Fragment DJ FX Mode

An alterntaive DJ effects view of a fragement (number 14 in this case), where the fragment is programmed to have a sine wave drone, noise, and filter effect active.

With creating and editing fragments being the backbone of Song mode, an advanced mode lets you take things even further in order to polish your final song or live performance; fragment DJ FX mode.

In a nutshell, DJ FX mode on the Woovebox gives you DAW-like control, by allowing you to manipulate the digital audio of your song as part of your song. This allows you to create effects and polish that is normally only possible after recording the full song in a DAW or live by a DJ, and then only with lots of manual work.

In practice, this means fully customizable looping-on-steroids (both internal and external audio), filters, risers, fallers, whistlers, gaters, and so much more. These are not just canned, gimmicky effects, but fully programmable and unique to your song's fragments.

Crucially, because DJ FX are part of your Song, they adapt to what is in your song dynamically - side-stepping the need to redo any resampling or recording. It ensures that the way they sound is always relevant and unique to what is going on in your song.

Needless to say, the possibilities that DJ DX open up for your songs, are rather significant.

While displaying/editing a fragment (Fr.01-Fr.99), fragment DJ mode/view is accessed by holding value and pressing A8/Song. Repeat the gesture to return to regular fragment editing mode. Note that holding the write button still allows you to see, program or remove tracks - just as you would in regular fragment editing mode/view. A different context menu with different options is available between the two modes.

Fragment DJ mode is an alternative view of a programmed fragment. In essence it provides a second page of global options for a fragment. It offers the following capabilities per fragment.

• Recording internal or external audio (with overdub) into one out of two 12s buffers.
  
• Playing back buffered audio with various playback options.
  
• Automation of mixing of buffered audio with synthesized audio.
• Automation of mixing in of white noise.
• Automation of mixing in of a drone sine wave, combined with automation of its pitch.
• Automation of a resonant high pass or low pass DJ-style filter that can be applied to the full mix, noise only or buffer only.
• Various gating patterns to apply to either the DJ FX filter enable/disable (noise, buffer playback and/or drone) or DJ FX aggregate audio output (noise, buffer playback and/or drone)
  

While on the surface simple, the combination of the above abilities yields a vast amount of abilities and ways to augment, modify and enhance a fragment. Uses include;

• Looping internal or external audio (with overdubbing)
• Stutter build-ups
• Custom riser and faller transitions using white noise, drone tone and/or DJ filter effects
• Track-independent fade ins, fade outs, filter opens and filter closes
• Creative reverse effects (reverse kick transitions, ghost pianos, reverse "sucking" reverb effects, etc.)
• Pre-rendering complex fragments as buffers to reduce DSP load and/or free up tracks & voices
• Bouncing and building audio between the two buffers
• Rhythmic gating of audio
  
• ...and many more
  

For your convenience, the lower four characters of the LED screen gives you a quick overview of what (if anything) is going on in the fragment.

• The first character shows which buffer - if any - is being played (either '1', '2', 'P', or '-', see below).
• The last character shows which buffer - if any - is being recorded to.

In-between characters show;

• 'd'; a drone is audible for this fragment
  
• 'n'; noise is audible for this fragment
• 'F'; filter activity is audible for this fragment (if there is no space for the F, filter activity is indicated by the dot of the last character instead)

The played buffer indicates a 'P' when it is being prepped (see below) or '-' to indicate a buffer is inaudible to due mix start and end (1/Cd/'Mi.St. and 2/bS/'Mi.En') being set to only sounding the synthesizer (e.g. both settings are set to +127).

Initialized and uninitialized buffers

Buffers may be filled, re-recorded and/or overdubbed as your song progresses through its fragment. Therefore, jumping around in the song (for example starting in the middle of the song) can cause buffers to contain the wrong (or no) audio.

