What's new in crusher-X 10?

Consider this major version 10 upgrade as a milestone in granular synthesis as it introduces an unique grain generation mode called Glitcher-X!

 

Switching crusher-X to the Glitcher mode will let your grains surf on an audio wave event! This leads to glitching beats, surround slips, crazy audio jumps, short-term loops and hipster sound scratches. Glitcher Mode anchors grains to auto-selected incoming life audio events and modulates the grain around these anchor points during the grains life-time. A controllable spectral selector will help you to mask the audio input and auto-trigger the respawn of a grains to the next audio transient in the incoming pipe. Expect nothing but less than the next level of granular life experience! This upgrade comes also with a new set of raw ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) sounds are added as a source for granular sound design to make your audience shudder and cringe. The new live spectral controlled transient sensitive trigger system with a twin filtered interactive frequency selector allows to create way more sophisticated grain buffer fills, glitch selections, respawn and quantization event triggers. The output of this interactive formant filter can be used as an additional input signal for the Granulizer. This opens the door for sophisticated granular filtered sweeps and advanced and color rich drones. And crusher-X 10 supports professional sound design studios with providing an AVID AAX version for Windows and macOS (incl. native Silicon / M1 support)! 

 

Give it a try!

 

 

 

You probably know the "Eisbach Wave" in Munich? If you come to Munich on your next Germany trip, make sure you drop by and discover this beautiful energized and special place! There are those city surfers waiting in a line to jump on the wave and perform their rides looking for a moment of fame! This is basically what happens when you turn crusher-X into Glitcher Mode: Imagine a grain sitting at the river bank of the audio stream, relaxed but ready to ride the ultimate wave! As soon as the desired wave drops by the grain jumps on the flow and starts performing their moves and modulations until its lifetime is over and it drops off. A spectral transient selector formant filter detects the best moment to jump on the audio stream and the grain adheres on that position. As controlled by the regular Grain Modulations the grain will modulate around its known position. This will happen for each generator (so there will be several grains avail to ride the incoming audio wave) and one can chose how the current trigger will be populated to the different generators. The life-time of the grain will determine the length of each ride and after the drop (death) of the grain a next selection trigger will respawn it again. The result of this unique algorithm is mind-blowing: Glitching beats, audio slips, crazy jumps, loops, scratches - a new universe of life interactive sound design gets at your fingertip. Imagine to use it together with a microphone and your instrument. You will control the river stream and crusher-X will surf on it! You could even create a glitch manually with assigning the Glitch button to a foot controller - curtain up!

 

 

 

Fast detection of interesting sound events in live streams is quite tricky. A spectral response approach combined with a fast real-time state machine is a the new crusher way to discriminate between silence, tonal, vocal or spectral interesting parts of an incoming audio stream in real-time. To control this job crusher-X 10 introduces a unique trigger control that allows to select the desired spectral trigger range and its sensitivity with simple mouse moves. The trigger is auto sensitives that means it works on all audio levels, detecting a relative change, not an absolute level. This new trigger system is wired up with the Grain buffer Fill, Respawn and Glitch position launches. And as you already controlling this unique formant filter, you can add the outcome of its spectral manipulation as an additional input signal to granulize. Become ready for sophisticated granular filtered sweeps and advanced and color rich drones. And sure the filter sweeps are morphed by the crusher-X Morphing System.

 

ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) sounds are crazy: The listening will likely triggers a physically tangible reaction for the listener. crusher-X is likely the first software that thinks ASMR sounds together with granular synthesis. Give it a try to let these tiny, fine and quite snippets shimmer around your audience bodies and hijack them into an sensuality experience.

 

Grain Modulations can be bound to Stereo Pairs but depending on the patch the output of the granulizer might create very wide stereo left/right audio pannings. crusher-X 10 introduces an easy way to shrink down the stereo width with a simple panner added to the mixer.

 

Version 10 comes with a completely reworked morph system. It allows to morph up to 3600 seconds between the most parameters in a smooth way. And one can create a self defined morph curve that allows to morph with a specific "drama" in mind. With that possibility a simple morph between patches transforms to an individual designed "sound gesture".

 

crusher-X 10 features new factory sounds designed by the composer and sound designer Ulrich Müller. Enjoy to take these sounds as an inspiration and starting point for your own granular journey!

 

Just want to use crusher-X live on macOS without the overhead of a DAW? crusher-X 10 comes with a 4 channel input and 10 channel audio output, native standalone version for mac (including Silicon/M1 support). It also supports multichannel MPE MIDI input and output. (the feature set is similar to the Windows standalone).

 

