Technical Features

Features

A Good Playground

Freewheeling has been an inquiry into the nature of creativity. How do we play? And what makes a good playground? How can we organize an environment to create space for the Muses?

Focus on the ideation process

Freewheeling empowers the trance of immediate creativity by bringing us into a circular process. Time is utterly relative, and we are freed from the future-oriented mindset of product sequencing. If inspiration flows, later arranging and editing on a time-line can be done with other tools.

Fluid and intuitive interfaces for instrumentalists

Record, overdub, and play in a dynamic playing field of audio loops:

Multiple loops with different lengths can be recorded, triggered, cut and overdubbed at once.
Continuously variable feedback on multiple overdubbing loops- so you can journey through your soundscapes, while weaving in more solid, consistent grooves.
Loops can be syncronized to a common time pulse, and can also time-drift freely.
You can begin by just improvising- with no concept of tempo- and build from there.

User interface and audio processing work independently:

Any MIDI interface can work with loops.
Multiple MIDI interfaces can work together on a common set of loops. Try multi-player looping teams.

Integrates with Ableton Live and other sequencers:

Already using a sequencer to arrange or jam with loops?
Plug Freewheeling in. Freewheeling provides the instrumentalist-focussed zen-like environment for your initial inspirations. Speak to your Goddesses, channel your Muses.
Then, when your groove appears, sync up via MIDI clock, and you are online with your sequencer. Now, JACK moves your audio in tempo with your sequencer, so you can move your inspirations to a timeline gracefully.
Or, start with a semi-sequenced or DJed vibe, and pull back gently into something more organic, like your voice and a bass. Layer and overdub your acoustic sounds lightly, as your sequence dissolves into something completely new.
Under Linux, Freewheeling can also use the JACK transport for sample-level syncronization with other apps.

Control your synths live:

While you are improvising, Freewheeling works to direct your focussed energy to get the right sounds.
With the integrated MIDI-controllable patch browser, you can change your whole sound quickly.
Patches can cause your MIDI keyboard, guitar, or drum signal to be routed to different synths or plugins. Combi patches can be setup to split your performance controller into several zones, each feeding a different synth. Freewheeling brings your studio modules together to work in a live setting.

Integrated FluidSynth soft-synth:

Under Linux, Freewheeling comes with a built-in FluidSynth soft-synth.
FluidSynth is a SoundFont-based synth, and it is open source.
Right away, we have a big palette of sounds to work with. Your FluidSynth patches are folded in and can be easily browsed along with your other synth patches.

Flexible configuration system:

Freewheeling's configuration system offers keyboard and MIDI bindings with parameter mappings, user variables, and math expressions. You can radically tailor how Freewheeling looks and responds, so that it works closely with how you already make music.
Free hands? Free feet? Freewheeling can be set up to capture, trigger, and play with loops in new ways. Here, we go beyond parameter X controlled by MIDI Y. You can link several pedals to control feedback for different loops, or control volumes for a bank of loops with a single fader. Setup toggles and shift keys to vary the function of common buttons. Control many synth plugins from one hardware controller. Show loops in an onscreen piano keyboard, or define a visual layout for loops assigned to your MIDI drum kit. Go under the hood to make it fly.

Multiple loops with different lengths can be captured and triggered at once:

Inspired moments are easy to arrange later:

Growing your music:

Inspired sets of loops can be saved together in 'scenes'.
Loops and scenes are easily named, browsed, and reloaded.
Freewheeling includes integrated patch, loop and scene browsers, or you can browse directly on your filesystem.
Both individual loops and live mix streams can be imported into other audio tools for remixing. Full timing information is striped to disk, and can be converted to provide time markers within Ardour.

Multiple inputs allow improvising in a group:

Input combinations for grabbing loops are easily selected.
Grab loops from vocals 1 & 2 together, or just tabla, or synth and guitar.
If you punch record a bit late, Freewheeling is forgiving and grabs the missing audio from before your punch.

Minimum hardware: Cheap PC with standard audio hardware
Recommended hardware: Fast laptop with multichannel IO box
Major libraries: JACK, ALSA, SDL, OGG, FluidSynth
Real-time performance: 32/64 sample latency, depending on hardware
Design model: Multithreaded realtime object-oriented app
Real-time controllers: QWERTY / MIDI
Visuals: Fullscreen or windowed direct video
Grabbing loops: Similar to EchoPlex Digital Pro (EDP)
Maximum simultaneous inputs & outputs: No software limit, depends on hardware
Maximum number of loops: No software limit, depends on available memory
Maximum number of simultaneously recording and playing loops: No software limit, depends on available CPU
Actually, the above depend more on the skill of the user than on technical limits. More loops are more difficult to manage in a live setting. You have to walk with one foot in each world.

This wiki is available, modifiable, and shareable under the GNU Free Documentation License.