Tag Archives: beatcleaver

BeatCleaver 1.4.0.5 Released

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We’re pleased to announce a new BeatCleaver update is now available.

This minor update brings some modernization and bugfixes to improve the overall experience.

Changes include:

  • Support for High DPI displays (Windows Display Scaling) – Graphics and window sizing are much improved for users with modern, High DPI monitors.
  • Soundcard bug fixes – We’ve backported 8 years of bugfixes from our soundcard I/O code that went on to power Rocket Broadcaster. Includes better default device detection, samplerate detection, and better device compatibility.
  • 64-bit – BeatCleaver is now a native 64-bit application for Windows. Windows 10 and 11 are fully supported.
  • Dark Mode – BeatCleaver now supports Dark Mode, if you enable it system-wide in Windows.
  • Windows Vista support has been dropped. BeatCleaver should run on Windows 7 and up, but we’re only QA testing it on Windows 10 and 11.
  • Bugfixes:
    • Fixed an extra note in MIDI exports if there was a slice point at 0
    • Fixed jittery zoombar dragging, which happened in some cases
    • A couple crash fixes

Existing customers can download BeatCleaver by logging into the Oscillicious Shop and clicking My Products or by clicking the download link in your license email.

If you purchased BeatCleaver before 2016, you can register for a shop account and then link your license to your account for convenient access to your downloads.

Discontinuing Support for Mac

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Since we started Oscillicious, we’ve always been keen on making our products cross-platform and available for users on as many desktop platforms as possible. However, due to recent changes in macOS (formerly Mac OS X) and a longer pattern of decisions by Apple, we’ve come to the difficult conclusion that continuing to build and support our software for Mac is beyond our means.

Our current released versions of BeatCleaver, JamDeck, SodaSynth, and Analog Extracts for Mac will continue to be available for download for existing customers. Whether or not they continue working on future versions of macOS is up to Apple. Future updates to all products will be available for Windows only.

We deeply regret the disappointment and inconvenience that this will cause our community on Mac. We’re as disappointed as you are.

If you’ve purchased our products for Mac, your licenses will continue to work on Windows. If you decide to install Windows on your Mac with Bootcamp, or purchase a Windows laptop or PC in the future, you’ll be able to continue enjoying our products.

Albert

BeatCleaver 1.2.1 Released!

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I’m pleased to announce a new bugfix release of BeatCleaver, which brings us to version 1.2.1.

I’ve been accumulating small bugfixes in anticipation of a future release, but yesterday a Swedish BeatCleaver user emailed me with a curious problem: He couldn’t open an MP3 with an “å” character in the title.

Uh oh. This was a bit embarrassing because it sounded awfully similar to bugs we had fixed in Mixxx many times before. The only difference was that this time, the bug was in my own code. Whoops!

The good news is that I fixed it quickly, and I think it’s important enough to warrant a new release of BeatCleaver. With that, the changes in 1.2.1 include:

  • Important compatibility improvements with files containing non-Roman characters. If you’re slicing files with non-ASCII titles or work with non-Western music, you’ll want to update.
  • Fixed a related bug in our open source library libaudiodecoder
  • Added the currently open file’s name to the window title
  • Fixed a crash when moving a slice’s end point after playing
  • Minor improvements to the registration process
  • Fixed a settings saving bug on Mac OS X
  • All Windows packages are now certified and signed. (When you install BeatCleaver, you should see something like this instead of this.)

Lastly, we’re pleased to confirm that BeatCleaver is the first beat slicing tool that is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Registered users can download this free update by clicking the download link in their original registration email again or by visiting our downloads page.

An updated free trial version is available for download from the BeatCleaver site.

BeatCleaver, the sampling and beat slicing tool for Windows and Mac OS X, is available for the bargain price of only $15, 12 €, or £10 exclusively from the Oscillicious Online Shop.

A Word on Mac OS X Mountain Lion Compatibility

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Back in March, we released a small update to SodaSynth in advance of Apple’s new Mac OS X 10.8 release, Mountain Lion.

