A basic stereo wav player designed for making background textures. The patch features two stereo players which automatically loop whatever audio file is selected; the balance is determined by a crossfader, which can be controlled manually or automated by two LFO options. Each loop has its own eq controls, and both loops are fed into a stereo compressor with various sidechain options and a stereo reverb / diffuser.
HOW TO USE:
I’m pretty new to working with sound files in PD so this is pretty barebones – stereo wav files must be placed in the ‘loops’ folder, following the naming convention 1.wav, 2.wav… 20.wav, etc. I have included a handful of my own recordings to get started. Select your file of choice on the first page and press the low C key to initiate Loop 1 and Low D for Loop 2. To change loops, press these buttons again. The high C and D keys can be used to fade the respective loops in and out, with an envelope time set on page 8. The compressor takes a bit of work to get used to but can be dialed in to react to an external input, useful for ducking the loops when playing over them.
Controls:
Navigate through the patch using the ‘black’ keys; there are eight pages.
Page 1: Main Controls.
Knob 1: Select Loop 1 file.
Knob 2: Select Loop 2 file.
Knob 3: Set balance between files, if manual crossfade is enabled.
Knob 4: Volume of external input
Page 2: Loop 1 Filters.
Page 3: Loop 2 Filters.
Page 4: Crossfade settings.
Knob 1: Choose between manual control of loop crossfade, or sine / smooth random LFOs
Knob 2: Frequency for LFOs.
Knob 3: Minimum crossfade position for LFOs
Knob 4: Maximum crossfade position for LFOs
The min/max can be useful when using the random LFO to bias towards choosing more of one file, or to ensure that some of both files are audible.
Page 5: Compression I
Knob 1: Compression mix.
Knob 2: Sidechain input. Post-Fade means that the audible output of the crossfader is determining the gain-reduction in the compressor; Loop-1 / Loop 2 use the pre-crossfader output of the loop players (i.e. the gain reduction can be determined by a file that is not audible), and ext-in uses the organelles inputs.
Page 6: Compression II
Knob 1: Threshold for triggering compressor
Knob 2: Ratio of compressed to uncompressed signal
Knob 3: Response: attack/decay time in ms. for compression
Knob 4: Make-up gain. Careful, this can get loud – but can also be used to get a sort of crunchy lo-fi sound with extreme settings.
Page 7: Reverb
Knob 1: Mix of stereo plate reverb
Knob 2: Gain of mix into stereo all-pass diffuser
Knob 3: Determines the overall sound quality of the diffuser. Can make an unpleasant sound with high gain.
Knob 4: Feedback amount for diffuser. Behaves differently depending on Knob 3 setting, but shouldn’t be dangerous at any setting.
Page 8: Volume controls
Knob 1: Time for Loop 1 volume envelope
Knob 2: Time for Loop 2 volume envelope
Knob 3: Pre-crossfader gain for Loop 1
Knob 4: Pre-crossfader gain for Loop 2
Known Issues: Changing the files will cause a digital noise to occur if any part of the patch is issuing sound. I don’t yet know how to avoid this, so the main purpose of the patch is to set up a soundscape and let it run, rather than changing loops continually.
Credits:
Andy Farnell’s Designing Sound for basic loop player design, @same-similar for gen~ external maker, @t8r for plate verb, Graham Wakefield and Gregory Taylor for ideas from the GSOT book, Varun Nair for the compressor design, @baptiste for page management.
Sound Files:
1: Cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) leaves in the wind, Van Duzen river
2: Dawn chorus, Whiskey Flat, Humboldt State Park
3: Afternoon crickets, Humboldt State Park
4: Afternoon birdsong, Tilden State Park
5: Heavy rain on skylight
6&7: Stereo static collage
An example using synth loops to trigger the compressor, changing the threshold and response settings throughout to alter the gain reduction:
https://soundcloud.com/jason-borga-771355918/that-this-or-this-what?si=d5327621093a4cef9a0b1b4dc3a68d39&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing