Beautiful Bleep

The Bleep App

The board without a DAW: for playing and sound design on its own, or next to Live. It is one of three places to use Bleep (plugin, app, web). Open the app, add modules with Tab, and patch as in Live. Projects are saved as .bleepboard files (File → Save).

Audio

Choose your audio interface in File → Settings. A new board starts with just In 1/2 and Out 1/2. More pairs of your interface, the MIDI ports and the Link node are there when you need them: Add → Port. Delete the ones you don't use.

What your computer plays

The System node carries everything your computer plays: a music player, a browser, a video call. Patch it into effects, or into an Audio Out to process it. No virtual audio driver is needed.

Turn it on in File → Settings → Audio → System audio → Capture what this computer plays. It is off until you do, because capturing sound needs your permission. Then add the node from Add → Port, like the other inputs.

  • Your own sound is left out by default, so patching System to an output does not feed back. Where the system cannot do that (Linux, older Windows), play Bleep App to a different output than the one you capture.
  • macOS 14.2 or later. The first time, macOS asks to allow Bleep App to record system audio. If System stays silent, allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording.
  • Windows 10 or later. Leaving your own sound out needs Windows 10 build 20348 or later.
  • Linux with PulseAudio or PipeWire. Settings lists the outputs you can capture.

The capture adds about 40 ms of delay. It is meant for processing and recording, not for playing live against it. More, with the setup for each system and what to do when it stays silent: Process what your computer plays.

A MIDI keyboard

Add MIDI Device (Add → Module → Sources), click it and choose your controller. Patch its Notes into a Voice Cell — e.g. Basic Poly — and the cell's Out L/R into Out 1/2. MIDI Device also has mono Pitch, Gate, Velocity, Bend, Mod Wheel and CCs. It exists only in the app.

MIDI to and from Live

The app has its own MIDI ports, Bleep App 1 and Bleep App 2 (more in Settings). No loopback tool needed. Add their nodes from Add → Port.

  • Play the app from Live: on a MIDI track, set MIDI To to Bleep App 1. On the board, the Bleep App 1 MIDI In node gets the notes.
  • Play Live from the app: patch into the Bleep App 1 MIDI Out node; on a MIDI track in Live, set MIDI From to Bleep App 1 and Monitor to In.

Audio to and from Live: Bleep Audio Bridge

Put Bleep Audio Bridge on any track in Live while the app runs. In the app it appears as a node named after the track:

  • Send L/R: the track's audio, into the board.
  • Return L/R: audio from the board, back to the track.

The plugin's Monitor setting chooses what the track plays: Send (its own audio), Return (the app's audio) or Mix. With nothing patched into the return, the track's audio passes through.

While bridges are connected, Live sets the pace: the app follows Live's audio, so nothing drifts. The bridge delays audio by two audio buffers and tells Live, so Live's delay compensation keeps everything in time. Exports include the app.

Turn on Transport → Ableton Link in the app and the Link button in Live: both share tempo, beat and (with Start/Stop Sync) play and stop. The Link node puts tempo, beat, bar, clock and play state on the board.