ReCycle In Action

Imagine that you have a sample of a drum loop that you want to use in a track you are working on. The loop is 108 bpm and your track is 90 bpm. What do you do? You can of course pitch down the loop, but that will make the loop sound very different, and what if there are harmonies in the loop that you want to match to your song. You can also time stretch it. That will keep the pitch, but will make the loop sound different and lose some punch.

Enter ReCycle and the smart way to make loops tempo independent. Instead of stretching the sample, ReCycle REX files are sliced into little pieces so that each drum hit (or whatever sound you are working with) gets its own slice. When you then change the tempo of the loop, the time between the slices is stretched, instead of the slices themselves.

Full Control

When you load a sound into ReCycle, the program will “look” at the file, analyze it, and break it up into its rhythmic components. The process itself is fully automated, but the slices are yours to move, audition or delete, using the program’s on-screen tools and controls. Other tools allow you to set the length, attack and decay of the slices, and to change your groove’s overall tempo or pitch, without one affecting the other. It’s not magic, but it’s probably as close as you can get.

Slicing a loop also gives you individual control over both the sound of the slices and the timing. You can rearrange the loop, change the feel of it, replace parts of the loop with other samples, pitch it, and much more.ReCycle turns concrete-rigid loops into musical modeling clay, allowing you, the loopist, to do pretty much what you desire.

Use ReCycle as a problem solver for loops: Load a drum loop into ReCycle, set a new tempo or pitch, and save the results as a new file. Or load up any groove, and use ReCycle’s on-screen signal processors: Compressor, EQ and Transient Designer, to give it some punch and distinction. Anything you choose to do in ReCycle can be applied to your loop non-destructively, and saved as a new file.

The REX File Format

REX is the native file format of ReCycle. A REX file contains the original audio of the loop, the slices you have applied in ReCycle, and any effects or processing you have added in ReCycle. REX files are also compressed, using a non-lossy compression technique to save some precious hard drive space.

You can also use your REX files in as audio by importing them directly onto Audio Tracks in Reason’s sequencer. When you import a REX file as audio, it is automatically stretched to fit the tempo of your Record songs.

REX files are supported by all major music software titles.

The Dr. Octo Rex and REX Files in Reason

The Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player is a unique machine that has become one of the cornerstones in Reason’s intuitive musical workflow. It plays loops treated by Propellerhead Software’s ReCycle and its design enables some truly creative ways to use ReCycled loops.

When you open a new ReCycled loop in Dr. Octo Rex you can load up the corresponding MIDI data in a special REX editor in the sequencer where you can move the slices around to create the beats you want. This way you can take a drum loop and rearrange it any way you want.