Bitheadz Phrazer 1.0.1

Jun 1, 2001 12:00 PM, By Jeff Burger

Although loop-based music production has made quite a splash during the past few years, most of the serious action has been on the PC. That is due in large part to Sonic Foundry's popular Acid program. Fortunately for non-Windows musicians, BitHeadz has answered the demand on the Mac side of the aisle with the introduction of Phrazer — a standalone loop-based arranger that supports all the popular Macintosh audio I/O options, including ASIO, Sound Manager, DirectIO, DirectConnect, ReWire, and MAS.

Like Acid, Phrazer addresses a fundamental limitation of traditional audio editors: changing the tempo of a sample (such as a drum loop) also changes its pitch. Loop-based programs solve this dilemma by slicing samples into short segments (to isolate rhythmic elements) and triggering the individual slices according to a specified tempo. Phrazer doesn't perform surgery on the files. Instead, it adds nondestructive split points (markers) to the audio files and applies them during playback, matching different tempos as needed. The success of tempo changes created through this process has much to do with the quality and nature of the samples: slowing things down may leave gaps of silence between beats; whereas faster tempos sometimes clip the ends off samples.

The number of simultaneous samples that Phrazer can play back depends on your computer. I was able to play 15 factory loops along with a few effects using a G3/300 MHz. Phrazer's preferred method of playback, which delivers the best performance, involves preloading the loops into RAM; the program can also stream tracks directly from the hard drive, which could be important if you have limited RAM or if you're working with exceptionally large samples. Phrazer requires at least 64 MB of RAM to get started, but more is definitely recommended.

FASHION PHRAZE

Phrazer's versatile design lets you use it in a number of ways. For example, you can set individual keys on a MIDI or computer keyboard to gate (mute) tracks in real time, which offers some interesting possibilities for live performance or studio work. Moreover, you can record your performance onto your hard drive as a 16-bit stereo AIFF file. You can also render a noninteractive set of tracks to disk at a speed faster than real time. Support for technologies such as ReWire and DirectConnect lets Phrazer interact with a sequencer through external sync. (In theory, you can use IAC to route tracks from Phrazer into individual channels in a program such as Pro Tools, but the process can be rather convoluted.) As of this writing, Phrazer does not properly receive external sync through FreeMIDI 1.45; versions 1.43 and 1.44 still work fine. (BitHeadz and Mark of the Unicorn are working on a solution.)

Phrazer imports WAV, AIFF, Sound Designer II, and CD-audio samples. It also reads ACD files from the many available Acid libraries, although the Acid 2.0 format is causing BitHeadz some problems, which the company is working to resolve. Phrazer cannot read Steinberg's ReCycle (REX) files directly, but you can save the files in Sound Designer II format from within Recycle and then import them into Phrazer. You can also easily convert BitHeadz Unity DS-1 files into a usable format, and you can record your samples from within Phrazer as well.

The handy Files window provides a hierarchical view of your mounted volumes and the compatible files they contain without having to go to the Finder or use the Open command. Clicking on a file name auditions it; double-clicking on it places it on a track. However, the Files window does not automatically update to show new samples created with Phrazer's sample editor; you must click on the Finder and then return to the program before newcomers appear.

Phrazer's main window accommodates a stack of tracks, and each track can contain multiple nonoverlapping samples (see Fig. 1). The track display, however, offers only a rudimentary set of features. For example, a snap-to-grid function ensures the tracks' visual alignment, but no metronome is provided to help you align beats aurally. In addition, you can't simply drag and drop samples between tracks; you must cut and paste them. The track display doesn't scroll automatically to let you drag samples within a track to hidden parts of the timeline.

The main window has a pop-up list that lets you specify which controls appear next to the tracks. Available controls are record-enable, play-enable, MIDI and computer-keyboard assignments, track-color selector, volume, pan, two effects sends, and a meter. Many of the controls take up quite a bit of space, and when combined, they consume much of the room that is needed for displaying the track contents. You can, however, drag a separator to hide some or all of the controls. The program provides a separate Mixer window, but it only includes faders, meters, and pan controls (see Fig. 2).

