter. Not only that, but you can set a loop point so that one automation lane can repeat, say, every 4 beats while another repeats every 5 beats, for interesting polyrhythmic effects.

The middle field determines the direction of the "automation step sequencer." It can either play to the end and loop back to the beginning, or play to the end, reverse direction, and play backward to the beginning whereupon the process starts over again. You can also think of this as extending the duration of the automation control. For example, suppose you want a parameter to rise, and then fall. Rather than draw a pattern that rises and falls, you can just draw a pattern that rises, and use forward/backward looping to have the pattern rise and fall over time.

The bottom field chooses between having discrete steps, or having a curve that goes smoothly from one value to the next. Again, very cool.

[Anderton]

And as the late-night paid programming commercials say, "But wait! There's more!"

Indeed. The first image shows the undo history for automation, making it easy to "get back to where you once belonged." Whether MARIO or automation, this seems to be a theme for Transfuser: You can mess around as much as you like, but you can always get back to a state that you preferred if you mess around too much. Note that there's also an option to revert automation to its initial state when just want to clear everything out and start over.

You can also select specific steps (or all steps) and alter them in specific ways. The second image shows that part of the sequence is selected, and now, it's going to be inverted.

The Edit button opens up additional options. The third image shows the Event/Selection Edit options:

Set All Steps to Default
Randomize Step Values
Increase Dynamic Range
Decrease Dynamic Range
Create Crescendo
Create Decrescendo

The other crucial point is that this is all real-time stuff. Transfuser absolutely will not hiccup when you do these kinds of transformations. From a performance/recording standpoint, this means that you can just sit there all day and keep hitting the "randomize" option for a particular parameter and enjoy the changes :)

More and more, I'm seeing the live performance aspects to this...

[Anderton]

At this point, I feel I have enough understanding of what Transfuser is about to offer some preliminary conclusions.

First of all, the reaction I get from a lot of people when talking about Transfuser is "So what? I know about drum machines, step sequencers, and slicing. So it's another virtual instrument. No big deal."

That attitude might explain why this thread has less interaction than I expected at first. Admittedly, around 100 page views every day since the review started isn't bad at all, but I get the feeling people think they know what Transfuser is about...but they don't.

And frankly, when I was first told about Transfuser, I had a bit of the same attitude. However, I also knew that it was an AIR instrument, and AIR doesn't do anything unless it has something significant up its sleeve. When I started working with Transfuser, it all seemed pretty straightforward but the deeper you dig, the more you find.

Although we still have many features to cover, one aspect that keeps popping up is integration. Everything works together smoothly. Although Transfuser is designed as a series of modules, they all snap together into a unified whole. What you learn about Drum automation applies to Slice automation. MARIO works the same on all the different modules. You don't have to think when using the browser; whatever you pull in, Transfuser will create the appropriate module. And when I've imported my own samples, Transfuser acts like they were there from the beginning...no issues at all.

So while I'm still in "learning mode," I think the most striking aspect of Transfuser so far is that it is a re-invention of very familiar elements. For example, you might think you know about step sequencing, but Transfuser puts an entirely different twist on it. And you may think you know how randomization works, but MARIO doesn't seem to be straight randomization, but has some intelligence behind it. I suspect that when I get into the groove and control options, I'm going to find the same kind of original thinking.

The second very interesting aspect is that Transfuser seems just as much for someone who doesn't have a clue of what they want to do as for those who have a specific compositional idea they want to implement. Transfuser encourages experimentation and just plain messing around. I've come up with a bunch of happy accidents, and things that sound really cool, without even trying. The rich undo and clear options encourage that "play" element even further..."Sure, do whatever you want, we can return you to safe territory if needed."

So here I am, into my second month of the review, and I'm finally starting to feel like I "get" it. Hopefully others reading this will find this kind of info useful!

[mchenetz]

I have been using transfuser for a few days now. I think that most people do not know what to make of Transfuser. I can tell you my personal experiences.

First let me explain a few things. I have never been a big Protools fan. Mainly, because I thought that the HD system was too overpriced and the LE system was to overrated. So, I had not looked Protools for many years. That is, until Transfuser came around. There is actually two things that came about that made me reevaluate my opinions on Protools.

