Recycle 2.0 In the House!
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External Samplers
Hardware samplers can input and output data in two ways: via SCSI or via MIDI using the MIDI sample dump protocol. (When I say data, I don't mean digital audio.) Since each sampler has its own operating system, Recycle must be made to recognize each sampler individually. Recycle has a formidable list of compatible samplers, and can communicate with virtually all of them.

I chose MIDI to transfer data from the sampler to the computer and back again. With MIDI in and out connected, I launched Recycle 2.0 for the first time. When recycle scanned for samplers, it found the Akai S-1000 and identified it. At that point, if a loop were loaded into the sampler, simply clicking the "Receive" command in Recycle would request and receive the data from the Akai, load it in as a loop, analyze it and slice it.

Once the loop has been sliced, I can export it back to the Akai. When the Akai receives the data from Recycle, it creates an Akai program (called a "key map," in some samplers) with each new sample loaded sequentially, with the corresponding MIDI note set to trigger each sample. Can you imagine doing this manually in your sampler? It could take a half an hour, and that's substantial studio time. Weighing that cost against the price of Recycle, it would pay for itself very quickly.

The other thing of course, is that upon export, Recycle will create a standard MIDI file set to the tempo that Recycle determined the loop to be, and with a MIDI note to trigger each new sample, quantized to the appropriate meter. You can open this file in your computer sequencer, set it to your sampler's MIDI port and channel, and boom—you're playing the Recycled loop.

Recording in the Computer
Let's say I've got the Akai sampler, but I also have some recorded drum tracks that haven't been sampled yet. I don't really need to listen from a playback device, cueing and playing endlessly, and finally sample parts I like into the Akai, when I can just record a few minutes into the computer. This would give me far more control over listening and playback, with easier and greater editing capability. Once I identify a region for my loop, I can save that as a PCM file (.wav or AIFF) and just open it in Recycle.

In Recycle, I can deal with it like any other loop. Having done that, I can still transmit it to the sampler.

Keeping Your Recycled Loop in the Computer
Transferring digital audio via S/PDIF, optical, or AES/EBU, does not keep the audio in the digital domain in the same sense as transferring data (such as via MIDI, SCSI, ethernet, etc). Transferring digital audio is a loss of a generation in my opinion, and I believe that most would agree.

So if you're used to using a hardware sampler, then using Recycle is a beautiful marriage of old school with new. However, Recycle doesn't need to get its audio from a sampler, and it doesn't need to export it to a sampler. You can save your Recycle file, sliced and diced, as a "REX" file, which is Recycle's proprietary format. This new version of Recycle saves as an REX2 type file, so only the newer VST programs such as Cubase 5 and Nuendo will read this format. If you've used a previous version of Recycle, it's a bit of a trick to convert older REX files to the new format, but it can be done. Propellerhead's own "Reason" program will read the new REX format.

Bringing a REX file into a program is like turning the program into a sampler with a MIDI track already set up to play the samples. Very cool.

Greatest Thing Since Sliced Beats
Recycle is available for both Macintosh and PC. If you're trying to bridge the gap between hardware samplers and computers, then Recycle is a must. For anyone interested in a loop creation tool, Recycle is an excellent choice, with capabilities that don't exist in other loop software packages.

Go to www.propellerheads.se to learn more about Recycle and other Propellerhead software.