Hello all,
In your truly educated opinions, which beat slicer gives the most bang for the buck. I'm really interested in using one to generate MIDI files from existing drum loops.

tomac wrote:

Hello all, In your truly educated opinions, which beat slicer gives the most bang for the buck. I'm really interested in using one to generate MIDI files from existing drum loops.

I'm partial to ConcreteFX Dicer here.

Jon's quick to provide support, the product is reasonably priced, well-featured, no intrusive copy protection (just a serial number), etc.

Disclaimer: I beta-tested an early version, but dropped out of the beta. I later bought it and haven't regretted it at all

Doug

Buy Computer Magazine and you get CM Muzys included - it will slice you audio into separate files as well as creating a midi file.

EnergyXT-- the slicing is being improved upon as we speak, and is already quite usable... or at least, from what I've seen. Have to admit that I haven't used it myself yet for this purpose.

Plus, you get a full-featured host, modular routing tool, arpeggiator, and chorder thrown in for free.

Greg

my vote goes to the CoFX dicer too.

and the new coming micro-dicer.

or you can take the eXT sampler and slice your beats.

Right, I meant to say in my first post, too-- regardless of 'how many' features eXT has, CoFX's Dicer is great.

Yep - Can't go wrong with Dicer for the money

Cheers

Phatmatic Pro!!

IMHO ...

dicer was great but got a bad case of feature-bloat ... something the new revision should address i think ...

energyXT is a great audio tool but im finding it hard to get my head round the new slicer TBH ...

pHATmatik pro is still my slicer of choice ... easy to use and pretty powerful (just a shame about the browser really but you cant have everything can you ??? )

slainte rob

Ok .. Beatcreator .. Aggghhhhh I can feel the flames already ,
I know it's expensive but it's dead solid and the timestretcher is unbelievable , and it saves rex files,

HI

I have not used it but Zero-X Beat Quantizer was reviewed in Nov SOS and this looks awesome - its an Off-Line app that multi-tracks; so you can throw in like 8 loops/beats or whatever and go to work on them.

Worth a demo?

Flipper.

What about intakt? Is it any good? I may be able to purchase it in a bundle with some other NI stuff I'm getting.

Quote:

Worth a demo?

Yes and check out the pattern control processor and slice processor. Fun stuff.

PhatmatikPro for me, the only one I've really got on with. Dicer just confused the hell out of me, but then I'm dead simple...

original flipper wrote:

HI I have not used it but Zero-X Beat Quantizer was reviewed in Nov SOS and this looks awesome - its an Off-Line app that multi-tracks; so you can throw in like 8 loops/beats or whatever and go to work on them. Worth a demo? Flipper.

Yeah
Do the demo, the multitrack part is new but it's pretty good. One of the things you've got to try that a lot of people miss, is the pattern controlled processor,you can just drag the slices and re-arrange them and then mess them up a little(or alot) with the
filters etc keeping the origanal time grid/or not .
I started using the demo as a free Bpm counter
tool,now I find it invaluable, peter is a pretty cool dude aswell, I think he started years ago doing stuff for atari .

phatmatic pro!
Does exactly what it says. I use it in every track.

Asian Traditions Professional Mandoline Slicer

CypherOne wrote:

PhatmatikPro for me, the only one I've really got on with. Dicer just confused the hell out of me, but then I'm dead simple...

Thanks for restoring my sanity ! Dicer..grrr.

I'm following the instructions in the manual, instructions given by Jon in my thread twice and still I can't do what I need to do, despite the instructions .
I'm dead simple toooooo, so what can we doooooo !!!
Dicer looks fab !
But it makes me mad !
Oh my Dicing sigh...
Hear my cry .
I'm too shy to post in my Dicer thread,
Jon will appear and kill me dead !
I want to dice and shuffle my beats right now
but I don't know how !
I'm 31.
Holly cow !
Dicer makes me feel like I'm a baby,
maybe....but
I know how to make a straw hut.
But I can't dice like i want to
boo hoo hooo !
Shut it !

<-- me

it really is very simple.

load the loop, slice it into 16, or use transients to detect the beat.

each note is mapped to a single key, or you play all slices via one key.

what exactly is confusing you ?

feel free to post in cofx forum.

Forever Sun wrote:

[I can't dice like i want to boo hoo hooo ! Shut it ! <-- me

any other ones apart from phatmatik and dicer which slice in straight 16ths?

peace

energyXT sampler does.

dharmawan wrote:

any other ones apart from phatmatik and dicer which slice in straight 16ths? peace

topaz wrote:

does phatmatik slice to 16ths ? dharmawan wrote: any other ones apart from phatmatik and dicer which slice in straight 16ths? peace

yeah ...

... and 32nds ...

(you DO have the latest version though ??? )

slainte rob

dharmawan wrote:

any other ones apart from phatmatik and dicer which slice in straight 16ths? peace

eXT


edit: Topaz, you beat me to it

you beat me to it (pun intented)

no I dont have the latest version, but did have the docs from beta testing.

pHz wrote:

[... and 32nds ... (you DO have the latest version though ??? ) slainte rob

this place is too good,
bring on the beat slicer nuts.

jens wrote:

XT edit: Topaz, you beat me to it

i think im going to ask ben to disallow people to edit their posts ...

slainte rob

that would be leathal

pHz wrote:

i think im going to ask ben to disallow people to edit their posts ... slainte rob

topaz wrote:

this place is too good, bring on the beat slicer nuts.

Coulda sworn for a second that this line said something about nicer sluts.

Greg

Lunch Money wrote:

topaz wrote: this place is too good, bring on the beat slicer nuts. Coulda sworn for a second that this line said something about nicer sluts. Greg

that would be finally something truly interesting on this site

just checking out energyXT sampler and it feels very nice!

is it possible to edit all the slices simultaneously, eg pitch them up/down, apply envelopes to all etc?


also i think there could be a better antialiasing filter

apart from that, sweet!