The first thing that occurred was that Digidesign came out with the mbox2 micro that I thought would be a good audio device when I was on the road and didn't feel like lugging around my Apogee Duet (People look at you funny going through customs, when you travel with the Duet). I mainly got the device for Logic 8 and Ableton Live. But... It came bundled with Protools 7.4.2. So, I decided to reevaluate Protools. During my evalutaion, I saw this neat little instrument on their sight called Transfuser.

The Transfuser days: During the next few days I became very intrigued with this new plugin called Transfuser. Honestly, the plugin could really be a standalone application. It is extremely powerful! One of the nice things about it, is that there is so many different methods for music creation. In addition there are so many different ways to accomplish the same task.

Lets start out with how i like to use it. If you just start out with the built-in sounds and samples, you can accomplish alot. Lets say you drag a instrument(track) into the track window. You now get some kind of sound with a sequencer piece too. If you press play in the Transfuser's master section or on the track, the sound will play with a pattern defined in the sequencer. There is so many ways to use this audio. You could send it out to a bus and record it to a protools track. You could click on the record tab in the master section and record a 1,2, or 4 bar loop and then drag it onto a protools track, or have it create a new track automatically.

During my creation process, I find that i usually create multiple tracks and send them out to different busses. When i like what i hear, I arm all of the tracks that i want to record in protools and then press the master play on Transfuser. This gives me a rough draft of how it will sound together. After I find a mix that i like, I then go clear the previously created tracks and then go back to Transfuser and record each track seperately and drag the clip onto the protools track for sequencing. It sounds like an arduous process, but it really isn't.

I will add some more comments and details as i go along. I would just like to reiterate that I was not even interested in protools until Transfuser came along. Because of Transfuser, I now have another method of creating music and a new found love for protools. A matter of fact I have a Digi 003 coming tomorrow.

Regards,

Mike Chenetz

[Anderton]

Well I gotta say, being on the road really messes with the rhythm of a Pro Review...but I'm back, at least until early August, so let's jump right back in with one of my favorite features: The Beatcutter.

This is one of the many processors, and it basically screws up a file in totally wonderful ways. There are five main modifier options: Repeat, Reorder, Gate, Scratch, and Freeze. These can be applied automatically (which we'll get into next), but for now, we'll take advantage of an option that can "force" a particular modifier on to the sound by clicking a button.

Again, the best way to demonstrate this is by watching the attached video, where you can hear the various functions applied to a drum beat. There's picture-in-picture so you can see which button is associated with which effect.

As you watch the video, the first process being applied is Freeze, which seems to apply a really short loop and creates a sustained "buzz" of the sound. Second is Scratch, which sounds like it's changing sample rate to do quick pitch changes. Next up is Gate, which in this case, is applying a gated autopanning function.

Reorder basically changes what gets hit when, and Repeat "doubles" (rhythmically, as opposed to, say, chorusing) the hits in the beat. Finally, the video closes out with hitting a whole bunch o' stuff. Beatcutter is a really, really totally fun and awesome function that makes it ridiculously easy to avoid "loop boredom" by letting you add some real life to a loop.

Obviously, the potential for live performance modification of loops is exceptional. And yes, these buttons can be tied to the Smart controls we'll be covering shortly.

This just keeps getting cooler...

[Anderton]

I like this effect so much it's going to get some more videos :)

One thing that really appeals to me about Beatcutter is that it's very live performance, real-time oriented. The attached video shows manipulating several Beatcutter options in real time.

The Freeze dial lets you add in the desired degree of "Freeze," while "Rate" determines the Freeze repeat rate. Higher rates give buzzier, more tonal effects whereas low rates are like really fast tremolo effects.

Random rate, probably note surprisingly, changes the rate on a random basis. Sweep can sweep the frozen tone up or down, or you can introduce random sweep changes.

Incidentally, thanks to the IT folks, we can now load longer, higher quality movies...enjoy! Also, there's an additional video format (.3GP) that's iPhone-compatible.

