Girl, new US$99 interactive audio mixing software from Yowstar, has been released for Mac users. Designed for live loop manipulation, Girl also serves as a dynamic supplement to electronic music studios, according to Peter Nyboer of Yowstar.
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Influenced by the experience of analog synthesizers, Girl is a musical instrument that relies on simple manipulations to create complex sounds, he said. Deejays, producers, instrumentalists and anyone else who uses remixed audio can use Girl to combine and transform live and/or recorded audio. The software manipulates just about any recorded audio file-AIFF, SD2, WAV and MP3-and transforms live streams such as microphone input or loops recorded “on the fly.”
When it comes to recording and remixing, this Girl lets you combine and play an unlimited number of sound files and tweak each one with delay, two multi-mode filters, a simple granulator, a segment sequencer, and pitch, volume and pan controls. You can synchronize your loops to one tempo and instantly record the complete stereo mix for further remixing. Commands can be mapped to your Mac keyboard to facilitate instant interactive control over your mixes.
MIDI enabled, Girl offers control over MIDI faders, keyboards, and sensors. She also integrates with other audio applications and hardware using ASIO drivers, DirectConnect, ReWire, or VST.
Girl is based on a simple idea, Nyboer said. Using a library of sound files in the “Sounds” folder, you can select any sound from any folder in the “Sounds” folder, and load it into a GirlModule, which will continuously loop the sound. Within a module you can modify the sound file using the effects and by looping smaller parts of the sound file. You can open any number of these modules, limited only by the amount of RAM and the power of your Mac’s processor. The modules can be treated individually, or the playback speeds of the loops can all be synchronized to a tempo.
A functionality-limited free demo and an interactive manual are available for download from the Yowstar Web site. It’s for the traditional Mac operating system, not Mac OS X.