4Pockets are offering a number of price drops this weekend. The deals end May 9th. The deals include:
- Helium MIDI Editor – from $10.99 to $7.99
- MultiTrack Recorder – from $10.99 to $7.99
- NuRack – from $12.99 to $7.99
- Drum Surgeon: – from $7.99 to $5.99
- Chameleon Sampler – from $8.99 to $5.99
Helium
Helium is a lightweight AUv3 MIDI sequencer plugin designed specifically for AUM. It supports up to 16 tracks of unlimited length with the ability to direct output to 16 channels on up to 16 MIDI output ports.
One of the great features is the ability to import and maintain libraries of MIDI clips using Helium’s ‘Media Bay’. These clips are freely available all over the internet and may contain individual chord sets, chord progressions or drum tracks. You can quickly build a song by dragging and dropping your MIDI clips from the media bay onto your timeline. You can also save your own clips directly to the media bay to create your own personal MIDI clips libraries. Long press on a clip to preview its contents using the currently selected MIDI device.
Helium now ships with a library of over 7000 MIDI clips, consisting of every chord and chord progression you could ever need.
Helium allows many different ways to import additional MIDI clip libraries. Simply drag and drop your ZIP collections directly to your PC/MAC web browser and they are automatically unpacked into the clips library folder. You can also drag and drop files between the Media Bay and the iOS Files app.
Helium supports a sync mode called ‘Remote Looping’. This was something we recently introduced into our MultiTrack Recorder plugin and is very useful for breaking down the timeline into sections. You can define up to 12 loops which can be used to specify the locations of say the intro, verse, chorus, and outro within your song, then trigger these loops seemlessly in sync with the host tempo. Once captured, these loops can then be triggered by incoming MIDI notes.
A new addition to Helium is the ability to piece together loops into songs, so you just concentrate on creating a single verse, chorus, bridge etc. and piece everything together without the headache of having to re-arrange your timeline.
Multitrack Recorder
This is an AUv3 compatible Multi-Track Recorder plugin specifically designed for AUM and other DAW’s that don’t support audio recording capabilities.
MultiTrack can be used for a host of purposes such as a tool for recording and layering audio for export to other DAW’s , creating that perfect loop for other third party applications or recording vocal sessions to accompany you in AUM. Its uses are endless.
It features the ability to record up to 8 mono or stereo audio tracks per instance, with the ability to run multiple instances under the control of your host DAW. MultiTrack has the ability to run standalone using it’s own transport or synced to a host which allows synchronous control of multiple instances.
MultiTrack supports various recording modes including the ability to set punch in and out points for sample accurate recordings. Press the Host Sync in order to the advantage of the hosts transport controls or enable the remote button to enable host recording controls (great for NS2).
Use the Audio Pool window to quickly and easily import, export and perform mix-downs of audio clips. Quickly and easily move audio files using drag and drop to the time line or between the audio pool and the Files App. Imported audio is automatically converted to the projects sample rate. The audio pool also features the ability to copy and paste audio directly from the iOS pasteboard as well as preview and manage your data.
An intergrated 8 channel mixer allows you to control the level, pan and effect send levels. Although AUM allows some great routing options for third party effects, MultiTrack also includes an extremely CPU friendly beat synced delay and reverb which can be used where recording pre-effected instruments is not an option.
MultiTrack allows per clip volume level as well as being able to control start and end cropping and fade in/out on a clip by clip basis. All these operations are quick and easy to make using the touch screen alone.
Also included is the ability to perform operations such as splitting, normalising, reversing and time stretching of audio clips all with a multi-level undo built right in. A comprehensive set of selection, copying and duplication tools make editing a breeze.
Each track has it’s own mute, solo and metering which can also be used to monitoring incoming signal levels. Finally you have the ability to mix down a selected range of your song or create perfectly looped samples for use in other DAW’s , samplers and drum machines such as DigiStix.
NuRack
NuRack is an AUv3 based multi-channel audio and MIDI effects processor with a difference, it actually allows you to design your own custom effects using the 80+ building blocks provided. You have full control over routing which allows you to create complex audio paths in series or parallel. You can choose whether to use the stock interface or create your own custom interface using the built in Interface Builder which allows you to concentrate your audio components into a single customized effect.
NuRack can run in one of two modes. The first providing 3 customizable effects racks which can be switched (manually or via MIDI), providing seemless switching (i.e. delay trails linger whilst another set of effects are faded in). The second mode allows you to route audio through 3 independent audio racks.
A generaous number of over 80 audio and midi building blocks are provided covering 12 different categories of effects. Here are just some of those included in NuRack:
Modulation Effects: Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, Vocal Doubler, TalkBox, UniVibe, Leslie & Vocoder.
Time Based Effects: Stereo Delay, Tape Delay, Reverb and Reverse Delay.
Spectral Effects: Parametric EQ, Graphic EQ, PitchShift, Auto-Pan, Bit-Crusher, Tube Overdrive, Distortion, Harmony, Harmonic Exciter and SlowMo.
Dynamic Effects: VelocityControl, Compressor, Multi-Band Compressor, Noise Gate, Gate, and Limiter.
Filter Effects: MultiFilter, LP/HP Filter, Frequency Splitter, MultiBand Splitter, Classic Filters, Formant Filter, Ring Modulation and Shelf Filter.
