** 3 page review / 2072 words **

Squash it!

** SQLOGO.GIF **
** COW.GIF **
** These two images as part of title **

ACC '98 saw the launch of Electronic Cow's intriguing new digital audio tool. Shiuming Lai feeds it some sound slices...

** WAVEVIEW.GIF here **

Some people visited ACC '98 specifically to get their hands on a fresh copy of Squash it!. Most of us have seen the advertisements, a swish interface modelled like professional studio rack equipment, loaded with enough knobs, buttons and sliders to keep the most fidgety techno-freak happy. Now, the PC world is loaded to excess with fashionware. As hapless migrators to Cubase VST discover, flashing lights and pretty colours are one thing, an accurate MIDI sequencer is another - which begs the question, how does Squash it! balance between aestheticism and utility?

Prepare for a twiddle fest; Squash it! is the Atari sound designer's Swiss army knife, boasting some 40 processing functions for re-synthesis of parameters in different domains, from temporal to spectral and spatial, or combinations of these.

Once the disks are removed from the box disguised as a cow (I guess this is the type that produces milk in cartons), installation is as simple as copying the files to a hard disk partition - or a floppy disk configuration is possible if so desired, and typing in your name, address and registration number. Don't forget to return the registration card to qualify for technical support and upgrade news.

Load the program and it presents a sample wave viewer, empty of course. A few buttons along the top give control over channel selection (L/R, stereo), block markers, zoom, sample draw mode and other minor attributes. Zoom precision goes right down to single sample, up to 585 of which can be displayed at once. The scroll bar is a constant size and only position-relative, and while the tiny view range display is not to be scoffed at, I would have preferred a time base grid option as well. Oh, and not to mention a song position pointer.

Most features are operated in rack-mount style panels, each with its own thermometer progress bar. They can be positioned anywhere on the screen as if they are windows, by dragging with the cursor, or reduced to a small bar to alleviate clutter, easily possible in "mere" ST high resolution or VGA. On the other hand, lucky TT owners with large ECL monochrome monitors will simply love being able to have all the processing modules open at once.

Occasionally a non-modal dialog box pops up or other such conventional interface techniques employed. Thoughtfully, the panels are colour-coded according to function category, and the dials can be turned faster by holding down [Shift]. When this key is used for setting a numerical input field, it can be combined with [Control] and then [Alternate] to magnify the increment step by a further 10 and 100 fold respectively. Good attention to detail there.

Many common effects are available, including digital delay, gating, ratio/threshold compression and harmonising. There is low and high-pass frequency filtering, both with variable roll-off. Band-pass and notch functions are unfortunately not available but there are two choices of comb filter, FIR and IIR.

Overlay mode works in conjunction with the clipboard, with three types of modulation - amplitude, filter and ring, plus variable cross-fade, normalised mix (sources both scaled down by 50%) and summation. Enhanced block manipulation includes overwrite and insert modes, just like a word processor, and an excellent automatic crop facility for discarding any redundant space before and after the sample. A real boon for those already skilled, and fed up with repetition in this craft.

More unusual effects are the foundation of Squash it!. Bored with the low noise of your Jam OUT box? Grunge up those pristine digital sounds with the Erode module, add vinyl crackle and low frequency hum, variable up to 50Hz for simulating mains interference (where's 60Hz for the US market?). This module is like a SoundPool DeNoiser running backwards! After considerable experimentation it crossed my mind I might want to apply this effect to a whole song, alas, Squash it! currently has no direct-to-disk capability, a real pity so the more RAM the better.

A set of logic filters performs bit-wise operations on audio data. Binary arithmetic shifts, wraps and general digital origami, applicable to both time and amplitude domains. Some potentially strange effects are possible but the manual also gives hints on more practical applications such as click removal and phase correction. Waveform diagrams abound help convey some of the trickier topics, a professional touch.

Electronic Cow followers will know of Snippit Synth, the granular synthesiser. Squash it! can take an existing sound and re-order the grains according to user-defined grain numbers, amplitude weightings and actual grain separation method (gated or sliced). Exotic new rhythms can be generated from percussive loops, sometimes. More usually, like some of the other esoteric processing functions, music is mangled beyond recognition. You'll only be disappointed if you expect a function to re-synthesise a composition (difficult with audio as opposed to sequencer event data) rather than the audio signal it's represented by. The way to view these tools is as a means of producing new sounds. In one case I processed some drums and ended up with a microphone wind rumble followed by white noise crash cymbal and electric guitar glissando. An innocent FM bass synth note in a separate incident came out as mostly junk but right at the end was a brilliant pinball flipper noise. Wild!

Lateral thinking

What would happen if an image processing algorithm was applied to a digital sound? Squash it! will allow such a thing, and it's not as far out as it may seem. Think about it, numbers on their own are meaningless, they can be pixel colours or sound wave amplitude values, so it's no big deal to interchange transformation rules between them. The computer will still happily process the data, though the results are usually somewhat less reserved. A choice of five processes, all adapted for audio, is ready to wreak havoc on your samples.

Mirror: is a more advanced form of sample reversal which allows an offset to be defined as the point of reflection. Imagine being able to place a mirror at any point along the sample and facing either way.

