Touchable, open-ended, modular sounds and music – it’s an appealing idea. I’d be remiss in talking this week about touch apps if I didn’t mention the free/cheap Windows tool Usine, which has recently made the jump to a touchscreen-optimized version. (Big thanks to alby75 in comments on our Kore minisite for the nod.)

Usine is a modular, patchable music and sound app that runs as a portable, USB-key-ready standalone app and VST plug-in. A free version is limited in I/O and track-count, with a pro version EUR50. The 4.0 “stable beta” offers touchscreen features, with management for interfaces, custom layouts, and other features that make it work well with touchscreens. This is generally single-touch at this point, but as hardware evolves, I imagine the software will, as well.

Other highlights of Usine:

• Sound analysis for reacting to pitch, peaks, and dynamics in your patches
• Scripting support
• Custom modules via C++ and an open API
• OpenSoundControl support
• Virtual mixing table, modular mixing mode, unlimited internal audio
• SMPTE, MIDI, MTC, MMC sync and control
• Patch organization by track and on a timeline, so you can sequence your sounds and presets
• VST hosting, VST parameter modification, MIDI automation
• Built-in patches: Auto Pan, Bass Liner, Bit Crusher, Break Beat Maker, Compressor, Expander, Filter Bank, Synchronized Filter, Forward & Reverse, Freezor, Kaos Player, Limiter, Master meter, Metronome, Phaser, Random Delay, Resonnator, Step filter, Stereo enhancer, Midi Clock synchro.
• Direct-to-disk recording

And that really just scratches the surface. Having recording and audio analysis built in, plus extensive options for easy selection of presets and sequencing presets and sound modulation is really nice, I have to admit. (Developers of other modular environments, you listening?)

I’m embarrassed not to have spent any time with Usine; hope to correct that soon. (I know what you’re saying, because it’s what I’m saying … too … many … tools …)

More on Usine at Sensomusic’s site:

Usine Product Page

Despite its quirks, Windows can be a wildly underrated OS for music. Of course, that has little to do with the way it works out of the box. It’s a matter of tweaking your setup so you reshape it into a finely-tuned musical tool. And I believe in sharing that info, because ultimately you should be able to make music on whichever OS you choose.

Rain Recording, a custom PC vendor that specializes in building systems for music and creative work, asked me to write up some of my favorite tools for just that job. For the first part, I looked at the unpleasant stuff — tools for troubleshooting your system and keeping it operating at maximum efficiency.

Part 2 is more fun — the goodies that actually help your musical workflow. I kept this entirely to utilities for MIDI and control, but thanks to the effort of some passionate musician-programmers, that winds up being an impressive toolkit. Quite a few items are Windows-only. (I do actually intend to cover Mac OS and Linux, too, but Windows stacked up pretty well.)

My picks, all free, donationware (and do donate and support these tools!), or relatively cheap:

1. MIDI-OX: This is usually the first utility I install on any PC — it’s a do-everything MIDI monitor and MIDI-processing utility, for watching messages, troubleshooting, and performing various processing tasks. Donationware.

2. MIDI-Yoke: Unfortunately, Windows doesn’t have built-in inter-app communication between apps using MIDI, but MIDI-Yoke performs the task elegantly. (Note, Processing lovers: it also works with Java, so this can allow you to build wild interfaces for music in Processing that control other apps.) Donationware.

3. Bome MIDI Translator: A fantastic tool for creating custom MIDI mappings, translating MIDI to QWERTY keystrokes (and back again), and building rules for performance. Prices range from free to EUR59 for end-user releases, but this is one spending money on.

4. SendSX from Bome sends System Exclusive data. Free.

5. Bome’s Mouse Keyboard gives you an on-screen, clickable interface for controlling synths — essential for when you’re doing some last-minute synth programming and set editing on the go. (Yes, like if you decide to make a last-second tweak in the hotel room before a gig.) Free.