MIDI Effects: MIDI Harmony, MIDI Velocity, MIDI Randomizer, MIDI Monitor, MIDI Mixer, MIDI Pads, MIDI Control, Strummer, MIDI Recorder, MIDI Modulation, MIDI Remap, CC Monitor, CC Generator, PitchBend, MIDI Time Clock, and ChordToMidi.
Generator Modules: Noise, Audio Clip Launcher, SoundFont Player, Virtual Flute, Virtual Clarinet, Virtual Brass, FM Organ, FM Rhodes and Analog Sawtooth Synth.
Automation: TouchPad, AutoMate, Pattern Automation, and Visual LFO.
You also provide the ability to split and combine audio signal using splitters and mixer modules as well as a number of visual elements such as VU Meters, LED Meters, Scopes, Graphs etc.
Some effects such as phaser and flanger are usually controlled by an LFO, but this can be detached and automated remotely. There are a number of modules that allow auomation based on direct touch (X/Y Pads), Visual LFO, Pattern Automation, MIDI input (CC data), or peak/rms level detection. These automation modules can remotely control knobs and sliders throughout your rack.
Simply create a new rack and start adding modules to it. These modules are generally wired up automatically but these connections can be manually routed. Once you have your sound as you wish you can use it ‘as is’, or switch to Interface Builder mode where you can combine all your modules into a single interface. Elements can be dragged, dropped, resized and coloured as required. Add your own labels, image logos and custom backgrounds before saving your custom component.
Use the X/Y Pad to control your modulation effects by detaching their LFO’s. Use MIDI CC data to automate knobs. Use the velocity of an incoming signal to control the cutoff/resonance of a filter (wah) or volume level of a gain control (swell), as NuRack expands, so do the possibilities.
Drum Surgeon
Drum surgeon is a dynamics / transient processor specifically designed for fine tuning your drums. So your drum sounds are lacking punch and lost in the mix? This is where Drum Doctor can really help by allowing you to literally shape and boost your kit to break through the mix safetly and without clipping.
The attack or onset of a sound is known as its transient. By controlling the level, shape and duration of these sounds, you change the dynamics of a drum track to achieve that perfect tightness, while boosting them to give your kick the right punch and snare the right amount of bite.
Finally the intensity knob allows you to control the level of dynamics applied to your mix. Automate this in real time when you want to relax or accentuate your drum track during your song.
Use the saturation to overdrive your mix prior to shaping. This can drastically change the character of some drum sounds at the filtering stage. The single LP/HP filtering knob lets you quickly find the tone that suits combined with the 8 band EQ to define your sound.
Chameleon Sampler
The program can run as a standalone app in order to record audio samples from the internal microphone or professional audio interface. It also supports incoming Inter-App Audio connections for sampling directly from other iOS applications, however it is primarily intended to be used as an AUv3 Instrument plugin for applications such as Cubasis, AUM, Auria, Meteor, Gargeband etc. The plugin can additionally be loaded as an AUv3 effect in order to record audio passing through it from other AUv3 Instrument sources, which makes it a very versatile and useful tool.
So what is a sampler? A sampler is a device that allows you to imitate other instruments with just a few short audio snippits. Although it comes with a library of presets it also allows you to create your own. You do this by recording multiple audio clips and mapping them to the notes on a MIDI keyboard and Chameleon does the rest using a sophisticated pitch shifting algorithm to fill in the blanks. Recorded samples can either be layered or mapped freely over a 7 octave range and saved as individual presets. Presets are then organised into custom categorised banks which can be exported and shared with others.
Just think, you can sample all your favourite synth sounds and carry them around on your iPhone/iPad without the inconvenience of lugging heavy gear around with you. Sample anything from musical instruments to vocal snippits, drum machines or ambient noises. The possibilities are endless.
Recording is incredible easy. Just create a New Patch and press record. Chameleon will wait for you to play a note before recording begins. Once recorded press the LEARN button and tap the note range on the virtual or MIDI keyboard to map the sample. Repeat this as many times as required, tweak the settings and save your patch. Additionally you can setup loop points with the ability to apply crossfade. If all that sounds too complicated, just press auto sample and let Chameleon do all the sampling for you.
Chameleon also has a quite sophisticated arpeggiator which allows you to create complex mixtures of notes and chords with glide, hold and re-triggering options.
On board reverb, digital delay and chorus effects are available to give your samples a more polished touch. We also include 4 touch pads for quickly dialing in on a sound or for easy effect automation. Configurable touch ADSR and modulation options are available too.
Chameleon can also import audio samples using iOS Files integration or you can make use of Copy / Paste to quickly drop one of more samples into a patch. You can also freely edit samples using the built in tools such as normalise, fade in, fade out, crop, clear options etc.
You can run Cameleon as a standalone app and map external MIDI keyboards (Bluetooth MIDI support also included) and perform audio sampling outside of your DAW. This is provided for convenience since you can’t record input when hosted as an AUv3 Instrument plugin.
Yes some DAW’s have built in samplers which only have the ability to playback libraries provided with the software. Chameleon allows you to built your own libraries of sounds and share them with others. There’s a budding rapper in you dying to get out and we have just the tool!
For more information on the apps, click here:
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