SodaSynth has an installer which is signed so that Gatekeeper identifies it as originating from Oscillicious, and lets it run. This is important because OS X Mountain Lion will only run signed code by default. This new code signing policy will give Apple another tool to help keep OS X safe and secure, and it gives you the assurance that our products are genuine. We’re pleased to offer SodaSynth as one of the first VST and AU plugins that is fully compatible with Mac OS X Mountain Lion.

Additionally, BeatCleaver 1.2 should be compatible with Mountain Lion, as I also made sure it was signed before releasing it back in April. If anyone’s running it on Mountain Lion, please let me know how it’s working for you!

Registered users can snag the latest version of SodaSynth from their original registration email or from our downloads page. Enjoy!

BeatCleaver for Windows XP and Bonus Breaks

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I’ll admit it: I underestimated how many people still use Windows XP. 

Windows XP is especially important to many musicians because it’s used on a lot of studio computers. These computers are kept clean of any unnecessary software, and can easily run for a decade without issues. They’re serious work machines, and an upgrade to Vista or Windows 7 might not actually bring any real benefits, but will definitely bring downtime. 

So to the musicians out there still rocking Windows XP: I’m sorry BeatCleaver left you behind, but I hope we can make it up to you.

I’m pleased to announce the release of BeatCleaver 1.2 for Windows XP.

This version zooms, slices, and dices just like it does on other platforms, but it can only open WAV and AIFF files. As before, purchasing BeatCleaver allows you to use it on any of the available platforms, so if you do decide to upgrade Windows, you can always download BeatCleaver again to get MP3 and M4A support.

A trial version is available for download from the BeatCleaver site, and existing registered users can download BeatCleaver for XP from the downloads page.

I’m also pleased to announce that all versions of BeatCleaver now come bundled with a selection of 13 royalty-free drum loops graciously provided by the awesome people at MPC-Samples.com. They’ve got loads of great loops, breaks, and samples for hip-hop production available on their site, so check ‘em out!

What’s Cooking at Oscillicious?

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Though it’s been more than a month since my last update, fear not, I’ve been working on Oscillicious products non-stop.

First off, I’ve managed to produce a version of BeatCleaver 1.2 that’s XP compatible, which needs some beta testing. It’s separate version because it doesn’t have the fancy MP3 / M4A slicing that BeatCleaver has on other versions of Windows and OS X, but it still slices and dices WAV and AIFF files just fine.

Interested?
Download BeatCleaver 1.2 for Windows XP here and try it out! (Leave a comment if it works for you!)

Next, I’ve got a 64-bit version of SodaSynth VST and AU in the pipeline. The Mac OS X is available for testing for registered users (email me!), and I hope to have a 64-bit Windows version available for testing soon too.

Now on to something totally new: We’re working on a pretty funky analog synth sample pack that we’re hoping to share with you by the end of August. As I hope you’ve come to expect from us, this sample pack is going to be a little bit different. We’re going to do this sample pack the Oscillicious way: Fresh.

Lastly, we’ve got one more big product in the pipeline, and I hope to release some more information about it soon. Development is progressing very well so far, and it’s what I’m spending almost all of my time on these days. I’m really excited about it because it’s totally different from anything else out there, and I think it’s going to be a very distilled expression of what Oscillicious is all about – Creating awesome, easy to use tools for musicians. Stay tuned!



Advanced Slicing in BeatCleaver 1.2

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Leading up to the BeatCleaver 1.2 release, we’ve talked about what’s coming next and gone into more detail on the new fluid zoom we’ve implemented. The next feature we’re going to talk about came as a suggestion from bleo. 

Bleo’s problem was that he had written a song on his guitar and recorded it, but now he wanted to use parts of it for live sequencing in littlegptracker. He wanted to be able to open up his recording, specify a tempo, and have the recording sliced up into 4 bar segments. He could then trigger and remix those segments in littlegptracker, Renoise, or Ableton Live.

I’ve run into a similar dilemma myself. I’ve written many songs in energyXT2, and I wanted to export soloed segments from each track so I could reconstruct the song and resequence it live using littlegptracker. This turned out to be incredibly labour intensive. I had to set loop points in XT2 around each segment I wanted, then solo the track or try to do a multitrack export from that point. It started to get frustratingly difficult, and I eventually gave up.

