BRECAN Mk2 for WOAS

BRECAN Mk2 is a breakbeat engine for WOAS

- WAVESNAP is a freeze effect that holds a snippet of audio, with its length determined by RESOLUTION.

- RAMP OUT generates a sawtooth or sine LFO, with its speed doubling repeatedly as you turn RESOLUTION. MUTATION blends between the two waveforms.

- POPULATE clears and generates a new pattern each time it's pressed. RESOLUTION now alternates between 1/8 and 1/16, rather than spanning 8 to 64 as before. Note: pressing POPULATE on a beat will create a gap, as you're clearing the pattern just before that beat plays.

- SWING has been remapped to reach its maximum at the 12 o'clock position. Beyond that, it begins to act as a noise gate.

- BEND scans through four banks of beats across all voices.

A BREAKS folder mounts when you connect WOAS to a computer, allowing you to copy your own files onto the instrument. The process is the same as the one you're already familiar with from FEARM and FEARM MICEL.

All included break files are Creative Commons-licensed samples from Freesound. This is a ZIP archive of the samples and a text file containing credits and links to the original sources.

Making your own breaks

If you want to create your own files for BRECAN Mk2, you'll need to follow these specifications:

Output length: 470,400 samples
Format: 16-bit, 44.1 kHz, mono WAV
Tempo: 180 BPM

You'll need 16 files, named Break1.wav through Break16.wav.

For levels, aim for approximately:

RMS: −15.3 dBFS
Peak: −1.5 dBFS

You don't have to stick rigidly to these parameters, but the results will become more experimental if you don't.

...and it doesn't have to be just breakbeats, either...

GEBYRGAN

gebyrgan.orgeldream.com

GEBYRGAN is a file mulcher that spits out rhythmic audio files in a format compatible with WOAS running the BRECAN Mk2 beat engine.

Here, I'm feeding it Tri Repetae by Autechre, then dragging the resulting files onto the BREAKS drive that appears when you connect WOAS to a computer.

The idea is to open up the possibilities of the engine rather than lock you into a fixed set of included breaks. Make your own, mangle whatever you like, and see what happens.

A disk image of the beat engine for 4GB micro SD is here