crusher-X 10 comes with a multichannel audio and MIDI macOS stand alone version

• Adds Protools AAX plug-in format (64bit, macOS & Win)
• Adds Glitcher-X Mode to "glue" grain modulations to auto detected transients of the input signal
• Adds Formant Input Filter with Input Transient detection to fire triggers of Fills, Respawns and Glitches
• Adds Trigger Mode Types that allow to control a sequence of triggers applied for each generator
• Adds manual or quantization to glitch and respawn triggers
• Adds Morphed Soft-ByPass
• Adds Stereo Width panner to shrink down the Stereo Width of the output streams down to Mono
• Adds a Level Meter reset if signal flow is stopped
• Adds the DCO/Player to the input filter sources if not in side chain mode
• Adds Play/Stop behavior to DCO/Player for the raw wave forms
• Adds 110% and 140% UI Scale Modes
• Adds several factory sounds designed and recorded by the Munich composer and sound designer Ulrich Müller, thanks Ulrich!
• Adds 10 more factory patches using the factory sounds from Ulrich Müller
• Adds clickable Feedback/Output Compression/Expander and Input/SideChain Envelope meter to the Level Panel
• Adds MIDI Key value label and entry to DCO frequency trackbars in case DCO is configured as a file playback
• Adds smart Morph System behavior on changes while the morph process is running (fast value adaption during morphing)
• Adds an editable spline curve to the Morphing System for non-linear morphing transitions
• Adds Morph to MIDI-Keys - but Morph is not started if MIDI-Keys are pressed. This will create smoother transitions between patches with stored MIDI-Keys
• Adds Shift-Click a pressed Key on the UI Keyboard will release the note
• Adds disabling GlitchMode selector when not in Glitcher-X Mode 
• Adds plug-in parameter for Clear Grainbuffer
• Adds 8 MACRO plug-in parameters that can be used for free UI Element Mappings in the MACRO Mapping Editor. (*) Thanks Aphex Twin for this feature request!
• Adds MACRO P Tab in the MACRO Map (formally named MIDI Map) to list Macro Parameter and MIDI Controllers that are stored in Program Memory
• Adds MACRO Map button dimly lit to indicate that MACRO P mapping list is not empty (Controllers loaded by a program are assigned)
• Adds Global and Program Memory options to the Learn Context Menu (*)
• Adds "Current value as max" in Learn Context Menu to set the range of the controller learning by using the current UI element value as the maximum
• Adds "Around current value" in Learn Context Menu to set the range of the controller learning by using the current UI element value as the center
• Adds "Set to current value" in Learn Context Menu to map a certain UI element value to a MIDI Controller or MACRO Parameter. Useful for live performances to "reset" an UI element to a certain value (*)
• Adds Learn Context Menu to the Generator wheel
• Adds Program Number edit field to the Program Panel. Useful for a fast program selection also in combination with the new "Learn Controller to set Position" feature
• Adds a Reset of FilterMode and MIDI Mode to the Grain Modulation Reset Buttons
• Adds MIDI Omni Mode for MACRO Map in Settings Editor
• Adds enabling of the MACRO Maps Change button if list entry was already selected by a controller
• Adds Visuals.GrainView.RotateX and Visuals.GrainView.RotateY plug-in parameter to control the Grain Views rotation (*)
• Adds Standalone App Version for macOS
• Changes opening of Spline Editor instead of File Editor in case of DCO is in Spline Mode
• Cleans up Grain Modulation / LFO view and moved "Morph LFOs to 0Hz" button to Granulizer panel, moves LFO counter to Grain Modulations panel header, moves Grain counter to Grain View panel header  
• Improves LFO counter accuracy  
• Improves the sound quality of the DCO/Player (doubles the sample rate)
• Improves UI color contrast
• Improves overload protection for high birth rate (low birth time) cases
• Increases grain generator stack for Quantization Modes from 10 to 32 (leads to a more intense Quantization reaction)
• Improves setting of DCO MarkIn and MarkOut while in Play Mode (only range the play head if needed)
• Improves control of Arpeggiator Keys with UI Keyboard (select and deselect single keys with Shift-Click). Latch control of external MIDI Key events remains as usual   
• Improves UI fluidity on Formant Input Filter, Grain View, Slider and PM-Field mouse interactions
• Improves X-Crush algorithm so that crackles on high gain input signals are diminished 
• Improves Birth Grain Modulation Reset value. Grains are now overlapping 50% on reset           
• Removes limitation to the amount of grains per generator
• Removes the legacy Aliasing Mode button from the UI (Use the new factory patch Reset/LegacyAliasingMode or the "Granulizer.Aliasing" plug-in Parameter to create a patch with Aliasing Mode On)
• Fixes a seldom hang of the sliders thumb highlight
• Fixes a minor bug that changes the plug-in parameter number when edit the assignment in the MIDI Map/Params grid
• Fixes a minor bug that showed wrong grain status when in slower quantization mode
• Fixes an filter overdrive that could lead to FPU crashes on very low system sample rates (e.g. 8000Hz)
• Fixes an exception on very small files loaded in the grain buffer
• Fixes a glitch on first marker with high DCO file playback rates
• Fixes VST3 output problem under Reason     
• Fixes a bug that causes self modulation of global modulators in case a modulation type was selected without a modulation target 
• Fixes incorrect display of special characters in the licensor's name   
• Fixes DCOs low frequency problem on standard waveforms   
• Fixes issue that DCO still running when plug-in is in Bypass Mode (VST3/AU)    
• Fixes issue with MACRO Map editor grid scroll bar 
• VST3: Fixes saving of the plug-in state under Bitwig 4 and other legacy VST3 hosts   
• Win: Removes 32bit versions, removes "64" extensions to plug-in and application names
• Standalone: Removes dependency to VST dll for the standalone crusher-X.exe
• Standalone: Adds Tempo and Quantization support for standalone crusher-X
• Standalone: Adds full reset when launched with shift key pressed
• Standalone: Restricts reloaded windows position to visible screen coordinates
• Standalone: Recordings are now done with 32bits per sample
• Standalone: Remove click function of recording and audio on/off on status bar
• Standalone: Fixes a problem with synced Grain Modulation frequencies larger than 1/1 quarters
• Standalone: Adds Click on the Status Bar Tempo section restarts internal beat counter
• Standalone: Changes Audio Engine Setup Dialog from modal to floating

Give it a try!