Oh my god , I reduced poor Forever Sun to verse. Really if you tell us what you've done and where it's gone wrong , I'll try to help you (I'll try not to destroy you or anything )

Anyway , I'm off to bed soon so. If you post something I'll try to get something back to you as soon as poss

Cheers

Jon : COFX

[Edit this is the reason why I'm doing MicroDicer , Dicer is very poweful (I would say that wouldn't I) , but it can be too complex for doing basic stuff , so this is why I'm doing a more focused version of it ]

Hi Jon,
Sorry for the verse, but I feel better now, .
Catharsis. Oh, I know you won't do anything bad to me.
Anyway, I'll quietly tip toe to my thread over at ConcreteFx forum for more help.

For the record, Dicer slices beats very easily indeed. My difficulty is with something else. Here is me original question :
http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=60397

Whoomph wrote:

Ok .. Beatcreator .. Aggghhhhh I can feel the flames already , I know it's expensive but it's dead solid and the timestretcher is unbelievable , and it saves rex files,

You think BeatCreator is expensive? You need to check the price of Recycle. That thing costs more than FL Studio and has half the power of BeatCreator. My vote definately goes to BeatCreator although it's a standalone as opposed to a plugin. But the all time best beatslicer goes to Orion Platinum's grooveslicer which is built right into it's sampler. That one is amazingly well cooked.

Orion sampler/grooveslicer
phatmatic pro for cubase
I tried dicer, but then again I already have those two and Intakt (which isn't bad, I keep forgetting I have it.)

Well Phatpro was pretty good until the browser started to vanish in Sonar but if you're not using that...

I haven't used Dicer but it looks pretty cool.

Beat Quantiser is the dogs bollocks Swiss army knife of slicers. It does all your standard slicing operations, rearranges slices/randomises, effects you name it. Exports in more formats than you can shake a stick at. You can also take a grid from a loop and quantise other loops to it and you can even use it like Acid's chopper tool with the added advantage that you can drag and drop slices onto a grid taken from the drum loop that you're accompanying rather than static 16ths or whatever. Plus it's got a good timestretcher and some fancy algorithms to fill gaps after quantising. And... you can actually get sensible help and advice from the developer. Kewl!

Chris.

pHz wrote:

IMHO ... pHATmatik pro is still my slicer of choice ... easy to use and pretty powerful (just a shame about the browser really but you cant have everything can you ??? ) slainte rob

what do you mean about the browser? whenever i click on the file icon to 'browse', cubase "unexpectedly quits" i cant find anyone else in the whole world who suffers this and its really pissing me off because i really like the look of phatmat and this kind of renders it unuseable.

it works fine here (in live4 / tracktion / fl-studio / energyXT) ... all i meant was that its not the greatest browser ever tacked on to a plugin ... a bit awkward to use at times

slainte rob

No one mention this yet...?

http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/1050.html

no.

not out yet dave

even then, not sure if it slices. one doesnt.
it's just a player,

maybe wrong.

Kriminal wrote:

No one mention this yet...? http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/1050.html

I second quantum-fx's beat slicer (even if no one has mentioned it yet)

i don't really use phatMatikPro anymore and am hoping to sell it or something... but i haven't had a reply from 'glaresoft' saying if they allow license transfers... does anyone know if they do?
[i have the PC version... maybe they're ignoring me?? ]

tomac wrote:

What about intakt? Is it any good? I may be able to purchase it in a bundle with some other NI stuff I'm getting.

that's what I'd like to know. I have it installed with Komplete2 but haven't been bothered trying it yet

haydxn wrote:

i don't really use phatMatikPro anymore and am hoping to sell it or something... but i haven't had a reply from 'glaresoft' saying if they allow license transfers... does anyone know if they do? [i have the PC version... maybe they're ignoring me?? ]

They generally don't allow them.

As far as beat slicers go though, i am surprised no one has mentioned REFLEX!

Also, what about Devine Machine??

Just to answer this: Intakt isn't bad IMO. Filters are sounding very good, and there's a lot of options to completely mangle up a beat too.
It does however not allow to extract slices, something I love with PPRo, as you can then replace separate slices with different samples.
With PPro you can just drag your slices onto DR-008 or Battery and there you'll go! That's just nice!
Also MIDI file export is bad in Intakt, not only doesn't it allow for direct drag and drop into your sequencer (another thing PPro does brilliantly), the exported MIDI file allways contains some small secondary file with some "meta data" in it, which is utter nonsense. Because of that you'll allways have to drag your MIDI file into your arrange *somewhere* and then delete the meta data file. In Logic the dragging process results in a new created track, in Cubase it won't allow you to drag the file onto the proper position. Lame.

However, if you allready have Intakt (as part of Komplete 2), it's not too bad.
It actually does allow to get you to some results pretty quickly as you don't need to fool around with MIDI at all. You can play the sliced loop on one single key as well (in host sync of course). Of course that's allowing for some other techniques as well (such as altering the start point of the loop easily, instead of just fooling around with the created MIDI track).
File browser is just as bad as all of NI's file browsers (does anybody actually like them? Their testers seem to do...). The favourite functionality is nice but the browser itself is just clumsy.

I wish there was a slicer doing it all at once.
- Slice (obviously).
- Export MIDI file via drag and drop.
- Export slices via drag and drop.
- Allow for some "replace slice with sample" functionality.

ttoz, from what I seem to remember, Reflex didn't allow slicing by transients, only by rhythmic values.
Not sure whether I'm correct on this though. Would be some sorta showstopper for me though.