The Butcher is an audio slicer geared towards realtime improvisation. When you record audio into the Butcher (you can also drag and drop a file into the interface) the audio is sliced into sections using one of three algorithms. These slices are then immediately mapped to notes on your MIDI keyboard controller. You can manipulate all of the start and end points of the slices quickly using the provided number boxes (these can also be mapped to MIDI CC messages), or fine tune the points by dragging the borders of the slices in the waveform interface. A number of effects including reverse, stuttering and pitch shifting can easily be applied with a single keystroke.
The Butcher is a Max/MSP patch. The waveform / slicing interfaced was programmed using OpenGL and JavaScript for the JSUI object available in Max/MSP.
Download the standalone app (1.5MB). The standalone app requires the Max/MSP runtime engine. Download the engine for free from Cycling '74