Tercera ola

March 2012

Contents

1 Introduction 2 Record

2.1 Sustain Record 2.2 Record Mode 2.3 Reverse Recording 2.4 Speed Shifted Recording 2.5 Auto Record Function 2.6 Synchronized Recording 2.7 Threshold Recording 2.8 Generating MIDI Clocks 2.9 Alternate Endings 2.10 Long Press Record 2.11 Auto Record

2.12 Rehearse 3 Overdub

3.1 Ending Record with Overdub 3.2 Overdub Mode

3.3 Noise Floor

3.4 Reduce Feedback During Overdub 3.5 Overdub Quantized

4 Reset 5 Play

6 Managing Layers 7 Mute, Pause, and Solo

8 Extending The Loop With Multiply 9 Extending The Loop With Insert 10 Shortening The Loop

11 Replacing Loop Content 12 Shuffle

13 Changing Direction 14 Speed Shift

14.1 Speed Functions

14.1.1 Speed Toggle, Sustain Speed Toggle 14.1.2 Speed Step

14.1.3 Speed Up, Speed Down 14.1.4 Speed Next, Speed Previous 14.1.5 Halfspeed

14.1.6 Speed Cancel 14.2 Speed Controls 14.2.1 Speed Octave 14.2.2 Speed Step 14.2.3 Speed Bend

14.3 Speed Parameters 14.3.1 Speed Sequence 14.3.2 Speed Step Range 14.3.3 Speed Bend Range 14.3.4 Record Speed Changes 14.3.5 Speed Shift Restart 14.3.6 Speed/Pitch Note Range

14.4 Speed Combinations 15 Pitch Shift

15.1 Pitch Functions 15.1.1 Pitch Step

15.1.2 Pitch Up, Pitch Down 15.1.3 Pitch Next, Pitch Previous 15.1.4 Pitch Cancel

15.2 Pitch Controls 15.2.1 Pitch Octave 15.2.2 Pitch Step 15.2.3 Pitch Bend

15.3 Pitch Parameters 15.3.1 Pitch Sequence 15.3.2 Pitch Step Range 15.3.3 Pitch Bend Range 15.3.4 Pitch Shift Restart 15.4 Pitch Combinations

16 Time Stretch

16.1 Time Stretch Range

16.2 Combining Stretch, Pitch, and Speed 17 Loop Switching

17.1 Switch Quantize 17.2 Switch Confirmation

17.3 Switch and Confirm Modes 17.4 Empty Loop Action

17.4.1 Time Copy

17.4.1.1 Time Copy Mode

17.4.2 Sound Copy

17.4.2.1 Sound Copy Mode 17.5 Switch Location

17.6 Switch Duration 17.7 Return Location 17.8 Switch State Transfer 17.8.1 Record Transfer 17.8.2 Overdub Transfer 17.8.3 Reverse Transfer 17.8.4 Speed Transfer 17.8.5 Pitch Transfer

17.9 Switch Velocity Sensitive 17.10 Restart and Restart Once

18 Changing Playback Position 19 Changing The Start Point 20 Loop Windowing

20.1 Window Mode 20.2 Scripting Windows

21 Long Presses 22 Managing Tracks 23 Bounce Recording

24 Capturing a Performance 25 Sending MIDI Messages

26 Host Control With MIDI Loopback Devices

1 Introduction

This document contains a sampling of common recording and performance

techniques used with Mobius. You do not need to read this top to bottom, look at the index and skip to the sections that interest you.

Note that this document is not yet complete. Many sections are still empty. If you have an interest in an empty section post a request to the forum and we will provide more information there.

2 Record

The Record function is used to record new loops of live audio. There are several ways to start and stop a recording, in the simplest case you press the Record button once to begin recording, and again to stop recording. Immediately after the second press the loop begins playing and continues until you alter it with another function.

Before a loop is recorded for the first time, the loop is in reset mode and you will see the word Reset appear in the status display. While a loop is recording you are in record mode and will see the word Record in the status display. Unless and

advanced record ending option is used, when the recording completes the loop will enter play mode and Play will appear in the status display.

If you want to discard the loop and start over you can use the Reset function to stop the loop, release all loop memory and return to reset mode. From there you can use the Record function again to record another loop.

If you want to discard the loop and immediately begin recording a new one just press Record again with while the loop is playing. The memory for the previous loop is not released until you end the new recording, you can use the Undo function to cancel the new recording and return to the original loop. Note that Undo only restores the previous loop if the previous loop was not empty (in reset mode). Once a loop is reset all history of the loop is gone, you cannot undo from reset mode.