[Anderton]

Here's another Beatcutter goodie that requires a bit more of an example. The Scratch option creates a pitch-shifting effect, and it can happen in various ways. For some reason my screen capture program isn't capturing the pop-up menu that shows up when you make a selection, but the attached video is zoomed in far enough that you can see which rhythmic option has been chosen: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, random, octave up, and octave down.

Again, there's a choice of MOV, WMV, and iPhone (celllular) formats for the video.

[Anderton]

Well...a couple big changes. First of all, I now have the full version of Transfuser, not the preview, with all the content.

Second, I now feel I know enough about the individual elements to start using Transfuser as a complete instrument.

I thought I'd do the type of playing I do with Ableton Live: Load up 16 loops, connect the levels to faders and solo buttons to switches, and just improvise. Transfuser does this sort of thing very well. But what really surprised me is shown in the attached image - check out that CPU meter! Yes, all 16 tracks are loaded, playing, slicing, and dicing, and that includes three of my own loops I just dragged in to the project. Either Transfuser is extremely friendly to your CPU, or it really knows how to take advantage of my multi-core computer.

In any event, it's very cool that you can "fold" and "unfold" tracks - when you want to really mess with a track, unfold it and take advantage of the various editing options. You can do an awful lot with Transfuser in terms of real time playing; I keep forgetting that Pro Tools is loaded in the background, because Transfuser is so self-contained.

It seems strange that despite having Transfuser for a couple months, I feel like I'm just getting a handle on its gestalt, and what kind of playing and attitude works best. Think "Live meets Reason" and you're pretty close.

[Anderton]

Warning: Subjectiveness Alert

As far as I'm concerned, it's not even worth opening Transfuser unless you have some kind of hardware controller. You really can play Transfuser like an instrument, and using a mouse gets really old after a while. A hardware controller is essential if you want serious expressiveness.

Sure, you can set up Transfuser to just do loops and the like. But the analogy I'd use is like never taking a Porsche out of second gear. It still looks like a Porsche, feels like a Porsche, has the same controls as a Porsche, and its engine purrs like a Porsche. But what fun is it to have a Porsche if you never take it out of second gear?!? Well, what fun is it to have Transfuser if you don't play it? The AIR people clearly put a lot of real time control options in there (and there's no hiccuping when you use them), so you might as well take advantage of them.

[Anderton]

I'm still mystified as to why there isn't more discussion. Is it just working really well for everyone, so you're too busy making music to jump on an internet forum?

[Gus Lozada]

Hi Sensei
I've been showing Transfuser at my clinics lately. Nice instrument and your "Live Meets Reason" description is kinda accurate.


Would you use it as your only source of loops/tracks for one of those awesome solo performances you do?

This time you would be able to record that solo button...

[Anderton]

Would you use it as your only source of loops/tracks for one of those awesome solo performances you do?

Yes, I probably could. I haven't tried out running long one-shots or multiple audio loops, but I'm pretty sure Transfuser could do that. The most important part is the hardware controller...I've even done that type of set with Reason, which is quite different compared to Live or Transfuser.

I also haven't tried running into audio ins (e.g., for guitar and voice), but I could do that in Pro Tools since you have to have that running anyway to use Transfuser.

The one thing that keeps blowing me away about Transfuser is how little CPU it takes!

[mchenetz]

I am really using Transfuser a lot. I find there are so many ways to use it. The real-time capabilities are extremely useful and expressive. I have a Novation SL Remote that i use. The mapping of controls is extremely easy and it makes it very intuitive to implement a hardware control. The only thing that i can compare it to is the NI Kore in terms of control. I will definitely put up some examples of some of the ways that i use Transfuser and some example clips tp help illustrate it's capabilities. I strongly believe Transfuser is to good a tool to overlook.

Mike

[Anderton]

Continuing on with the hands-on control theme, let's take a look at the Controller section shown in the first image.

On the left side are six "Smart Knobs" that you can assign to Transfuser parameters, and can in turn be tied to MIDI controllers. The second image shows what happens when you right-click on a knob: The "Learn CC" option appears, so you just wiggle your MIDI hardware control of choice, and the knob responds to that hardware control.

However, note something else of interest: Along the bottom, you can see that a parameter has already been assigned to this Smart Knob. You can in fact assign multiple parameters to one knob, even to the point of, for example, having one Smart Knob control all filter cutoffs in all instruments.

