AudioMulch is

modular Module, modular and modularity may refer to the concept of modularity. They may also refer to: Computer science and engineering * Modular design, the engineering discipline of designing complex devices using separately designed sub-components ...

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

software for making music and processing sound. The software can synthesize sound and

process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management * Business process, activities that produce a specific s ...

live and pre-recorded sound in

real-time Real-time, realtime, or real time may refer to: Computing * Real-time computing, hardware and software systems subject to a specified time constraint * Real-time clock, a computer clock that keeps track of the current time * Real-time Control Syst ...

. AudioMulch has a patcher-style

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

, in which modules called ''contraptions'' can be connected together to route audio and process sounds. Included are modules used in

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

such as a bassline-style

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

and a

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

, effects like

ring modulation In electronics, ring modulation is a signal processing function, an implementation of frequency mixing, in which two signals are combined to yield an output signal. One signal, called the carrier, is typically a sine wave or another simple w ...

flanging Flanging is an audio signal processing, audio effect produced by mixing two identical audio signal, signals together, one signal delayed by a small and (usually) gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a ...

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

and delays, and other modules such as a delay-line granulator and

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

spatializer. As well as these internal contraptions, AudioMulch supports VST and VSTi plugins.

History

Origins of AudioMulch

AudioMulch grew out of musician Ross Bencina's performance practice in the mid-1990s. At this time, live, computer-based sound processing systems were often expensive and restricted to use within research institutions. By 1995 however, the processing capabilities of the personal computer were sufficient that Bencina was able to create OverSYTE, a real-time performance granulator. OverSYTE was used by Bencina to process sound in his real-time performances with vocalists and instrumental musicians. AudioMulch grew out of the limitations of OverSYTE, which could process only one sound at a time. In contrast, AudioMulch can process multiple sounds sources at once.

Development of AudioMulch

AudioMulch has been in development since 1997. The first release made available for download on the Internet was beta version 0.7b1, in March 1998. There were 36 Beta releases prior to Version 1.0 of the software, which was released in February 2006. AudioMulch 1.0 was developed for Microsoft Windows in the C++ programming language, using the Borland C++ Builder development environment.

Version 1.0

Version 1.0 was released on 21 February 2006.

Version 2.0

AudioMulch 2.0 was released 5 June 2009. According to the website, this version is available for both Windows and Macintosh computers.

Version 2.1

Version 2.1 was released 4 August 2010. Version 2.1 supports custom time signatures, Audio Unit plugin support on Mac OS X, dynamic processing contraptions, and an alternate light gray color scheme.

Features

AudioMulch 1.0 features

* An interactive user-interface with three main panes: # a patcher for routing audio between contraptions # a pane containing control panels for each contraption # an automation timeline supporting automation of contraption parameters * Support for real-time sound-processing and performance. * 24 channels of real-time input/output. * Multi-channel recording and playback of multiple sound files. * Contraptions including signal generators, effects, filters and mixers. * Input sound can be taken from sound files or real-time audio input. * Output is heard in real-time and can be simultaneously recorded to a sound file. * Any processing parameter in AudioMulch can be controlled by MIDI. This includes the use of external hardware such as knob boxes, gaming controllers, virtual reality gloves and custom control devices.

AudioMulch 2.0 features

* A new Patcher with advanced drag-and-drop patching and MIDI routing * MIDI and automation control for Clock transport (tempo, stop, start) and Metasurface interpolation. * Enhanced Drums contraption with 8 channels and a new pattern editor supporting arbitrary length high-resolution patterns * Expanded multichannel audio I/O capability to support up to 256 channels in each direction and improved compatibility with consumer multichannel audio interfaces using DirectSound and Windows Multimedia drivers.

Future

As outlined in AudioMulch's road map, future versions should bring new sound mangling, filtering and resonating contraptions, an overhauled undo system, 3rd party host integration and performance modulation, as well as further enhancements to existing sound and keyboard controls. As of April 2024, the long-promised 64-bit compatible version of AudioMulch has not yet been released despite encouraging remarks documented in the application's website forums that include anecdotes from encounters with Ross that indicate Audiomulch remains under development. The website remains fully active and there is a sizeable global user base still using the application.

Musicians that use or have used AudioMulch

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

* Girl Talk *

Four Tet Kieran Miles David Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting and critically acc ...

Lackluster Esa Ruoho (born 26 October 1978 in Helsinki, Finland), better known as Lackluster, is a Finnish electronic music producer and performer from Kontula, Helsinki. He is also known as Esa Ruoho, XLLV, Can'O'Lard and Kökö and the Köks. Ruoho ha ...

Erdem Helvacioglu Erdem () is a Turkish and Mongolian masculine name that means "virtue, merit, kind, knowledge".https://tureng.com/tr/turkce-ingilizce/erdem Erdem may also refer to: Given name * Erdem Başçı Erdem Başçı (born 1966) is a Turkish people, Tur ...

Shitmat Shitmat is an English breakcore artist and mashup producer, one of several monikers used by Henry Collins. Shitmat became known in the early 2000s for releases on the Ad Noiseam and Planet Mu labels. He also set up his own label, Wrong Music a ...

Pimmon Pimmon is the recording name of Australian electronic and ambient musician, record producer and arranger, Paul David Gough. He has released records on labels such as Fat Cat Records, Fällt, Tigerbeat6, Staalplaat and Staubgold, and collaborated ...

Tim Hecker Tim Hecker is a Canadian electronic musician, producer, composer, and sound artist. His work, spanning albums such as '' Harmony in Ultraviolet'' (2006), '' Ravedeath, 1972'' (2011) and '' Virgins'' (2013), has been widely critically acclaimed. ...

The discography on the AudioMulch website has a list of other artists that have used AudioMulch in commercial releases.AudioMulch website – discography Retrieved on 2009-01-28
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Notes

Bibliography

AudioMulch website – info page. Retrieved on 2009-01-28

AudioMulch website – discography. Retrieved on 2009-01-28

Clatterbox website. Retrieved on 2009-01-28 * Dugan, S. (2006), "Girl Talk". In ''Remix Magazine'', 1 December 2006

Retrieved on 2009-01-28 * (2008) "Girl Talk/Gregg Gillis on New Album/Music Industry". In ''The Washington Post'', 29 July 2008

Retrieved on 2009-01-28 * Inglis, S. (2003), "FourTet – Kieran Hebden: Recording Rounds". In ''Sound on Sound'', July 2003

Retrieved on 2009-01-28 * Hsieh, C. (2005), "Audio Anarchy". In ''Remix Magazine'', 1 June 2005

Retrieved on 2009-01-28 * Interview with the Nine Inch Nails by Greg Rule, ''Keyboard Magazine'', February 2000

Retrieved on 2009-01-28 * Gallagher, M. (2004), "Between the Lines." In ''Electronic Musician Magazine'', 1 February 2004

* Bencina, R. (2006) "Creative Software Development: Reflections on AudioMulch Practice." In ''Digital Creativity'', Routledge, Vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 11 – 24. * Bencina, R. (1998), "Oasis Rose the Composition - Real-Time DSP with AudioMulch," ''Proceedings of the Australasian Computer Music Conference'', ANU Canberra, pp. 85–92. * Cleveland, B. (2007), "Erdem Helvacioglu". In ''Guitar Player'', September 2007, pp. 32–33. * Frere-Jones, S. (2008), "Re-Start: Laptops go Live". In ''The New Yorker'', 15 September 2008, pp. 94–95.

External links

* {{Audio editors C++ software Audio editors Software synthesizers