BitHeadz Voodoo [continued]

Controls in Voodoo
Voodoo allows you to drag-and-drop from the desktop any AIFF, Sound Designer II or Unity DS-1 sample into the program and assign the samples to any pad. Audio CD samples can also be imported into the program, albeit not directly from the desktop. Included is a sample editor containing several tools to edit your samples. Because the editor is within the program you can edit the sounds in a context-sensitive environment. Each pad can contain up to four different velocity-dependent layers. The tools included within the editor are info, gain, reverse, parametric EQ, shelf EQ, flange and delay. Upon clicking the info button you are given all the information of the sample, including sample rate, length, root note, loop start and loop end point. There is also a play and stop control for the sampler. Here's a rundown of some of the other controls:

• The gain button allows you to control the amount of gain you would like to apply to the sample.
• The reverse button immediately reverses the sample. If you don’t like the reversal you can undo the change. Parametric EQ has controls for frequencies between 22.1 Hz and 19,867 Hz (not 20 Hz to 20 KHz!).
• The bandwidth control goes from one octave to 10 octaves, and gain control + or -12 dB. You can also play the sample with the EQ applied to decide whether or not to keep it.
• The shelving EQ has two frequencies that can be "shelved." There are both low- and high-frequency controls with volume controls for each frequency. Interestingly, the low frequency and high frequency control offer the same bandwidth—again at 22.1 Hz to 19,867.1 Hz. In other words, you have two shelving EQs that are exactly the same. I suppose they have labeled these controls low and high so the user can keep it straight in their mind. Who knows?
• The flange window has controls for delay, feedback, speed, depth and mix.
• The delay window contains delays 1 & 2 and feedback 1 & 2, as well as mix. The delays can be set between 0 milliseconds and 566 milliseconds.
• The feedback level ranges from -100 to +100. The mix control mixes the two delays.

When applying different effects in the sample editor keep in mind only one level of undo is supported. For wild experimentation you should probably save the changes you are making so you can always go back to what you had before. The sample editor is a strong addition to this program. True, if you wanted to perform more esoteric operations, you would have to export the sample to another program, but the fact that there is this much capability within Voodoo makes the program a much better value.

More features
Once a sample is tweaked and assigned to a pad the real fun begins. Within the main screen is an oscillator section, an amplitude section, a filter section, a low frequency oscillator (LFO) section, effects 1 & 2 sends, a mute window and a drum fill window. Controls for the oscillator section include course, fine tune, panning, velocity and root-note value. The amplitude envelope window includes attack, decay, sustain length, sustain depth and release. The filter controllers include cut, resonance, overdrive, attack, decay, sustain, release, amount and velocity. The LFO section can be applied to pitch, filter or amplitude. In addition, various waveform options include sine, triangle, square and sawtooth. You can also control delay, ramp, speed, and amount. Two mute groups are available for similar instruments on two different pads that share the same voice, such as open and closed hi-hat, rim shot and snare hit, etc. Both mono and stereo samples are supported.

Voodoo contains a master effects section, which includes delay, reflections and reverb. Each of these parameters can be individually adjusted as well. Because each pad has its own send for these effects it is a simple matter to individually tweak effects to taste. Master parameters in the effects section include pan, volume, effects one master level and effects two master level. The effects are not the greatest but do help contour a mix.

All controls have a little dot in the center that adjusts the amount of the control. Adjusting these with a mouse is difficult, but you can double click on an amount and type in the number manually.

If you want to automate controller messages with Voodoo you have to use an external sequencer. Voodoo only receives on one MIDI channel at a time, so this can be rather complicated. Depending on your processor speed, RAM and sequencer application, you may experience latency with the program. The way I worked around this was to create my drum arrangement, save the file as an AIFF file, import it into Pro Tools and then build my song from there. This is my typical work pattern anyway, so it wasn't much of an adjustment.

As we went to press with this review, Voodoo 1.2 had just been released. The new version promises an increase in the number of voices to 128, DirectConnect support added for Pro Tools integration, improved reverb and eight assignable controller remappings. I wasn't able to test any of these new features, however.

Voodoo outshines its competitors in many ways. Yes, you can easily create a rhythm pattern quickly with the software. There are several software applications in the $200 price range that allow you to do this. What makes Voodoo unique is adding a fully capable sample editor, a very sophisticated sequencer and effects to the mix. I know of no other sampling drum machine software packed with so many features. One would have to buy a dedicated hardware drum machine/sampler to begin finding similar features (at twice the price, I might add). For all these reasons, Voodoo cast a spell on me.

Rob Albertson is a composer and musician and the owner of Rare Air Studios Inc., a full-service audio production and post-production recording studio based in Atlanta. He can be reached at rareair@mindspring.com.

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