Perculator v0.7.4
Rhythmic Effects Brewer user guide. Perculator is designed to turn a drum or percussion loop into a playable rhythmic variation quickly, while still giving you deeper control over step actions, transient detection, re-sequencing and export.
Quick Start
Insert Perculator
Place it on a stereo drum or percussion track and start playback.
Choose First Brew
Use the factory recipe selector as a balanced starting point.
Raise PERCOLATE
Increase the master transformation amount until the rhythm starts to move.
Set SENSITIVITY
Adjust transient detection if effects trigger too often or miss important hits.
Shape the feel
Use Groove, Space, Echo, Motion, Chaos and Swing to steer the treatment.
Blend and level
Use Mix for parallel-style blending and Output for final level matching.
Creative Actions
ROLL
Creates a fresh snare-roll style treatment. Repeated presses are allowed; a new partial capture replaces the previous one.
SHUFFLE
Keeps the loop audio intact while redistributing the current 16 effect assignments to different slices. Repeated presses create new variations.
FLIP
Maps every step to its musical opposite: Dry/Both, Echo/Gate, Space/Crush, Scatter/Filter and Reverse/Stutter. Press again to restore the exact starting pattern.
RECYCLE
Captures a clean bar, detects transient roles, rearranges the event order and auditions a newly reconstructed beat. Each press starts again from the protected clean source.
16-Step Sequencer
Step actions
Dry, Echo, Space, Both, Scatter, Reverse, Stutter, Crush, Filter and Gate.
Editing a step
Click a sequencer disc to cycle through the ten actions. The current action abbreviation is shown inside the step.
Depth + Chance
The slim bar below each step controls both effect intensity and the probability that the step fires. Drag horizontally to edit; double-click resets to 100%.
PREVIOUS
Recalls the complete state before the latest Roll, Shuffle, Flip or ReCycle. Press again to swap back for quick A/B comparison.
Main Controls + XY Live
PERCOLATE
Master transformation amount.
GROOVE
Strengthens rhythmic accent and pocket.
SPACE
Controls ambience and room-like spatial treatment.
ECHO
Controls tempo-derived delay treatment.
MOTION
Adds evolving movement and modulation.
CHAOS
Increases controlled variation and unpredictability.
SWING
Introduces alternating-step timing delay.
SENSITIVITY
Sets transient-detection responsiveness.
MIX + OUTPUT
Mix blends processed and dry signal. Output sets final level with soft protection.
XY LIVE
Horizontal movement blends Space toward Echo; vertical movement increases Motion/Chaos intensity. Parameters are host-automatable; double-click returns the pad to centre.
ReCycle, ReSeq and WAV Export
Press RECYCLE. Capture begins when step 1 next arrives and records one clean 16-step source bar.
Transient analysis identifies likely kick, backbeat, hat and ghost-note events.
Perculator reconstructs the event order using the current recipe's groove blueprint and short equal-power crossfades.
At the next bar boundary, the exact recycled result is auditioned in sync with the DAW.
Drag the RECYCLED LOOP.WAV tile directly into Ableton, or click it to save a permanent WAV file.
Press RECYCLE again for a genuinely new variation; the clean captured source is protected from generational degradation.
17 ReSeq recipes
The ReSeq bank performs explicit beat reconstruction rather than simply changing effects. Examples include Kick Exchange, Backbeat Switch, Hat Migration, Broken Barline, Half-Time Scaffold, Broken Funk, Triplet Mirage and Alternate Universe.
Loudness + rendering
Recipe changes use restrained loudness matching. ReCycle output applies DC removal, RMS control, peak protection and fresh effect buffers before export.
Recipe Guide + Troubleshooting
Saving your own setup
Use SAVE and LOAD beside the recipe selector. User presets are stored as portable .perculator files. Host automation and complete session-state recall are supported.
Troubleshooting
Lower Percolate, Chaos or Depth + Chance if effects are too busy. Raise Sensitivity if hits are missed. Keep the DAW transport running if ReCycle is waiting. Perculator 0.7.4 is designed so Shuffle, Flip and ReCycle can simply be pressed again for another operation.