Clicker



What is Clicker ?

Clicker was first conceived to generate click patterns in real-time, for a 'microsound' project I was working on some time ago. Basically there were several ambient soundscapes generated by Audiopaint, some granular effects created by Granulator, and I wanted to add a rhythmic component.
Recently, I was toying with the program a little bit, replacing the clicks with analog-like waveforms, and the result was some kind of crude compu-drum-machine, which I thought could be of some interest for other people.
A patch in Clicker is defined by a tempo, a scale, a key, global volume and filter settings, and 8 tracks. Each track has its own waveform, volume, pan, envelope, duration, pitch and pattern settings.


What are the parameters of Clicker ?

Main Parameters:

  • tempo: the tempo in BPM from 13 to 140.
  • volume: main volume.
  • scale: one scale from chromatic, dorian, eolian, ionian, lydian, major, minor - harmonic, minor - melodic, minor - natural, minor - tzigane, mixolydian, phrygian, whole tone.
  • key: one of the 12 keys.
  • filter: cutoff frequency of a global lowpass filter.


    • Track Parameters:
  • volume: volume of the track.
  • pan: position of the track in the stereo field.
  • pitch: pitch of the click (when it applies, i.e. not for noise) . The pitch is always in the scale / key selected in the main parameters.
  • shape: waveform in the click (sine, pulse, triangle, saw and white noise)
  • duration: duration of the clicks in the track.
  • env: type of envelope for the clicks in this track.
  • pattern: a 16-step pattern. It's actually a suite of 1s and 0s defining the position of clicks in the track. You can not define the pattern precisely. The higher this value is, the larger the number of clicks in the pattern.



    • What's new ?

    New in version 1.1

  • added 8 pads to trigger Clicker presets (they can also be triggered by program changes).
  • fixed minor bug in MIDI handling


    How to use Clicker ?

    Live usage: you can use Clicker in real-time, with the mouse or from a MIDI controller.
    A MIDI control change number can be assigned to every knob, and program change messages can be used to trigger presets.

    Studio usage: you can record Clicker's audio output into a .WAV file with the Record button.
    Then, you can process the .WAV file in any sound editor such as Sound Forge / Wavelab etc..., or import it as an audio track in a sequencer.
    Note that some sound cards such as the SoundBlaster Live also allow you to record the output of the card while its playing.
    You can also use utilies such as AudioMagic.


    Download

    Click here to download Clicker. You just need to unzip the file and the program is ready. Make sure to read the documentation (the Clicker_doc.txt file).