We take sample editing for granted these days; in one form or another, it's integrated into pretty much every DAW on the market. But once upon a time, slicing, dicing and stretching audio to fit our projects wasn't such a simple and convenient process.
Back in the early '90s, working with samples was a time-consuming task, and bringing loops of different tempos together in a single project was even tougher. Released in 1994, Propellerhead's ReCycle was one of the first pieces of software to tackle this problem, making it possible to time-stretch samples without changing their pitch and paving the way for developers like Ableton to incorporate advanced sample manipulation tools into modern DAWs.
More than thirty years later, the company - now rebranded as Reason Studios - is re-releasing (recycling?) a new, refreshed version of ReCycle as a free download and launching a beat challenge competition hosted by Def Jam's VP of A&R Don Cannon. 'ReCycling the Beat' invites competitors to flip a given sample in a new production - ideally using ReCycle - and submit the results before April 16 to be in with a chance of winning a year-long subscription to Reason+.
ReCycle works by automatically detecting the transients in a sample before chopping the loop into individual slices, the number of which is set using the Sensitivity slider. This allow the sample to be played back at different tempos without altering the pitch or introducing time-stretching artifacts.
An envelope, EQ and transient shaper can be applied to each slice, while gain and pitch can be adjusted for the overall sample. ReCycle operates using its own file format, REX2, which has since become a standard for storing audio loops with slicing data and is supported by a number of software samplers and DAWs.
"Why would I want to work with samples in a 30-year-old standalone app, rather than in the convenience of my chosen DAW", we hear you ask? Well, perhaps you're a former ReCycler looking for a nostalgia hit, or perhaps you're a novice beatmaker curious about how the sample-based sausage was made all the way back in the '90s. Or perhaps you simply just can't say no to a freebie. (We certainly can't.)
ReCycle remains a piece of music tech history, and it's a decent, if somewhat limited, piece of software with an excellent transient detection algorithm that holds up against some of its contemporary counterparts three decades on.
Find out more and download ReCycle 2.5 over at Reason Studios' website.
