Beautiful BleepWays to use Bleep
Beautiful Bleep is one sound engine you can reach in three places, and in each place you can use it at three levels of effort.
Three places
| What it is | Best for | |
|---|---|---|
| Bleep plugin | VST3 plugins for your DAW (Ableton Live today). See ports | Making music inside a DAW project |
| Bleep App | The standalone app: the board without a DAW | Playing, sound design, live use next to a DAW |
| Bleep Play | Bleep Play in your browser, no install | Trying things out, sharing a project |
All three run the same board, the same modules and the same project files, so a project made in one place opens in the others. (Bleep Play does not have every module yet; the board page lists what is missing.)
Connecting them
The places work together: MIDI, audio and tempo can travel between them, and you choose where in the place you are. The plugins have a Board menu (This set, Bleep App or Bleep Play), the Bleep App has a Web switch in Settings, and Bleep Play has a Connect to app button. The Bleep App sits in the middle, on your computer. What works:
| Plugin ⇄ App | App ⇄ Play | Plugin ⇄ Play (through the app) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIDI | Board menu on MIDI In/Out, or the app's MIDI ports | Remote MIDI nodes | Board menu: Bleep Play |
| Audio | Board menu on Audio In/Out, or Bleep Audio Bridge | Remote Audio nodes | Board menu: Bleep Play |
| Tempo and transport | Live leads; Ableton Link | Bleep Play follows the app | Bleep Play follows Live |
Audio between the plugin and the app is two buffers late; through Bleep Play it is a little more. Connecting plugin, app and Bleep Play has the numbers, the setup and some recipes. Another computer, or Bleep Play without the app, is planned, not built.
Three ways to play
Whichever place you are in, you choose how to start:
- Instrument. Pick a preset such as Warm Saws, play it with MIDI. For when you want a sound, not a board. In Live this is Bleep Instrument.
- Audio effect. Pick a preset such as Dub Ping-Pong, send audio through it. In Live this is Bleep FX.
- Full board. Every module, every cable, your own project. In Live this is the Bleep Board plugin, with ports that connect the board to your tracks.
These are not three different systems. An instrument or an effect preset is a small cell on the same board as everything else. The simple modes are a shortcut: you can try presets without ever touching a cable, and when you want more, open the board, edit the preset's cell, cable it to other parts, and save it as your own.
| Instrument | Audio effect | Full board | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bleep plugin | Bleep Instrument | Bleep FX | Bleep Board and the ports |
| Bleep App | Planned | Planned | Yes |
| Bleep Play | Planned | Planned | Yes |
In the plugins, Instrument and FX open on the preset's panel (knobs and sliders) rather than on the board. Open Board shows the preset as a cell on the board. Cables between several plugins need the Bleep Board plugin in the set, because the board is saved there.
Next: Getting started in Live, the Bleep App, or Bleep Play in your browser.