Reply to Isotonik 7 - B3ta - Work in Progress (APC40)

Hi Everyone,

My latest incarnation of my max4live device is reaching an imminent release, the main reason for a from the ground rewrite has been my experience of playing out with Isotonik 6 and a desire to streamline internally the cpu usage and externally the control mechanism to simplify the performance controls...

CPU usage wise, 6 ran on standstill at 27-31% whilst these are the stats for 7 currently....



The main device itself no longer needs a slave device on every track it controls, as a result you now get a more fully featured set of Looping controls for the first four tracks in the template...



Within the Master device you get automatic follow actions on the first four tracks so you can split your tunes into sections, loop on the fly but still have the next clip below trigger when the previous clip ends...

By pressing the Master Select button on the APC40 you switch in and out of the Isotonik Device Controls, this gives you standard functionality over the first four tracks at all times with the right hand half of the APC40 given over to up to 5 banks of different control features, switching between the 5 scenes is done through the scene launch buttons with each scene having a distinctive lighting pattern and full feedback from the device. Work continues improving the device however the first two scenes are nearing completion...

Loop3r:

1, Set a 1, 2 or 4 bar Loop on any of the first four tracks without having to navigate to the clip playing first
2, Halve and Double the loop length by moving either the loop start or loop end point
3, Move the loop brace forwards or backwards by a bar at a time or by the loop length
4, Visual indication of the loop status:
- Green - Clip set to Loop, playing position yet to reach loop brace
- Amber - Clip set to Loop, playing position within Loop brace
- Red - Clip set to Loop, playing position past Loop end point, clip will
continue to end and finish with the clip below being triggered by the automatic follow actions
5, The faders are assigned to the loop end point, you can therefore reduce the loop end point on any set loop, this is quantised in it's response to an 1/8th so your loops always stay in sync and additionally the length of the loop is always divisible by 1/8ths again so that clips remain in sync (you can get some crazy syncopated rhythms with a little practise)

Eff3cts:

These now only effect the track in which the Master device sits on so the Rec/Arm buttons when lit send the audio from the first four tracks into the device diverting it from the master, this way you can combine tracks and effect them at the same time without a massive hit on the CPU usage.

1, A two bar Slicer effect that allows you to retrigger at 1/8th points the audio from the previous two bars, how much of a slice you retrigger is determined by the fader position and updates live so you can catch a snare, repeat it at 1/4 beat intervals and then drop it to 1/64ths for a roll effect. A button switches the controls for the Slicer from Momentary to Toggle giving you a free hand to use the other effects on a chosen slice
2, A Gater effect synced to the Slice size, combine slicing with gating and catch only every other repeat giving a staccato effect
3, Turntable Reverse, control the speed of the reverse from realtime to double speed, stab it in and change the speed for some Zippy effects or just use it at same speed reverse with the gater to emulate some basic scratching
4, Turntable Brake, a traditional turntable stop effect that can be adjusted from lasting just a beat, like pressing the stop button on a Sl1200, to 16 bars emulating the wind down when you turn the rocker switch to power down
5, Dummy, You get a bank of four dummy clips that can be triggered at any time, a floating window gives you the clip names and each bank is available to be scrolled through independently. Dummy clips can be written for any of the feature of the Master device and the control of the first four tracks and returns, For example your dummy clip could turn up Send A on track two whilst at the same time modulating the rack that sits on Return A....



The final fader in this scene is reserved for Sm4rt effects whereby a bank of 8 different Sm4rt effects can be selected (with visual feedback on the APC40) and then controlled using one fader...




Encoders:

1, Two banks of User Configurable encoders, many users requested a more traditional DJ set up whereby the Track Control and Device Control Encoders were arranged Horizontally in reference to the first four tracks. By using the shift and Pan, Send A, B, C buttons you switch between four banks of controls.
2, Track Resets, without shift engaged the Pan, Send A, B, C buttons perform a reset to a stored value for each horizontal set of encoders, a midi mappable Bank reset button is also available. These resets have a configurable quantise feature so that your reset can always hit the end of bar point
3, The third Bank gives access to the Send A, B, C and D for the first four tracks, with resets back to zero for each
4, The fourth Bank is for Return control, by using the Pan, Send A, B and C buttons you select which Return Track Rack the Track Control encoders map to, the bottom row of Device Control Encoders automatically map to the Send for the first four tracks that will send audio to the Return Rack chosen.
5, Floating Window gives a visual indication of the current status, reset values etc. (after a while the visual indication on the APC40 of which bank you're in will be enough so this is mainly for configuring the device to your own preferences



The latest version 7.0.9 is being tested by a crack team to ensure compatibility with a number of different systems, the team are also excellent at suggesting improvements and tweaks that aid performance...

If you've seen the functionality of my Octop4d device you may have a reasonably good idea of what the final three scenes may give functionality to...

Any questions or feedback by all means let me know!

Cheers
D