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Phraser Audio Looper
What is Phraser?
Phraser is a simple audio looper, similar to a Jam Man pedal, that will let you repeat a section of music forever.
Why would I want to repeat a section of music forever?
A very common use is to practice playing parts over a particular set of changes. For example, you can loop a section of a song that you are learning to jam with and practice as long as you feel like it. There are probably other uses for Phraser too, and if you have any interesting ones please let us know by leaving a comment below.
How do I load music into Phraser?
Clicking the Load button will bring up a file browser. Browse to select an MP3 or WAV file for Phraser to load. If it's an MP3 file it will first be decompressed and the progress is displayed on the status line. Next the audio data is analyzed and displayed as a waveform. See the usage informatio below for what to do next.
How can I save my work?
Once you've created a loop with the start and end point where you like them you can export this section of the song as a WAV file. To do this click the Export button and save the file. If you load this file back into Phraser it will have only the looped portion of the original file.
OK, so what about those security popups?
Phraser is written in java which is designed to (among other thngs) be very secure. In order for Phraser to open an audio file from your computer java must first get your permission. To do so you must click Run in the security dialog. You may also click the checkbox that says 'Always trust content from...' to avoid seeing this popup each time you run Phraser.
When working with MP3 files they are decompressed and stored on the local hard drive until Phraser is finished with them, at which point it is deleted. This is another reason that the security dialog is asking for your permissions. WAV files are not compressed, so Phraser is able to read directly from the without having to first decompress them.
A prototype and proof of concept
Phraser is a useful too but is also a simple test for the usefulness of java as an audio platform. The bits and pieces that make Phraser work will eventually be joined by other features such as recording, editing and effects processing. We would love to hear of your experiences with Phraser to give us a sense of how well we are doing and how wide an audience we can expect to support with the upcoming java audio tools.
One last note and you're ready to go!
In order for Phraser to run on your computer you will have to have java installed and enabled. You can find out more about java and if it is running on your computer here.
When you open the Phraser page it will take a short while for the java applet to load. The amount of time will depend on your network speed, for broadband connections is should be well under a minute. The next time it will probably start faster because java will keep (cache) some of the pieces around. Next you will get the security popup and when you click Run you are ready to load a file and begin playing. If it doesn't work for you please check here for some java tests and troubleshooting ideas. You should see a window below that looks like a bigger version of the graphic below. Click on the graphic to launch Phraser.