6. Edrum Monitor This tool is useful enough for drums alone, with powerful features for adapting input from electronic drum kits and drum sensors for better accuracy. But they didn’t stop there: with deep data monitoring tools, visual meters for calibration, and support for keyboard, mouse, and joystick inputs, this is just an insane do-everything tool that deserves its own category. Donationware.

7. Jack for Windows An inter-app or even inter-computer audio server, ported from Linux. Linux does Jack better, but if you can’t bear to part with your Windows software, it’s worth testing this – and hopefully someone can help the talented Jack team support and develop it further on the Windows OS. Free.

8. Wormhole2: Think Portal for your host of choice: insert this VST plug-in, and you can route audio to and from different apps, different PCs, or even between Macs and PCs easily. Finally, you can bridge the platform divide and the Mac can lie down with the Windows PC happily. This began as commercial software from Plasq, but it’s now free and open source.

9. MCmu: Emulate Mackie Control with devices that don’t support it. Make devices that do support Mackie Control better. Get the controller power you need with apps like Ableton Live and SONAR. Brilliant stuff. EUR39.

10. OSCGlue: Broadcast OpenSoundControl messages from within a host, ideal for gluing together music software and live visuals. Free, from the vvvv community.

11. WMIDI: Transmit MIDI from Wacom (or other brand) tablet input, complete with tilt and pressure, to turn your graphics tablet into an expressive musical controller. Free.

12. GlovePIE: Somehow I left this out of my original round-up. Take joysticks, gamepads, mice, keyboards, MIDI input devices, Wiimotes, and other devices, output MIDI, keystrokes, and other forms of control (even OSC). It’s my favorite software for control input/output. Requires some scripting, but there are some good sample scripts; hope to post more soon. Free.

Full details and more commentary (plus some additional picks):

Essential Toolkit for Windows – Part 2: (Mostly) Free Musical Utilities for Power Users [Rain Recording Pro]

Previously:
10 Free Non-Musical Windows Software Every Musician Should Use

Of course, this is just a short list of my personal favorites. Any I left out, Windows users?

Welcome to Reaperworld. It’s an alternative universe, in which a “2.4.5″ update is huge. Released yesterday, it’s a new build for what might best be described as an “indie” DAW from the original creator of Winamp.

Check out the full feature list, but here are some highlights:

• “Solo in front” for easier soloing
• Track folding for MIDI to hide unused / unnamed rows
• Multimedia keyboard support, so you can use those silly, useless buttons PCs have for something cool
• Mute fades, so you don’t get that annoying pop on muting
• A ridiculous number of MIDI workflow and technical improvements

What’s really nice is I get an overwhelming sense that they’re improving the kinds of arcane MIDI and plug-in details that users would want improved. You know, there are all sorts of little annoyances you find when working that developers probably don’t think of. Those kinds of VST and MIDI improvements might not make big headlines at NAMM or in magazine copy, but then, that’s why so many users pour over release notes — these are the things they actually encounter working.

If you’re interested in using Reaper, now is the perfect time to point out the work Peter Dines has started trying to optimally combine Reaper and Native Instruments’ Kore, with Kore providing various live performance, sound design, sound cataloging, and synth/effect features:

Kore Host How-Tos: Reaper, Affordable PC/Mac DAW [Kore@CDM minisite]

Mac Experience?

I haven’t really had a chance to try the Mac beta; anyone on Mac had testing experience?

Mixxx is an impressive-looking, fully free and open source DJ package for Mac (Intel only), Windows, and Linux. (It’s also the featured DJ tool on the Indamixx, Linux-based ultra mobile PC – mine just arrived, so hands-on is coming soon.)

Adam Davison from the Mixxx development team points out some juicy features in the new 1.6.0 release, out yesterday:

We now support vinyl control with Serato, Traktor, and FinalScratch vinyl, as well as Serato CD. This means that you can use vinyl control to drive your mixes without having to buy expensive software or branded soundcards. We also have greatly improved support for MIDI controllers such as the Hercules Mk2 and RMX.

