Category Archives: Misc

Random Jingle Maker : Crakbone (resurrected from the dead)

I was doing some hard drive archeology, when i found this little funny application : a random music maker.
It’s called Crakbone and was floating around the internet some years ago.

Crakbone by Stephen Cronin

Crakbone random song maker software

Crakbone random song maker software

info + download original + download custom version

download the Random music maker !
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Standalone version of VSTSpeek

Here is the standalone version of the famous VSTSpeek plugin !
See here for more information : https://blog.wavosaur.com/text-to-speech-vst-vst-speek/

 

VSTSpeek standalone executable for Windows !

VSTSpeek standalone executable for Windows !

 

The standalone version is an application for Windows, no installer, just unzip and let’s go !
The program works under Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10

–> download here !! <–

–> the manual ! <–

 

Feel free to suggest improvements for the standalone version :
render as wav ?
MAC version ?
Linux version ?

5 best free audio editor (freeware roundup 2014)

Everybody needs a good audio editor.
and you can get it for free !
Here, in the Wavosaur team we know what we are talking about ! If you need a freeware for audio editing, here’s a selection of the best free audio editors available in 2014 :

1. Wavosaur

Wavosaurus Rex

Wavosaurus Rex

Download !!!

We created Wavosaur in 2006 because we needed a light / portable / VST compatible audio editor, with the same professional workflow you can find on Soundforge (this one wasn’t portable) or Wavelab.
By the years we added a lot of features, suggested by our users, and we’ll continue to improve the software !

pros:

  • full VST support
  • VST effect chaining
  • batch processing
  • loop point support
  • can be controled with MIDI surface control (BCR 2000 or UC 33e, etc..)

cons:

  • memory problems with very large file on “old” or small configurations
  • redo is not yet implemented

 

2. Audacity

Audacity !

Audacity !

download : http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Audacity exist since always. It’s not really the same philosophy as Soundforge / Wavelab etc.. => Audacity is multi track : you can play multiple audio files at a time : so it’s nice for basic sequencing.

pros:

  • multi-track
  • cross platform
  • open many audio formats

cons:

  • VST plugins are nearly unusable : you can just preview 5 seconds, and you can’t change the parameters while it’s running
  • no support for loop points
  • can’t zoom with mouse wheel

 

3. Ocenaudio

Ocen audio

Ocen audio

Info & DL : http://www.ocenaudio.com.br/

Ocenaudio is available for Windows, Mac OS X & Linux, it supports VST plugins.
Some may prefer its look over the more “classic” audio editors.
It’s one of the most featured audio editor, and has many configuration options.

pros:

  • cross platform
  • full VST support
  • VST effects available from the Effects menu (we have to add this to Wavosaur 🙂 when you don’t need to chain effects, and just want to load a single VST effect)
  • loop points support !

cons:

  • can’t have two (or more) waveforms view at the same time, the navigator windows is easy and fast to use but sometimes we need to have two or more files (old school MDI style !)
  • i experimented some recurrent bug ( like a playing problem when hitting “play”)
  • bugs with many VST plugins we tested (the magic of VST…)

 

4. TWE by Yamaha

Tiny Wave Editor

Tiny Wave Editor

direct download : TWE for Windows

In the last century, Yamaha was giving this useful tool for free.
It works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
The workflow and the philosophy of the software make it suited for small samples. The program is MDI, you can work on more than one file at a time. It doesn’t have many effects and of course is not VST compatible, but it has all you need for working on sample.

pros:

  • light & efficient
  • support for loop points !
  • the time compress / expand is nice ! it has the good old school speed garage style (you have to apply many time the effect, as the max is set to 125%)

cons:

  • development has stopped for a looong time
  • no plugin support
  • experienced some crash when using the effects on samples with duration > 1 ~2 minutes

Continue reading

Best free TB-303 emulation sotwares : VST plugins & standalone

Be Acid

Be Acid

The Roland TB-303 ! the legendary Transistor Bass synthesizer by Roland.
Created to emulate bass sound and used by nearly nobody until someone saw the light : “hey, listen what happens when i turn these knobs!!” turn up the res to the max ! yeah ! aciiiiiiiiiid
Back to the Chicago House, Acid House, Belgian New Beat, then Acid Techno, Acid Trance and every electronic music genre.