To alleviate this issue the device provides the following convenience features;

• Buffer contents persists over multiple playbacks (and even when temporarily switching songs, as long as the new song does not override the buffer contents). This means that once a buffer is recorded, you can safely skip the moment (fragment) in the song where it is recorded. So if your song "preps" a loop in the first few bars that is used throughout the song and is never overwritten, you can skip those bars in subsequent playthroughs.
  
• If a buffer recording is required that does not (or no longer) exists in the buffer, playback will automatically jump back to the point where that buffer is recorded. Note that this feature does not account for any bleed through (reverb tails, delay tails, release/decay components) any preceding fragments that would normally be audible.

Any fragment DJ FX settings for fragments with 0 length are ignored; recording to a buffer for a 0-length fragment will not invalidate or change a buffer.

"Prepping" a buffer before playback

One common use for DJ FX buffers, is to prep a loop or sound/effect that you will be using throughout the rest of your song. Setting buffer play mode ('b.PLy') to "PrEP" allows you to temporarily mute any audio while your Woovebox records the audio it synthesizes to the buffer.

A special "prep" behavior occurs when all of the following conditions are satisfied;

1. both Mix Start and Mix End are set to -127 (e.g. buffer audio audible only)
2. simultaneously having b.PLy (buffer play mode) set to "PrEP"
3. having a b.LEn (buffer length) set to a non 0 length
4. recording a buffer

This special case will cause the reverb and delay buffers to be purged, and will also immediately stop any voices playing that were still in their release or decay stages. This creates a perfect silence when the next fragment is played, rather than - all of a sudden - re-enabling audio and hearing reverb/delay/decay/release tails from the previous fragment your recorded silently ('prepped'). I.e. use this behavior if you need to "prep" a buffer without its playing audio bleeding into the next fragment.

Note that a fragment that preps a buffer in this manner, is indicated by a 'P' on the display in the place of the buffer number.

Example on how to record a buffer and play it back

For a fragment;

• Set 13/A5/b.LEn buffer length. For example 4 steps.
  
• Set 14/A6/b.PLy playback mode. Pick a mode that plays back buffer 1.
  
• Set 15/A7/b.rEc record source. Pick a mode that records to buffer 1 (for example, Sy-1).

Once the fragment plays (and assuming it is producing audio), the buffer will be recorded to buffer 1 for the duration you specified (4 steps in the example). If that buffer duration is shorter than the duration of the fragment, then buffer 1 will start playback once the buffer duration has elapsed. Buffer 1 will keep looping according the mode you specified (for example, forward or reverse, or flipping between forward, then reverse).

The above example will sound like a "buffer lock". You can now, for example, apply a filter to the buffer's audio being played back, to create even more interest.

DJ page

The DJ effects view of a fragment has the following options available.

1. Mi.St Mix Start

Mix at the start of the fragment. Value ranges from buffer only (-127) to 50:50: mix of buffer and internal synthesizer (0), to synthesizer only (127).

2. Mi.En Mix Start

Mix at the end of the fragment. Value ranges from buffer only (-127) to 50:50: mix of buffer and internal synthesizer (0), to synthesizer only (127).

3. n.V.St Noise Volume Start

Noise volume at the start of the fragment.

4. n.V.En Noise Volume End

Noise volume at the end of the fragment.

5. Gatr Gater target and pattern

Selects the gater target (DJ FX filter or DJ FX audio) and pattern.

A "gater" is an effect that rhythmically turns a signal on and off, creating a choppy or stutter-like pattern, synced to the tempo of your song.

When an Aud (audio) target pattern ("positive" values) is selected, the gater pattern is applied to any DJ FX-added audio output's volume, (e.g. rhythmically making the noise+drone+filter playback audible and inaudible), while audio from the internal synthesizer is passed unaltered. If you need the internal synthesizer's audio to gate as well, please use the individual track gater behavior when programming fragments.