Another way to reset a loop is to press and hold the Record button. This is referred to as a "Long Press Record" and it behaves the same as the Reset function. Using long press Record to reset the loop is a common technique when using a MIDI footswitch.

Since you will almost always have a footswitch bound to the Record function you don't need to waste a footswitch bound to the Reset function, you can simply do a long press of the Record footswitch to do a reset. The loop will enter record mode for about 1/2 second (or whatever the configured long press interval is) then the loop will be reset.

Once the loop has been recorded to your satisfaction, you may begin modifying it, or combining it with loops on other tracks.

2.1 Sustain Record

The function Sustain Record is used with triggers that can communicate both a

"pressed" and "released" state. The recording starts when the trigger is pressed and stops when it is released. For a footswitch that sends MIDI notes, the recording would start when the footswitch was pressed, continue while the footswitch was held, and stop when the footswitch was released. This can make it easier to record very short loops.

If the Sustain Record function is bound to a trigger that does not support

press/release states, such as a MIDI program change, it will behave the same as the Record function, requiring two presses to start and ending the recording.

2.2 Record Mode

The preset parameter Record Mode can be used to change the way the Record function behaves. It has these values:

 Toggle - the default, one press to start and another to stop

 Sustain - forces Record to behave like Sustain Record

 Safe -

RecordMode=Safe should be it's own option so you can use it with both toggle and sustain recording.

2.3 Reverse Recording

2.4 Speed Shifted Recording 2.5 Auto Record Function 2.6 Synchronized Recording

Synchronized recording is a very complex topic that is covered fully in the Mobius Synchronization manual.

2.7 Threshold Recording 2.8 Generating MIDI Clocks

See the MIDI Master Sync section of the Mobius Synchronization manual for more information.

2.9 Alternate Endings 2.10 Long Press Record 2.11 Auto Record

2.12 Rehearse

3 Overdub

Overdubbing is the process of adding new sound to an existing loop. It is the most common way to modify loops after recording. When overdub is enabled, new sound coming into a track will be merged with the loop that is currently playing in that track.

This will result in a new loop containing both the original sound and the new sound.

Unlike many loopers, overdub in Mobius does not replace the original loop. Instead overdubbing creates a new "layer". Remember that loops are not single audio

recordings, they are actually made up of several audio recordings called layers. Each time you modify a loop a new layer is created. If you don't like the results of a

modification you can return the previous layer with the Undo function.

Overdub is controlled with the following functions.

 Overdub

 Sustain Overdub

 Overdub On

 Overdub Off

The Overdub function will toggle overdub on and off each time it is used.

The Sustain Overdub function will turn overdub on when the function button is pressed and turn it off when the button is released. It must be used with a

sustainable trigger. This is useful if you want to create very short overdubs. Pressing, holding, then releasing a button is much faster than trying to press a button twice.

The Overdub On and Overdub Off functions turn overdub on and off without toggling.

They are intended for use in scripts where you want to set the overdub state without worrying about the current state.

When a loop is playing, it is actually one of the layers in the loop that is playing. This is called the "active layer". The active layer is usually the last layer that was created, if you are displaying the Layer Bars in the Mobius window, the active layer will be highlighted. While overdub is on, a new layer is continually being created as the active layer plays. This new layer will contain a copy of what is in the active layer adjusted for feedback, then merged with the sound coming into the track adjusted by the track's input level. When the active layer plays to the end, the new layer with the overdub is "shifted" and becomes the active layer. The overdubbed layer then begins playing and a new layer is created to record the next overdub. This process

continues for as long as overdub is enabled. This means that if you never turn overdub off you may generate a lot of layers.

If you decide you don't like an overdub, you can use the Undo function to discard the new layer and return to the previous layer. You can keep using Undo to go all the way back in time to the very first layer, then start overdubbing again. See the Managing Layers section for more information on using Undo.

3.1 Ending Record with Overdub

A very useful technique is ending a new loop recording with the Overdub function.

You start by pressing Record to begin recording a new loop, then when you're ready to stop instead of pressing Record again, press Overdub. The new loop is created and begins playing and you are immediately placed in Overdub mode. This is important because when you transition seamlessly from Record mode to Overdub mode we can avoid a fade at the end of the loop.

Normally when you record a loop by pressing Record twice, the left and right edges of the loop are automatically faded to zero. This ensure that there will be no abrupt changes in sample level at the loop start point. Without these fades you would usually hear a sharp "click" every time the loop reached its end point and begin playing from the beginning because the audio waveform at the end of the loop would not exactly align with the audio waveform at the beginning of the loop.