 

Now let list some free TB303 software emulations :

1. Rebirth RB-338 by Propellerhead (Standalone)

Rebirth RB-303, free ! aciid

Rebirth RB-303, free ! aciid

Information and download : http://www.rebirthmuseum.com/

Rebirth was one of the first TB303 software emulation, in 1997!
And it’s free since 2005.
Rebirth is more than a TB303 emulator ; you have two TB303, and TR909 + TR808 drum machine emulations + onboard effects . The software is old, and it still sounds incredible. Continue reading

Windows 95 freeware studio

It’s time for archaeology : let’s exhume 4 or 5 applications that ran on Windows 95 and try to make a nice freeware virtual studio for dance  / techno / jungle production.

the first thing we need is a good solid hard kicking BEAT BOX :

1. HammerHead Rhythm Station v 1.0 by Bram Bos

Rhythm device for the headstrong

Rhythm device for the headstrong

Download it here : http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/download.shtml

Old school beat !

This rhythm making software is basic and come with rock solid drum kit : 909 oriented, with hard & hardcore bass drum + closed hihat / open hihat / claps / snare & some nice breakbeats.

  • there are 6 slots for user sounds.
  • the user interface is straight forward, 909 style, it takes about 0.2 seconds to understand and master it.
  • there is distorsion unit (per sample)
  • you can also reverse the sound
  • the shuffle slider adds some groove to your beats !
  • tempo up to 250 BPM,etc..

The software come with funky presets : hip hop beat , jungle beat, hardcore gabber rhythm…
of course, it lacks some of refinements we found on our “modern”  plugins, like time stretch / slice , accents, filters etc.. But from the limitation come the creation!

 

Now that we have a good pumpin’ beat, we want some drivin’ TB303’s aciiid bassline: Continue reading

I want to see aliasing

When you sample / digitalize a sound, you must have in mind the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem : the max frequency of the signal you want to record has to be no greater than half the sampling rate (samples per second).
And waht happens if you have frequencies greater than samplerate / 2 ? ==> aliasing
Frequencies above the samplerate/2 limit are aliased : undesired frequency appears at (sampling rater  – signal frequency)

example :
sampling rate Fs = 44100 Hz
signal frequency = 32000 Hz
signal frequency is greater than half the sampling rate  :  32000 Hz > 22050 Hz
aliased frequency = 44100 Hz – 32000 Hz = 12100 Hz

 

Let’s see it in Wavosaur

1) Launch Wavosaur

2) go to menu File -> New and create a 16 bits / 44100 Hz / stereo / 4 seconds duration file

3) go to menu Tools -> Synthesis -> Frequency sweep -> Linear

4) press “g” on your keyboard to show the sonogram, it should look like this :

sonogram @ 44100

sonogram @ 44100

5) now go to menu Process -> Resample  : enter 22050 Hz and uncheck all options : this will resample the signal @ 22050 Hz without any filtering

6) press “g” on your keyboard to show the sonogram : now all frequencies above 22050 / 2 are aliased !!

sonogram after resampling @ 22050 Hz

sonogram after resampling @ 22050 Hz

 

Timestretch in Wavosaur for free !!

Time stretching (and time expanding !) is an useful feature for those who produces remixes, mashup / bootleg, or want special FX.
Time stretching consists in changing the speed of a sound without changing its pitch.
The inverse operation is called pitch shifting : changing the pitch without modifying the speed.

Wavosaur has no native timestretch feature but Wavosaur has two pitch modifiers :

Simple pitch shift
High precision FFT pitch shift

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