When an FLt (filter) target pattern ("negative" values) is selected, the gater pattern is applied to DJ FX filtered audio output. If the gate is closed, then the behavior depending on the filter target (6/Sn/'fl.tg'), is as follows;

• 'mix'; the full mix (noise+drone+buffer) is being filtered; upon gate close, only the internal synthesizer remains audible
• 'buff'; only any playing buffer is being filtered; upon gate close, any playing buffer becomes inaudible
• 'nois'; only any playing noise is being filtered; upon gate close, any playing noise becomes inaudible
• 'synt'; only the internal synthesizer is being filtered; upon gate close, the filter is temporarily suspended and the synthesizer will be audible unfiltered

The gater pattern numbers and behaviors are identical to those found in the fragment and scene editing of individual tracks.

6. Fl.tG Filter Target

Specifies which audio the DJ filter should be applied to. Values include;

• 'MiX'; the filter is applied to the entire mix (e.g. buffer, synthesizer and noise).
• 'buFF'; the filter is applied to the playing buffer audio only
• 'Synt'; the filter is applied to the synthesizer
• 'noiS'; the filter is applied to the white noise generator

7. FL.St Filter Start

Filter value at the start of the fragment. Values may range from low pass (-127) to off (0) to high pass (127).

8. FL.En Filter End

Filter value at the end of the fragment. Values may range from low pass (-127) to off (0) to high pass (127).

9. d.V.St Drone Volume Start

Volume of the drone (sine wave) tone at the start of the fragment. Negative values create a stereo width effect (note that this effect, however makes the drone inaudible if mixed down to mono).

10. d.V.St Drone Volume End

Volume of the drone (sine wave) tone at the end of the fragment. Negative values create a stereo width effect (note that this effect, however makes the drone inaudible if mixed down to mono).

11. d.V.St Drone Pitch Start

Pitch of the drone (sine wave) tone at the start of the fragment in MIDI semitones. Frequencies below 25Hz (note #19 and lower) will be progressively high-pass filtered to approach 0 volume for note #0.

12. d.V.St Drone Pitch End

Pitch of the drone (sine wave) tone at the end of the fragment in MIDI semitones. Frequencies below 25Hz (note #19 and lower) will be progressively high-pass filtered to approach 0 volume for note #0.

13. b.LEn Buffer Length

Length of the buffer playback or recording in quarter notes.

14. b.PLy Buffer Play Mode

Specifies which buffer should be played and how. Options available are;

• 'FWd1'; plays buffer 1 in normal ("forward") direction
• 'FWd2'; plays buffer 2 in normal ("forward") direction
• 'rvS1'; plays buffer 1 in reverse
• 'rvS2'; plays buffer 1 in reverse
• 'pin1'; plays buffer 1 forward, then in reverse, then forward again, and so on
• 'pin2'; plays buffer 2 forward, then in reverse, then forward again, and so on
• 'pon1'; plays buffer 1 in reverse, then forward, then reverse again, and so on. Note that this option is not available if the buffer is recorded on-the-fly in the same fragment.
• 'pon2'; plays buffer 1 in reverse, then forward, then reverse again, and so on. Note that this option is not available if the buffer is recorded on-the-fly in the same fragment.
• 'PrEP'; does not play any buffer at all

15. b.rEc Buffer Record Mode

Specifies which buffer should be recorded to and how. Available modes are;

• 'off'; no recording
• 'Sy-1'; record synthesizer to buffer 1
• 'Sy-2'; record synthesizer to buffer 2
• 'Mi-1'; record mix to buffer 1
• 'Mi-2'; record mix to buffer 2
• 'Li-1'; record line input (live) audio to buffer 1
• 'Li-2'; record line input (live) audio to buffer 2
• 'oSy1'; overdub buffer 1 with synthesizer audio
• 'oSy2'; overdub buffer 2 with synthesizer audio
• 'oMi1'; overdub buffer 1 with mix audio
• 'oMi2'; overdub buffer 2 with mix audio
• 'oLi1'; overdub buffer 1 with line input (live) audio
• 'oLi1'; overdub buffer 2 with line input (live) audio