But how does it do this, as the instruments are on different MIDI channels? Easy: The Smart Knobs are "above" MIDI, and talk directly to the instruments they control.

[Anderton]

Now let's turn our attention to the controller section Virtual Keyboard, as shown in the first image. Note the section circled in red: In the Slice Sequencer (or all sequencers, for that matter), you can store 12 patterns and recall them by clicking on the sequencer's small virtual keyboard. However, you can also switch patterns on all instruments simultaneously by clicking on the Pattern Switch section of the controller section keyboard (circled in blue), which can of course be triggered from an external MIDI keyboard as well.

In the second image, the section that's circled in red shows the note range and channel section of the virtual keyboard. Now, follow closely...

The section circled in blue lets you specify a note range for a particular instrument; just above the circle, you can see the MIDI channel to which the instrument is "listening." If this matches the channel next to the virtual keyboard, and you play on the keyboard within the specified note range, then the keyboard key will trigger that instrument.

For example, suppose you have three instruments, all tuned to the same MIDI channel; one has a note range of C2-C2, one D2-D2, and one E2-E2. If you play C2, the first instrument will trigger. If you play D2, the second instrument will trigger. If you play C2, D2, and E2, all three instruments will be triggered.

Or take it one step further: We've already shown that you can load up a bunch o' instruments. One group could be set to channel 1, and another to channel 2; by switching the virtual keyboard's MIDI channel assignment, you could play one group from the keyboard, then switch over and play the other group from the keyboard. And of course, the virtual keyboard can be driven from a physical keyboard, thus affording more hands-on control.

[Anderton]

The Trigger pads in the first image can send MIDI notes between 48-71 to Sequencer and Synth modules, and like the Smart Knobs, can target multiple instruments. Perhaps more importantly, they can trigger patterns (or stop patterns that are playing), again in multiple Sequencer modules.

The second image shows the assignment options for the trigger pads. The significance of using trigger pads for pattern selection as opposed to the keyboard pattern select notes is that a single pad can trigger different patterns, whereas the keyboard selects the same patterns in all instruments.

As with the keyboard, only those instruments set to the same MIDI channel shown in the display to the right of the virtual keyboard will respond to the trigger pads.

[Anderton]

Face it...what's something that DJs can use without a crossfader? Well, of course Transfuser has one.

Here's how it works. Check out the attached image; the area circled in red is where you choose the output bus assignment for an instrument. As you can see (if you can read the dark blue against black lettering...) there are eight output buses and a cue bus, which of course, can terminate in Pro Tools.

The crossfader (X-Fade) is circled in blue, and crossfades between bus 1 and bus 2. Wish list alert for Transfuser 2.0: It would be cool if the "Bus 1" and "Bus 2" labels to the left and right of the crossfader respectively had drop-down menus so you could crossfade between any two buses, not just 1 and 2.

And yes, you can assign the crossfader to a MIDI controller, as well as set a minimum and maximum range.

[Anderton]

That's about it for the Controller section, so let's look at its neighboring Master section.

Anyone who's worked with a sequencer lately is likely aware of the concept of "groove templates" that allow adding timing changes to straight quantization, such as swing, or "leading" or "lagging" the beat. Transfuser has a couple ways of dealing with this.

Referring to the attached image, the area circled in red is the master groove section. You can choose from five templates: 1/16 swing, 1/8 swing, 1/4 swing, "laid back," and "ahead." However, you can also import an existing Pro Tools groove template, so you're not limited to only those five options. Note the slider below the "groovemeter"; it lets you apply an amount from -100 to +100.

So what happens at the target? Check out the area circled in blue for the answer. Each instrument has a choice of groove sources: The Master groove, or the same options as the master groove section with the addition of 1/32 swing and random. An additional knob controls the amount of groove.

So you could, for example, specify a maximum amount of groove effect at the master, but dial it back on each instrument to whatever degree you like. However, what I've generally found is 1) a little swing is a Good Thing (even a little bit makes a big difference), and 2) I like applying the same amount of swing to pretty much everything, so the timing doesn't "fight" among the various instruments.

