Scratchy – Noise & Rhythm Generator

Features:

• Control Scratchy with mouse / keyboard, MIDI controller or your iPad / iPhone
• BPM Tap function
• Add groove with a Swing control
• Bitcrusher and Comb filter to dirty up the sound
• 3 Filter effects: High Pass, Low Pass and Band Pass
• Delay and Reverb to create space

System Requirements:

• Mac OSX
• Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8

Optional:

• MIDI Controller
• Soundflower (Mac) or Jack (PC / Mac) – Use this if you want to route Crescendo’s audio into other software, eg., Ableton Live, Maschine, etc.
• TouchOSC or Lemur – Required if you want to control Scratchy with your iPad / iPhone. Templates are provided in the download.

Setup & Usage Instructions:

Windows Setup:

– Double click setup.msi and follow the on-screen setup instructions. Once installed, double click the Scratchy icon from desktop or Programs.

– Select an audio driver from the drop-down ‘Settings’ menu (either MME or DirectSound).

– To uninstall, use ‘Add / Remove Programs’ in Windows or open Setup.msi and choose the ‘Remove’ option.

OSX Setup:

– Double click setup.dmg and drag the Scratchy icon into the Applications folder.

– Double click the Scratchy icon to start.

– Delete the Scratchy icon from Application folder to uninstall.

In both versions, the app starts with the volume turned down by default. Just turn up the volume and press the buttons to start making some noise!

Usage:

Use the computer keyboard, click the arcade buttons on the right hand side of the GUI or use a MIDI controller (see MIDI section below) to play gated noise:

q – 1 note per beat
a – 1.5 beats per beat
w – 2 notes per beat
s – 3 notes per beat
e – 4 notes per beat
d – 6 notes per beat
r – 8 notes per beat
space – continuous note when held

Change the pitch of the sound by using the Cutoff dial.

Use combinations of buttons while moving the cutoff to simulate a scratching sound.

Automate the cutoff by turning on the LFO. With the LFO turned on, the X-Y pad changes Frequency (speed of cutoff movement, synced to tempo – y-axis) and Amplitude (range / amount of cutoff movement – x-axis).

The rest of the controls are as follows:

Vol – Master volume
CTRL In / Out – MIDI Controller
BPM Tap – Manually tap out the BPM (or click and drag in the BPM window to change)
Low – Activate low pass filter for a bassier sound
Mid – Activate band pass filter for a mid range sound
High – Activate high pass filter for a high pitched sound
Reson – Controls the resonance amount of the filter
Cutoff – Controls the cutoff amount of the filter
Crush – Controls the bit crusher effect. 0 = Off
Comb – Controls the comb filter effect. 0 = Off
Freq – When LFO is on, this controls the speed of filter movement
Amp – When LFO is on, this controls the range of the filter movement
X-Y Pad – change Frequency and Amplitude of LFO
Horizontal slider – Nudge beat forwards (right) and backwards (left) by fractions of a beat
Small button – Reset nudge
Swing – “Shuffle” amount
Del Time – Select from 1, 1/2 , 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8, 1/12, 1/16 timings
Del Amt – Controls delay amount (dry/wet & feedback)
Reverb – Reverb amount

– Press the ‘t’ key, click the Tap button or press the ‘BPM Tap’ button on the iPad to tap out a tempo (to which the Gater and Delay will sync). You can also manually select a tempo by clicking and holding in the number box then moving the mouse up and down or by typing in a number. Note that the BPM tap will not work unless the volume is moved from the 0 (off) position.

– Tempo will automatically sync to your DJ software’s BPM as long as it can output a MIDI Clock and it is set up to do this. We’ll use Traktor as an example, but the same principle applies to other software:

Syncing to Traktor’s BPM:

– (Windows Only) Ensure you have LoopBe1 and Bonjor services installed.

– Open Traktor, go to Preferences > MIDI Clock. Make sure that ‘Send MIDI Clock’ is ticked.

– Go to Preferences > Controller Manager > Add > Generic Midi

– Select ‘none’ for the In-Port and ‘to Scratchy 1’ (OSX) or ‘LoopBe Internal MIDI’ (Win) for the Out-Port.

– Back on the main Traktor screen, click the Metronome icon (top left), then ‘Sync’. It should look like this:

– On Scratchy, open Settings and select ‘to Scratchy 1’ (Mac) or ‘LoopBe Internal MIDI’ (Win) from the ‘BPM In’ drop down menu. Note that even if this is already selected, you may need to select it again. You should now see the BPM in Scratchy changing in time with whatever’s playing in Traktor.