Other features:

• MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC support
• The usual DJ stuff: dual waveform display, pitch-independent time stretch (key lock), BPM detection
• Crossfader curve control
• Adjustable EQ shapes
• Wave recording
• Multichannel playback and capture support
• Multi-core CPU support, GPU-accelerated OpenGL graphics display

And unlike some open source music tools, it’s got a polished website with lots of documentation. High performance could be a big draw, particularly on Linux. I’ll let you know how it works coupled with a custom Linux distribution, mobile device, and touchscreen on the Indamixx. (Personally, I like the idea of keeping a DJ mix ready to go on a portable or older machine, alongside the usual live laptop set.)

Stay tuned.

Mixxx: Free DJ Software

Mixxx blog

[Note: as reader bliss kindly pointed out, Mixxx has three X’s, Indamixx has two X’s; quit with all these extra letters, already!]

Sure, what with it being 2008 and all, “plug-in” to many people means audio processing. But what if you want an arpeggiator? Or something to harmonize incoming notes, or match them to scales? Or … well, just about anything else you can do with pitch and time with MIDI, from utilities to music effects? And what if your host’s built-in options are letting you down?

The good news: you’ve got lots of options. The bad news: a lot are on Windows.

We saw Chirp, a Mac/Windows utility for assigning QWERTY keyboards to MIDI input, earlier this week. But that’s led to some other discussions.

The MVelope MIDI Toolkit includes a whole range of free MIDI plug-ins for Windows VST hosts. There’s already MKey, a very nice, mature QWERTY keyboard (similar to Chirp, but a little simpler and functioning as a plug-in). In beta or “teaser” form are some other interesting utilities: a pattern-based arpeggiator (pictured, top), filter/router, chord generator, and eventually a Control Change-powered LFO you can drop anywhere you like. (I’d love to have that last one in Ableton Live, since I miss the readily-available LFOs found in tools like FL Studio.) Thanks to Peter for the tip on this one.

But ready to jump down the rabbit hole?

MIDI Plug-ins (midiplugins.com) is an attempt to list, comprehensively, every MIDI plug-in in the universe of current software. (Yikes!) Most are simple, free utilities, and most run free on Windows. You’ll also see a list of plug-ins found in hosts like Cakewalk’s SONAR. (Thanks, Eoin!)

Why the PC bias? Unfortunately for Mac users, the PC has tended to have better support for this sort of thing. Windows has not one but two formats for MIDI processing: the favored VST format from Steinberg has long supported MIDI, and DirectX has its own “mfx” format. (The latter is less popular, but you’ll see there are still a number of handy tools.)

Mac audio developers would be more qualified than I am to describe the situation with Apple’s Audio Units format, but it appears in-line MIDI processing isn’t supported at all. (If I’m wrong, and it is, developers haven’t picked it up.) A MIDI property was apparently added to AU for Leopard, but from the description it’s still designed for processing MIDI data for an audio plug-in, not for writing MIDI plug-ins, per se.

Mac users do have one utility that makes up for this, however, and may be preferable to using plug-ins: the awesome, elegant MidiPipe, which runs independently from your host app and processes custom “pipes” of MIDI messages.

MidiPipe

Windows users who prefer using a separate app to working with plug-ins (or want still more power), be sure to check out MIDI-OX and Bome MIDI Translator.

Oh, yeah, and on both Windows and x86 Linux, you can use KeyKit (formerly Keynote), a free programming environment for MIDI written by Tim Thompson, sometimes-CDM reader.

Bottom line: you can do a ridiculous amount with MIDI data, regardless of your choice of platforms and tools.

I know. I’m not helping. You just kicked your habit with audio software, and now you can fall down a spiraling addiction to MIDI software.

Sorry. Really.