[Anderton]

The Master Section has two send FX sections. These are the same as the other effects sections - four possible effects, in series or parallel. The difference, of course, is that if you want to apply the same effect (e.g., reverb) to multiple instruments but save CPU power, you can send them all to a single send effect rather than have an effect inserted in each instrument.

Incidentally, we haven't looked at the GUI for too many effects but the attached image shows not only the send effect 1 section (circled in red), but the GUI for the compressor effect.

The FX2 section, and the Insert effect section (which allows placing an overall master effect on the overall output) are both identical to the FX1 section described here so we won't spend any time on them.

[Anderton]

This isn't really something to record performances - you have Pro Tools for that, right?!? - but think of it more as "instant resampling" as you can capture Transfuser playback from its main audio output.

The attached image shows the recorder section, which is pretty simple: play, stop, and record buttons, along with a drop-down menu that lets you specify a record time of 1, 2, or 4 beats.

So what is that "Import As..." dialog box doing there? Well, this is the really cool feature of the recorder: You can drag it into an existing Transfuser Track Synth module and replace whatever's in there, or drag it into an empty space and create a new instrument - this is what calls up the "Do you want to slice it, stretch it, or load it onto drum pads?" dialog box.

This is a very, very cool feature because you can do something like combine a drum and percussion part by recording them, then creating a single instrument with the combined part.

[Anderton]

The attached image shows the final part of the Master section. This is pretty straightforward: You have Transport controls for play and stop (which of course can run in tandem with Pro Tools), a metronome on/off option (the metronome level is set in Preferences), pitch control to raise or lower the overall pitch, master volume control, and metering.

There are two unusual aspects here. One is that you can record the metronome output into a Pro Tools track, even though you can't record it in Transfuser. This makes perfect sense if you want to do overdubs early on in the process with Pro Tools, while still having Transfuser doing its thing.

The Pitch control maintains the tempo in the face of pitch changes, and pitch changes affect all instruments, including drums. As a result, you can change pitch on the fly without messing up the rhythm - nice.

In fact, it's so much fun there's an attached video that shows the pitch change thing in action. You'll see me change the pitch up an octave, then use Alt-click to zero it again. Then the pitch will go down an octave, and be zeroed again...I really like the whole real time aspect.

[Anderton]

We've reached the point in this Pro Review where I feel I know enough about Transfuser to offer some conclusions. This doesn't mean the thread is closed; if I discover any significant features I missed I'll include them, and certainly, if any of you have questions, comments, or music you want to post, please - go right ahead!

The bottom line is that Transfuser lives up to Digi's hype 100%, but in some ways, exceeds it; the live performance aspects are hugely cool, and the content has some beats that are simply outstanding. When Digi refers to live performance, it almost seems like a "Oh, and it does live performance too" kind of afterthought. But the engine that powers Transfuser clearly was built with performance controls in mind. Will people load Pro Tools LE on a laptop just so they have a host for Transfuser? I'd be willing to bet that some people will indeed.

The quality that impressed me the most was operational seamlessness. No matter you do, it's almost impossible to make Transfuser hiccup. If you saw the video in the previous post, you know what I mean: To pitch shift over a dozen instruments all at once while keeping the tempo constant, then jumping back down again, is pretty impressive. You can drag in content, add instruments, even make live performance assignments on the fly - the music never stops. And M.A.R.I.O. is a very cool addition to Transfuser's - or a live performer's - bag of tricks.

What's not to like? Some find the interface off-putting at first, feeling that it's cluttered. Actually, given the amount of functionality packed into each module, I'm surprised it's not far more cluttered than it is. The only complaint I have is the point size of some of the lettering, which could have been made larger without affecting the aesthetics; and there's no excuse for having dark blue letters against a black background. It may look cool under the low lights of the studio, but onstage, all I can say is I hope that if there's a Transfuser 2.0, there's more attention paid to readability.

But really, that's about it for complaints. Some might bemoan the lack of any kind of synthesis (like the Thor and SubTractor synths found in Reason), but that's only a concern for those who expected Transfuser to do everything - dude, you're in Pro Tools! Just insert your virtual synth of choice, and run it in parallel with Transfuser.