Again, Traktor is used here as an example, but you can sync to any application that outputs a MIDI Clock message (eg., Virtual DJ Pro or most DAWs such as Ableton Live or Cubase).

MIDI Setup

Scratchy will work with any MIDI controller which allows you to set your own MIDI Channel and CCs, eg., any Novation Automap-based controller such as Nocturn.

Just select your MIDI controller from the drop down menu in ‘Settings’ and map your buttons and dials to the following MIDI CCs (on Channel 8):

Setup with iPhone / iPad as a controller:

TouchOSC (iPad & iPhone):

First you will need the latest version of TouchOSC (£2.99 from iTunes). You will also need TouchOSC Editor and TouchOSC Bridge, available for free from the Hexler website.

– If Scratchy is already open, shut it down / exit.

– Install TouchOSC on your iPad / iPhone and run it

– Ensure that your iPad / iPhone and PC / Mac are connected to the same network, either through a router or an Ad-Hoc network. An Ad-Hoc network is recommended for the best performance.

– Download, install and run TouchOSC Bridge. Open TouchOSC on your iPad / iPhone and go to Settings > MIDI Bridge. Ensure this is enabled and you should see the name of your computer appear. Press this to connect. If you don’t see your computer name here then there’s a problem somewhere with the network setup. Check that your iPad / iPhone and computer are both on the same network. There’s more info on connecting through TouchOSC Bridge on the Hexler website’s MIDI Bridge Connection page.

– Download, install and run TouchOSC Editor. Open TouchOSC Editor and open the supplied template (make sure you choose the right layout for your device, either iPad or iPhone) then press the ‘Sync’ button. In TouchOSC, go to the Layout menu and press ‘Add’. The name of your computer should appear in the ‘Found Hosts’ section. Press your computer name to upload the template. There’s a commonly reported problem of people having trouble uploading templates though TouchOSC editor. If you’re having trouble, hexler.net recommend that you try uploading the template to your iPad using iTunes instead. Just connect to iTunes, select your iPad, click the ‘Apps’ tab, click on TouchOSC and drag and drop the template in. Once loaded, click the ‘Info’ button in TouchOSC and ensure that coreMIDI is enabled.

– Open Scratchy and select ‘TouchOSC Bridge’ from the ‘CTRL’ drop-down menu in the Settings screen. You should now have 2 way communication between your computer and iPad / iPhone.

Lemur for iPad:

You will need the latest version of Lemur for iPad (£34.99 from iTunes). You will also need Lemur Daemon and Lemur Editor, available for free in the Lemur Installer from the Liine website.

– If Scratchy is already open, shut it down / exit.

– Install Lemur on your iPad and run it

– Ensure that your iPad and PC / Mac are connected to the same network, either through a router or an Ad-Hoc network. An Ad-Hoc network is recommended for the best performance.

– Follow the video guides on the Lemur support page for instructions on how to connect Lemur with your PC / Mac.

– IMPORTANT! Make sure you connect through Daemon Input 0 and Daemon Output 0.

– Once connected, load the layout (included in the download) through Lemur Editor and press the small Play button in the top right hand corner. The layout should appear on the iPad.

– Open Scratchy and select ‘Daemon Output 0’ from the ‘CTRL’ drop-down menu in the Settings screen. You should now have 2 way communication between your computer and iPad.

Audio Routing

Scratchy will work ‘out of the box’ with your default audio device. However, you can route the audio to other devices should you wish. Just select the audio device you want to use as an output through the ‘Output’ drop-down menu in Scratchy’s Settings window.

By routing the audio through an internal audio router such as Soundflower (Mac) or JACK (Mac / PC), you can record the sound directly into a sequencer / DAW such as Ableton Live or Cubase. Please refer to the guides in your DAW / internal audio routing software for details on how to do this.

Here’s how to route Scratchy to Ableton Live:

Demo Video:

Download:

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Windows:

OSX:

Known Issues:

Scratchy is still in beta, so it’s possible that you may encounter some problems. Please report any bugs / issues in the Forum.

– In some Windows setups turning the volume all the way then turning it up again will permanently mute the sound. If this happens you will need to reselect your audio driver from the ‘Settings’ menu or restart the app.