BeatBurner, using innovative wave shaping and filtration methods, turns innocent drum beats, loops or sounds into new, fresh and vibrant audio parts for you to incorporate into your musical arrangements. BeatBurner comes with a myriad of sample loops to get you started but it doesn’t stop there, you can mangle, whittle or process any sound you want! Full automation and preset morphing means there are literally no limits to the soundscapes you can create.

Beatburner is NOT made with Synthedit.

Beatburner blog, downloads, and donation link, via DigitalLoFi

The plug-in also includes a healthy selection of bass and drum loops to get you playing right away.

I like having some free software to add to the arsenal — you get to experiment with some unusual soundmakers without the pressure of, you know, having a financial investment on the line. And if you appreciate the developer’s work, send a donation. There are still quite a few tools worth paying for, but I’ve gotten some musical ideas jump-started with the free stuff, too.

This isn’t the only free plug-in from Fat-Ass (aka CodeAudio, and yes, that’s their real name — I’m not just being mean or something). There are a whole bunch of synth and effects plugs available for free, some quite nice.

Just keeping score: on Windows, you can grab the rich Acusticaudio Nebula Hispasonic edition, a faux Commodore 64, the unique and powerful Open Circuit sampler, many of the excellent xoxos plug-ins and the highly-controllable Mechaverb, and the now-open source discoDSP HighLife sampler from the late Argu, all for free. There are a zillion more great choices from Adrian Anders, as well.

We got an interesting discussion going on the last free round-up here. It almost became a boring platform war, but for the most part, it went more along the lines of asking, honestly, why is there so much more free stuff for Windows? (And 7oi showed up, whose music I really love, a sign that it wasn’t just another boring platform thread.)

The conclusion for Mac users:

1. Check out Studiotoolz to track down hundreds of free Mac tools. There’s still not the quantity or quality of what’s on Windows, but there’s easily enough to distract you from doing any real work — erm, I mean, round out your creative arsenal.

2. Look at the open source SonicBirth for making your own plug-ins, along the lines of SynthEdit and SynthMaker on Windows. If Mac developers start to embrace this tool, it should deepen the available options

There’s a disturbing amount of free sound-making stuff out there, enough to clutter up your VST folder and make you forget where you put that multi-tap delay you wanted. It’s a beautiful thing. So, as a regular, erm, public service, I’ll be semi-regularly rounding up some of the free instruments and effects appearing around the Interwebs.

This week: a brilliantly deep reverb, plus everything from a beat box (as in human beat box) to a motorcycle simulator.

MechaVerb is a free reverb effect. Yawn… until you see the fact that the maze of knobs above allows you to individually set delays for each component of the sound on each band. That allows for some interesting special effects and makes this a real gem for tweakers.

Mechaverb v1.00 VST (Windows only)

via the CDM Forums

The developers Atom have tons of other free stuff, including a pulse wave synth (nifty!), an (intentional) clipper they just updated, and other effects and sampleware. If it doesn’t have “Add to Cart” next to it, it’s free; check the sidebar. Their payware effects look great, too — dig that $10 host-synced gate effect. Might have to just buy that one.

In other freeness news:

Instasampler is a free Mac OS X-only sampler. (Via Synthtopia.)

No, really — it’s a sampler. As in, something that records live from input (it uses MIDI as the trigger). Yes, the word “sampler” has come to mean “things that play back samples but don’t actually record,” but this is an exception. It’s also so ugly I can’t bear to insert a screen grab.

Earth to sample makers: we expect to see this in every product you release that you call “sampler” from now on. In the meantime, this is free for Mac. (Anyone know a good Windows or Linux alternative?)

xoxos is a legend in free stuff (Windows only). I’ve done a couple of entire pieces with the physical modeling stuff. Tour the VSTs for endless free oddities, plus some affordable payware tools. The latest from xoxos is Virtual Machine, which you’ll find on the main page. It’s not quite free, but it’s close — subscribers who donate get it as a gift. Via FutureMusic Beta.