The consequence of these edge fades is that you can't create a loop that lets a sound such as a reverb tail or a cymbal crash carry over from the end of the loop back to the start and keep going. Any sound at the end of the loop will be abruptly cut off and faded to zero.

When you end a recording with Overdub the right edge fade will not be done so the sound being recorded at the end of the loop will seamlessly carry over to the to the beginning of the next layer. You will hear the cymbal crash or the reverb tail cross the loop boundary without a "fade bump". You can now leave overdub on indefinitely or wait just long enough for the sound to decay nicely then press Overdub again to end the overdub. This can result in much more natural sounding loops because the end of the loop will gradually blend with the start of the loop.

3.2 Overdub Mode

A loop is always in one major mode which is displayed in the Mode component in the user interface. The default major mode is Play. The loop will always return to Play mode when no other modes are active. Most major modes are temporary, they begin when you execute a modal function such as Record, Multiply, or Insert and then end when you execute that function again. These are called function modes. If you are already in a function mode and then execute a different function, the previous mode is canceled and will not be restored. For example if a loop is in Multiply mode and you execute the Insert function, the Multiply mode is canceled and the loop enters Insert mode. Later when you execute the Insert function again to end Insert mode the loop will not return to the previous Multiply mode, it will return to Play mode.

A loop may be in any number of minor modes at the same time, these are displayed in the Minor Modes component in the user interface. Examples of minor modes include Reverse, Speed Toggle, and Pitch Step. Minor modes are not canceled when you change major modes. For example if you start in the Reverse minor mode when you execute the Multiply function, the major mode will change to Multiply but Reverse minor mode will still be active. Later when you leave Multiply mode and return to Play mode, Reverse will continue to be active.

Overdub is unusual because it has characteristics of both major and minor modes.

Like a major mode it will be displayed in the Mode component in the user interface when it is active. But like a minor mode Overdub is not canceled when the major mode changes, it is just temporarily suspended. It will also be displayed in the Minor Modes component in the user interface so you can see when it has been suspended.

For example if you start in Overdub mode and execute the Multiply function, the major mode will change to Multiply and Overdub is suspended. Later when you leave Multiply mode you will return to Overdub mode. Overdub is the only major mode that behaves this way.

3.3 Noise Floor

You may want to leave overdub on while you listen to the loop a few times with your instrument muted. While you are listening the loop without playing you usually don't want more layers to be created just because overdub was left on. Mobius will only generate a new layer if the maximum signal level of the sound received by the track exceeds a threshold. This threshold is set with the Noise Floor global parameter.

Most instruments generate some low-level noise when they are not being played.

Keyboards may hiss or buzz, guitars generate lots of handling and string noise. If you see layers being added when you are not playing your instrument you may need to increase the Noise Floor value. If the value is zero then there will be no noise filter and every pass of the loop while overdub is on will generate a new layer. The default value is 15 which is adequate for most instruments including guitars with quiet

pickups. If you need to raise the noise floor, increase the value by 5 or 10 until layers are no longer being created. You should not have to set this value above 1000, if you do please let us know. Be careful not to set the Noise Floor too high or else overdubs may be lost if you are playing softly.

3.4 Reduce Feedback During Overdub

If you are overdubbing a loud audio signal you need to be careful not to overload the loop. Mobius does not do any compression or limiting, if you overdub loud sounds over loud sounds you may exceed the maximum level which will cause harsh digital clipping. If this happens you will need to reduce the track input level or reduce feedback. Reducing the input level makes the new overdubbed sound quieter, reducing feedback makes the sound being copied from the current loop quieter.

If you prefer to leave the feedback control all the way up (127) Mobius can still slightly reduce the amount of feedback automatically while overdub is enabled. The amount of feedback reduction is small, approximately 5%. This can help reduce clipping if you overdub several times.

Normally this small amount of feedback reduction is not audible but you can turn it off with a global parameter. Open the Global Parameters window and locate the

checkbox labeled Reduce Feedback During Overdub, uncheck the box to turn this feature off.

3.5 Overdub Quantized

Normally the overdub functions do not obey the Quantize parameter, they are executed immediately when you press the function trigger. This is because you are usually merging new sound into an existing sound so controlling exactly where the

"edges" of the overdub will be is not critical. If you start overdub a little early, just keep your instrument muted until you are ready to add something then mute it when you're done.

Quantized overdub can however be useful as an effect. If you keep a loud sound playing before and after the overdub, you can drop in overdubs that a very sharp attack and decay. To enable overdub quantization edit the preset and check the box labeled Overdub Quantized.

4 Reset