RipX DAW – Stem Separation on Steroids!?!
I know what you’re thinking – ANOTHER stem separation plugin! Well RipX DAW by Hit n Mix is not just any Stem separation tool. As its name suggests It’s practically a whole DAW dedicated to the art of ripping apart and manipulating audio. This is all very well but the real proof is how it performs sonically… Spoiler alert – It sounds pretty darn good!
In this overview, we will be checking out this amazing tool and seeing how it could be used to enhance your musical creativity. So first let’s have a look at the layout of RipX.
User Interface
OK, so the first thing to acknowledge is it’s not exactly the sexiest-looking piece of software on the market. It has an air of Discord about it. But in practice, everything you will need is generally visible and to hand making it quick and easy to navigate. All the main action occurs in the large audio editing window. As you can see a Piano keyboard is situated to the left. This helps to visually tie the world of Audio and MIDI together. Depending on what function is being used all your editing work is executed within the main audio editing window.
Once the audio has been imported and analysed the magic is applied and it separates into every notable musical element. The graphical representation of this audio, depending on the source has the look of audio soup about it. The different stem elements are however colour-coded and can be easily isolated,. This makes it much easier to see what’s happening. Navigation of the audio is fairly straightforward. You can click to play from wherever you like and zoom in and out with a single drag. All in all the UI is functional and with its fairly intuitive layout, you should be able to get to grips with it in no time.
RipX DAW features
RipX DAW is the newest incarnation of the RipX software solution. Previously RipX was available as 3 separate applications – Deep Create / Deep Remix / Deep Audio. These versions were described as Audio editors but with the launch of RipX DAW all the previous versions have now been amalgamated into what can only be described as a Digital Audio Workstation. So let’s go through the Key features of RipX DAW.
Standard Version
- High-Quality AI Separation of mixed stereo files into up to 6 separate elements including vocals, drums, bass and other instruments
- Export Audio to MIDI (including drums) to drive instruments in your favourite DAW. For a detailed explanation of Audio-to-MIDI check out this post.
- Add Automatic Harmonies with a single click or create your own by duplicating audio.
- Adjust Note Pitch & Duration, tempo, musical scale, stereo panning, volume and EQ levels.
- Copy & Paste Parts Between Songs, with automatic tempo matching
- Tune Notes naturally to the nearest semitone, or a new musical scale
- Apply powerful built-in Live Effects
- Randomize effects and musical scale/key for inspiration
- Understand the Music with intuitive, color-coded notes, and instant visual feedback of edits & effects
PRO Version
RipX DAW also offers a Pro version with additional features. These include…
- Clean-up Tools for the Highest Quality isolated vocals, drums, instruments & sound effects
- Audioshop® creative & repair tools
- DAW integration
- Unpitched Sound Editing independent from pitched notes & audio
- Pitch Adjustment of individual notes, even within chords
- Harmonic Editing of timbre & creation of new/hybrid sounds
- Live Clean-up & Repair
- Vibrato & Pitch Cloning between notes
- Timbre Cloning
- Chord Creation for boosting musical creativity
- Instrument/Sound Replacement including auto drum layering
- Note & Percussion Entry using sampled notes, sounds & built-in instruments
- Built-in Python Scripting for creating powerful audio editing, processing and analysis tools
- Many more advanced tools & effects
A world of possibilities
With so many innovative features, RipX DAW will appeal to a lot of different users. DJs, Remixers, Sample-based producers, mix engineers, and even people learning an instrument should all be able to make use of the powerful tools available. So here are just a few possible applications for this amazing software.
- Export Stems to DJ Sets to balance vocals and instrumentals on the fly.
- Dream Remix Tool, Easily remove and clean up acapella or song elements for use in Remixes.
- Creative Sample Manipulation: Split a stereo sample into its component parts to make limitless new arrangements. individual notes, chords, vocals, or sounds can be individually edited in numerous ways to create completely new arrangements or textures.
- Learn to Play Parts in songs by seeing the individual notes played on-screen, and even slowing down complex sections
- Once you have practiced the part you can remove it from the track and play along yourself with your given instrument.
- Audio Engineering applications Easily edit vocals with its impressive array of pitching and manipulation tools. Also, remove or repair any imperfections in a mix.
- Use the Audio to MIDI function to analyse and create MIDI files to be imported straight into your DAW.
- Sound Design possibilities are vast. Drag in some source audio and manipulate it to your heart’s content.
- Beef up drums/instruments with the layering function. RipX identifies individual drum/instrument elements and allows you to layer inbuilt stock sounds. You can then Control the sound and level of these layers.
- Media and Audiovisual applications. Have ultimate control over your AV recordings. Easily Clean up, control and make repairs to your audio signal.
- Customise and Correct AI music creations. Turn the often awful AI-generated music outputs into something usable by stripping out any unwanted notes.
RipX in Action
Check out this tutorial from Attack Magazine to see RipX DAW in action.
Summary
While many of the features available on RipX are available on other tools, until now they have never been combined in one do-it-all solution. I am struggling to think of anything you CANT do with audio in RipX, especially when you get to the PRO option.
Melodyne by Celemony would be the closest comparison. While both products perform fantastically, RipX DAW certainly wins on price. Talking of which at £99 the RipX price point is I think as pitch-perfect as its audio processing. It is certainly much more reasonable than many of its competitors and presents excellent value for anyone looking to get into some deep audio separation and manipulation. So with a generous 21-day free trial why not check out RipX for yourself and see where it can take your audio?
Remember – RouteNote Create subscriptions start from as little as $2.99. You also get 10 FREE credits to spend on samples along with access to our FREE sample pack bundle when you sign-up