Super Drum Generator FX is a … super drum generator. (Windows only) Stick in some audio files and go; as you can see, you get mixing, EQ, and effects. There’s even a preset for Roland E-Drum MIDI settings and MIDI filtering. Via Rekkerd.org.

DSK DrumZ BeatVoiZe is a virtual, sampler beatbox plug-in. (Windows-only, sorry, again.) Yeah, I kinda thought the whole point of beatboxing was, like, using your voice, but if you really need a virtual rendition, here’s a plug-in substitution — complete with sample capabilities and MIDIhost automation. Via Rekkerd.org, who also host the plug-in.

Did we miss your creation? Be sure to email us next time!

Hands-on impressions of any of these? Let us know in comments.

Temper would like to try. It’s not MIDI-only — it does audio, too, and has the requisite support for VSTs — but it is a little different from the sequencer perspective. And whereas innovative sequencers lately have been throwbacks to the tracker design, Temper emphasizes modularity and the ability to create shapes. As the developers put it, it’s:

…a MIDI+Audio sequencer with an emphasis on MIDI. Temper is distinguished by two basic design goals: To provide you with tools that operate on sequences as easily as individual events, and to decouple what gets processed by how it gets processed.

The features, in short:

• Modular control over events, chaining of tools
• Interactive algorithmic compositional tools
• Take management, and the ability to edit multiple tracks at once
• “Unified MIDI controllers + VST automation” — ah, now you’re really getting my interest.

And you get all of this, with full ASIO support and multicore audio, for US$50. (And a full trial is available — with absolutely nothing crippled or time-limited. Now that’s a far cry from adding a dongle, huh? Show them the model works by giving the tool a try and paying up if you like it.)

I have to say, I think Windows wins out as the platform for cheap software and for unusual MIDI sequencers/hosts (not that you don’t have plenty of choices as a Mac user, but Windows has a particular wealth of option).

Now, the one thing Temper isn’t is non-linear; that is, the emphasis is on linear sequencing, not interactive live sequencing as in Ableton Live or even the live performance mode in FL Studio. (And Ableton, boy would I love some more of these kinds of tools in Live.) But I could even see a workflow where you assemble intricately-constructed rhythms in Temper and export to Live or FL Studio — or fashion a live set in Live and then polish off a sequenced version in Temper. Curious on your take.

I’ll have to give this tool a spin. Alternative MIDI sequencer round-up in the future? You bet.

Angry Red Planet: Temper [via Remix News]

Anyone using Temper yet? Any other hosts to consider alongside it? (Obviously, the trackers and quasi-trackers, EnergyXT, Renoise, the mighty FL Studio, and the like.)

Above: Powerful controls and shaping tools give you complex possibilities.

XO Wave is a basic multi-track audio tool with multi-channel recording and mixing, video support, plug-in support (in the Pro version) and built in DSP, double-precision math, and non-destructive editing. It looks like it could be a strong choice for basic multichannel tasks. And it has some less-common features, like automatic softening to remove clicks/pops at edit points, and versioning so you can go back to earlier versions of files. A very capable version is available free, and a “Pro” version is just US$95 (though that admittedly puts it in slightly more competitive waters).

Interestingly, this is also one of the rare cases of a Java-based audio app. (The app is Java-based, at least; the developer notes that audio processing is not done in Java.) The 1.0 final release is compatible with Mac OS X Leopard, with two caveats: one, 10.5’s new security privileges cause it to gripe the first time you run it about security (as it would with any app), and two, dock/switcher icons appear twice. (Java support on 10.5 has a couple of hiccups; at least they’re non-critical annoyances; the icon issue is apparently a Leopard problem, not Java per se.)

1.0 has also arrived on Linux; in that version the software is free (though closed-source, despite the name, with full JACK support). (Hey, how about a JACK-aware Mac version, too?)

XO Wave downloads; comparison of Linux, free, and Pro versions