PHRAZE FIXES

The selected sample appears in the sample editor at the bottom of the main window. There Phrazer assigns split points based on amplitude changes in the waveform or based on a designated tempo. The default amplitude-based settings for low threshold, minimum threshold, and minimum time generally get you in the ballpark, but often the split points still require tweaking. The tempo option is a much better bet if you know your loop's tempo.

Other editing features appear in a pop-up menu with which you can specify loop points in several ways. You can select an area in the waveform and choose Set Loop Selection. You can then engage looped playback and make refinements by dragging the loop markers while viewing them at various zoom levels. Alternatively, the Loop dialog box allows you to adjust the loop points with nudge arrows or by entering numbers.

A Munge pop-up menu provides several options for assigning tempo (essential for synchronizing multiple tracks) and key. A variety of other Munge options (destructive edits) include normalize, reverse, parametric and shelf EQ, and flange. To hear the changes you make along with the rest of the song, you must first hit the Save button. Unfortunately, a Save As command is not provided at the sample level, which means you must make backups of your samples before you begin editing — a definite inconvenience.

Phrazer lets you specify how tempo mapping and pitch shifting are applied during track playback for each sample. The default, Split Pitched, uses split points to affect tempo and lets you transpose the music in real time. Split Non-Pitched is the same except that it doesn't allow transposition. Pitch Shift ignores split points but allows transposition. The Raw option doesn't allow manipulation, which is useful for working with samples that have no tempo, such as ambient sounds. The sample editor also determines whether the sample retriggers as a one-shot each time its track is manually triggered from MIDI or computer keys.

PHRAZE EFFECTS

Phrazer incorporates real-time effects at three levels. Two effects sends let you set individual track and master amounts, and two global effects let you process the mix output. You can also insert dedicated effects (along with tempo changes, volume changes, and other events) in tracks. Unlike Acid, Phrazer allows multiple insert effects to reside in a track, but only one at a time.

The screen area that defaults to displaying the sample editor also toggles to show the effects parameters (see Fig. 3). The available effects include parametric EQ, shelf EQ, flange, chorus, phaser, filter, dynamic filter, delay, reverb, compressor, distortion, and degrade. The effects' quality is about average.

FIRST PHRAZE

For anyone new to loop-based music production, it's important to realize that Phrazer shares the limitations of similar products. You can't simply import loops willy-nilly and expect them to work well together, much less sound good at tempos that deviate dramatically from the original. Moreover, your success in grabbing and slicing your loops depends greatly on skill and attention to detail — especially if you don't know the samples' tempos. As an example, I spent hours in Phrazer trying unsuccessfully to get a simple conga slap to loop on the downbeat of the intro drum groove to the B-52's “Love Shack.” Well-designed loop libraries, such as BitHeadz's new Tempo Tantrum, definitely offer significant advantages.

Phrazer's user interface has several noteworthy shortcomings in addition to those mentioned earlier. For instance, you can't have the transport automatically return to zero after you hit the Stop button; the program also lacks a track-solo function, a sample-revert option, and a keyboard shortcut for auditioning in the sample editor. To make matters even worse, the software's online-only documentation (a PDF file) offers little assistance in helping users become more productive and less frustrated. The program compounds the problem with its lack of online help and pop-up labels. According to BitHeadz, several of those issues are being addressed for the program's next update.

Phrazer definitely feels like a first release — not least because it crashed several times on two different but stable Mac systems. That said, however, Phrazer offers a level of multitrack loop-based functionality that has long been missing in the Mac market. It has the potential to change the way you make music, especially if you have a library of high-quality loops.

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Jeff Burger is a songwriter and multimedia producer based in Sedona, Arizona.

Minimum System Requirements
Phrazer

Power Mac G3/300 (optimized for G4); 64 MB RAM; Mac OS 8.6; 500 MB hard-disk space (for full installation and included library of loops)

PRODUCT SUMMARY

BitHeadz Phrazer 1.0.1 (Mac)

audio loop arranger
$399