With BeatCleaver 1.2, we now have a solution to both problems. Via the new “Advanced Slicing” menu, you can have BeatCleaver slice your song by some beat or bar interval, given the tempo. For Bleo, he can load his guitar recording, specify the tempo and slicing he wants, and then instantly export the slices for sequencing. For me, I can now do a multi-track export from any DAW and slice up each track with ease. I can then resequence or remix my own tracks live using hardware samplers or even throw them into the sampler decks in Mixxx.

We’re now very close to a BeatCleaver 1.2 release, so you should be able to try out this new feature for yourself in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Zoooooooooooooom

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To continue showcasing what’s new in the next version BeatCleaver, here’s a peek our next big feature: Zoom!

Zoom, seriously? Why is that exciting? Why didn’t BeatCleaver have this before?

Zoom in BeatCleaver 1.2 is exciting because it’s slick, intuitive, and incredibly easy to use. We spent a lot of time carefully considering how to implement zoom because we think it’s the first place where the design of other wave editors starts to go wrong. To continue to make BeatCleaver easy to use, we wanted to take a different approach.

BeatCleaver’s waveform zoom is better because it’s completely fluid, “tool-less”, and frustration-free.

See for yourself:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo1NB3bBn_M?rel=0]

There’s no juggling between tools, holding modifier keys, or jarring “snapping” of the zoom. To zoom in BeatCleaver, just:

  • scroll your mousewheel,
  • do two-finger scrolling on Mac trackpads, 
  • or grab the zoom bar at the bottom and drag up. 

(The two-finger scrolling works both horizontally to scroll and vertically to zoom in/out – it feels fantastic!)

So why didn’t BeatCleaver have zoom before?

Initially, our primary use case was slicing short WAV drum loops, for which zoom wasn’t essential. We also thought that MP3/M4A support was a more useful feature, and that zoom would make the most sense after BeatCleaver could handle bigger files. So for the next release of BeatCleaver, we’ve added all of that!

In the video above, you might also notice our revamped our file loading code, which renders files as we load them, so you never have to wait. Need to load a 20 minute long song to slice from? No problem. Want to slice up some cool sounds from your last epic jam session? Piece of cake.

As we touched on before, there’s now an overview waveform at the bottom which can be grabbed and dragged to control scrolling and zoom. We spent a lot of time tweaking the exact feel of this “zoombar”, and we think it beats the pants off everything else out there. When our new release is out, give it a shot and let us know what you think!

We’re now starting closed beta testing for this new version of BeatCleaver, and if that goes well, we should be nearing a release. But before that, we’ve got one more little feature to reveal here on the blog before we launch, so stay tuned!

BeatCleaver: What’s Next

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BeatCleaver 1.1

The design of the current BeatCleaver (1.1) release was deliberately kept simple. It loads WAV files like drum loops and allows you to place slice points along the loop, then export them in a snap. Moving slice points is a breeze – you just drag them around.

The simplicity of the tool makes the workflow very fast.

But what if we wanted to take BeatCleaver to the next level? How can we add new features but keep the workflow fast and simple?

This has been one of my tasks for the last few months, and I’m excited to start sharing what we’ve come up with for BeatCleaver 1.2. In essence, we’ve improved the core functionality across the board, but there’s a story behind each new feature, so I’ll explain the new features across several blog posts.

Without further ado, the first new feature in the upcoming BeatCleaver 1.2 release is: 

MP3/M4A support

We want to be able to not just slice WAVs, but also be able to open up full songs and sample directly from there. So to sharpen our beat slicing skills, we’ve teamed up with the Mixxx Developers and created libaudiodecoder, a piece of code that will allow us to harness the native MP3/M4A decoding capabilities built into Windows and Mac OS X. BeatCleaver’s upcoming support for these formats is based on libaudiodecoder, which we’re developing concurrently.

So what else did we add then? What would be useful if we suddenly made BeatCleaver able to open up larger files?   

We’ll give you a few days to ponder…. and then we’ll be back with the answer. 😉