Mosaic: like on television, when a person's visual identity is concealed by a pixellation hot spot, this function does the same to audio, effectively lowering the resolution, thereby forming audible square wave characteristics. Also removes attack from drums so they sound like those scraping synthesised efforts in many an old ST game. Progression of technology indeed!

Blur: suppresses high frequency content so detail is not as sharp, hence blur.

Posterize: can give the noise floor a small polish and performs a similar function to Mosaic.

Smear: works in a similar manner to a linear interpolation filter. The result can sound like a more severe Blur with hints of Mosaic.

Sample analysis

Basic statistics about the sample include tempo in BPM. I found it produced results almost identical, at least to the nearest whole number, as Zero-X, very reassuring. Knowing the amplitude peak would be slightly more useful if its position was also displayed. Very demanding engineers could well find the general precision and scope of data analysis insufficient but at this price level there's little case for complaint, especially considering the wealth of other detail.

Portability

Numerous sample formats and both 8/16-bit resolutions are accepted for file import and export, and MIDI transfer takes care of communication with your sampler. Acquiring live sounds from within Squash it! is not possible, even on a Falcon. Arguably, it's not a sample editor like Zero-X and a recording facility would blur its "processor" distinction. Still, I can see this being invaluable during a live session, so that's another thing for the wish list. I want analogue input and support for the SoundPool FDI so I can drag audio off my CD player, for the time being I have to make do with the slightly clumsy CD-to-disk export in my CD-ROM drive audio CD player accessory. While on the subject, use of an external sample clock as supplied from the FDI is required to hear CD audio at the correct speed.

It would be great if Squash it! incorporated some DSP code to speed things along, I found some processes unnecessarily sluggish on a standard Falcon. Having said that many times for other programs as well, I acknowledge DSPs are not the easiest things to program - perhaps some of the example code from Motorola itself and the public domain could be borrowed and/or modified for future updates. Dare I suggest real time operation for performance use...

One thing soon became a petty annoyance when monitoring from the Falcon's DSP port, as one does to bypass the naff internal D/A. Every time a sample is played, a small blip of digital garbage is appended to the front, making a clicking noise normally associated with the audio system being initialised on starting a program. I can just about tolerate it in that situation but not regularly while using a program. (It doesn't happen in Zero-X, which makes it all the more apparent) The effect is far less pronounced and more random when monitoring from the Falcon's headphone socket.

There is also a perceptible sample triggering latency on the Falcon and on the ST there is more serious delay when 16 to 8-bit conversion is performed for sample playback. I would be a little more lenient if only NED Player didn't do this in real time direct from disk.

In some ways the decision of constraining the interface to rack panels is not entirely helpful because the sample window doesn't always give enough information. The whole point of using a computer over traditional equipment is mainly to give a more visual method of working. We lose the important tactile aspect but this can be compensated for, like with graphical FFT analysis to aid filter setting. Maybe one day. I've already heard murmurs of "plug-in" (yuk) architecture from some quarters, not an unreasonable request, because then third-party effects could be released. A modular approach is perhaps too early for now, developer documentation is not yet available and there's a lot in there to explore already. As it stands, Squash it! is very competent for a first release and its STFM support, now standard in all of Electronic Cow's digital audio software, opens up a great opportunity for more users.

Replay quality is fair for the STFM, definitely enough to allow some good results to be achieved because the program always works in 16-bit precision, like some image processors always work internally with 24-bit colour depth regardless of what the host machine can actually display. Accurate monitoring is out of the question though - the STFM's background noise alone makes it sound like the Erode module is constantly running in the background.

I'm running out of space...

Top marks for the decent quality manual, which is not only well-presented but also written in a clear and accessible style. It doesn't intimidate or patronise, showing only true enthusiasm and care for its subject. Words can't do full justice to the power of this package, I'm going to pester Electronic Cow to produce a demonstration audio CD, it's certainly about time, what with all the back catalogue of fascinating programs as well. Otherwise take my word for it, 59 quid well-spent.

** Product box **
Product name: Squash it!

Publisher: Electronic Cow
350 Broadwater Crescent, Stevenage, Herfortshire, SG2 8EZ
Tel: 0411 544133
Email: electronic_cow@dial.pipex.com
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/electronic_cow/cownet.shtml

Price: œ59.00 + œ2.50 P&P

Requires: Any ST(e)/TT/Falcon, 1 Mb memory minimum, 640x400 (ST-high) resolution or higher, hard disk recommended

Pros: Sample playback on STFM, disk undo buffer, clear interface, deep creative potential, value for money, maths co-processor enhanced

Cons: No Falcon DSP or external clock support, processing limited to data in RAM, slightly awkward sample viewer

Score: 87%
** /product boxout **

** Images and captions sort of in order to be used **

** COMP1.GIF **

** DRMSPLIT.GIF **
Automatically chop up drum loops and export as individual samples with corresponding MIDI file.

** ERODE.GIF **
Also apply a low-pass filter for an authentic worn analogue medium sound.

** LFO.GIF **
Rumbling seismic effects from the low frequency oscillator. Crank up that sub-woofer and secure all delicate objects. Probably not in that order.

** MIDIDUMP.GIF **
Our old friend has another face-lift.

** PLAYFREQ.GIF **
** MENU.GIF **
** ANALYSE.GIF **
** CROSFADE.GIF **