REPEAT¶
REPEAT turns what you play into a run of copies, and each copy can be pitched. Play one note and you hear it again, and again, at the spacing you set, each quieter than the last. The copies are repeats of the audio from before, so they work on plucks, stabs and picked notes.
On iPhone and iPad, REPEAT is part of the unlock.
How it works¶
Copy number k plays what came in k × TIME ago, at a level of DECAY multiplied by itself k - 1 times. REPEATS sets how many copies there are. All the copies are added together and softly limited. With FEEDBACK at 0 there is no loop: the copies simply stop after the last one.
Controls¶
| Control | Where | Range, default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| TIME (centre knob) | Face | 0.01 to 1.2 s, 0.11 s | Spacing between copies. With SYNC on it is a note length. |
| SHAPE | Face | 30% | Picks the pitch of the copies. See below. |
| REPEATS | Back | 1 to 64, 4 | Number of copies. |
| DECAY | Back | 0 to 100%, 85% | Each copy's level is the previous copy's level times DECAY. At 0 only the first copy sounds. |
| FEEDBACK | Back | 0 to 95%, 0 | Feeds the first copy back through saturation and a low-pass filter around 8 kHz, so it regenerates. It is bounded at every setting. |
| GAPLESS | Back | off | See below. |
| HOLD and LATCH | Face | off | Capture the phrase and loop it. See below. |
| CHAOS | Face | 20% | Random octave jumps. See below. |
Changing TIME does not sweep the pitch. The new spacing takes over in about 40 ms with a crossfade. Changing REPEATS fades copies in or out over about 5 ms.
SHAPE picks a pitch¶
SHAPE selects one of five stations. All the copies are played at that station's pitch:
| SHAPE | Pitch of the copies |
|---|---|
| Below 16% | One octave down |
| 16% to 40% | Unison, the same pitch |
| 40% to 64% | A fifth up |
| 64% to 88% | One octave up |
| 88% to 100% | Two octaves up |
The default, 30%, is unison.
Pitched copies are not a smooth pitch shifter. Each one replays the slice of audio that came in during the preceding TIME, faster or slower, and is cut off at the repeat boundary. Copies that are pitched up end early, so they leave a gap before the next copy. Copies that are pitched down are cut short instead. The result is a rhythmic, stuttering melody rather than a held note. That is intended.
At unison, a copy of a note gets a small dip, about 20 dB, in the last part of each cycle. It only does this for cycles that contained a new note, so sustained sound is left alone.
Bent Spool re-anchors the slices when it hears a new note, so a note you play comes back exactly one TIME later.
GAPLESS¶
GAPLESS only matters for copies pitched up (a fifth, one octave or two). With it on, a pitched-up copy plays on into the audio that followed instead of ending early and leaving silence. It does nothing at unison or pitched down.
HOLD and LATCH¶
Both buttons do the same job and differ in how you operate them. They capture the last TIME-length phrase and loop it, ignoring new input, with a 5 ms fade at the edges.
- HOLD is momentary. The capture lasts while you hold the button down. It also lets go if the pointer leaves the button or you close the editor.
- LATCH toggles. Press once to capture, and again to release.
They are only available in REPEAT. Neither is saved in presets or in your session, so you always reopen a project with both released.
CHAOS in REPEAT¶
CHAOS draws again at each repeat. With probability up to 80% (growing with CHAOS), a copy is shifted one octave, up or down with equal chance. Above 75% CHAOS, one in four of those shifts becomes two octaves. The shift stacks on top of the SHAPE station, so with CHAOS up and SHAPE high you can hear copies well above or below the station you picked. The change is crossfaded over 5 ms.
Sync¶
With SYNC on, TIME is a note length at the host tempo. If that length would be longer than 1.2 s, the knob does not offer it. REPEAT uses the tempo but does not use the beat grid, so copies are spaced from the notes you play, not snapped to the host's bars.