And speaking of Pro Tools, we haven't touched on integration too much between the two, but that's only because it's exactly what you'd expect: Transfuser becomes instruments you can feed to different buses, with tempo sync to the host.

Finally, there's the matter of price. A sample library containing the type of content included with Transfuser would probably run around $70-$100, so you can think of Transfuser itself as an instrument that costs a couple hundred bucks or so. That's pretty righteous, and definitely flies in the face of those who consider Pro Tools an "elitist" platform. It's clear that Transfuser isn't just "another virtual thingie" for Pro Tools, but another step in a new direction for Pro Tools - one that slants it toward being a compositional, not just recording, environment.

And that's an important move: Digi has been at the top of the heap for a long, long time, and not without good reason. But if they're looking over their shoulder, they see programs like Ableton Live gaining significant market share, Sonar solidifying its hold on the Windows platform, Reaper picking up fanboys, and Apple doing stunning things like putting out the Logic Studio package for $500. (Think about it: For only $200 more than Transfuser, you get not only a DAW, but a zillion plug-ins, Mainstage, a ton of content, and more.) But as the competition heats up, it seems Digi isn't resting on its past, and Transfuser is a good indicator of that.

What has mystified me during this Pro Review is that lack of participation; I've kind of felt like a voice in the wilderness, even as a I watch the page counts increment (so I know people are reading this). The AIR guys stopped by early on, then disappeared to work on their next projects. A few users have posted about how much they like Transfuser, but that's been it. Why?

Well, I think I have an answer: The downloadable free trial. If you try it and don't like, you're not going to hang out here. If you do like it, you're going to be making music with it. And the biggest factor of all: Transfuser is easy to figure out. In a lot of Pro Reviews, people come to ask questions - will it do this, will it do that, how do you make it do this, etc. But really, Transfuser is pretty obvious, which is actually somewhat surprising considering all that it does. The lack of discussion isn't just limited to this thread: I looked all over the net, and this thread is far and away what's referenced the most. Even Pro Tools-specific blogs have very little about Transfuser, past the "I like it a lot, good stuff" kind of comments.

I'm hoping that some Transfuser users will circle back here after they've used the program for a while, and offer some insights and not-so-obvious tips. Until then, let me sum up by saying if you're into grooves and you use Pro Tools, Transfuser delivers the goods at a more than fair price. But even more importantly, it's fun!!

[Sofine]

Fantastic, in-depth review Craig. Much appreciated. I've been using Transfuser for around 2 months now (on and off as time allows) and find it inspiring and easy to operate. Stand out feature for me is "Beatcutter", which is a fantastic effect that offers short-cuts to many contemporary electronic music fx-tricks. Also, using this in conjunction with the gater and the pumper, you have landed in Justice-DJ Medhi-Daft Punk compressed-glitch land, with the minimum of effort. Load up a loop of your song, play with these effects in realtime for a few minutes while recording the output in ProTools, listen back to your recorded transfuser output and pick the best bits, and hey presto, you have a great selection of fills and breaks for your tune.

Simon.
www.simonfine.ie

[gazi]

Thanks Mr. Anderton for the really good review!
I'm really interested in Transfuser but don't have the possibility to test it since I haven't got Pro Tools LE yet.

This VI is looking really good in every aspect and I am sure it will really improve my work once I switch to Pro Tools 8.

But one thing I couldn't get from any of the ressources on the internet:

While programming drum tracks often times I microtune individual drum hits.. i.e. I push them a little from their position on the grid. Like 2 to 9 ticks in a regular midi editor. But individual hits in one direction other hits possibly in the opposite direction.
This gives a more natural groove and human feel to the drum tracks.

Is it possible in Transfuser's drum sequencer to move individual drum hits from the static grid and thus "microtune" the groove?

Many thanks!

Cheers
Gazi

[IDR_AZ]

:deadhorse:

(There, Now Thats Out Of The Way)


WOW is the best word that describes this music creation power house! :evil:

Literally so cool that I didn't want to post cause I want Transfuser all to myself :facepalm:

THIS PROGRAM DELIVERS ON EVERY LEVEL :thu:

Thank You, AIR YOU GUYS FREAKIN ROCK:rawk: