Psycle is a free software music studio originally designed to clone Jeskola Buzz, although its pattern editing interface is more like that of a classical tracker. As in Buzz, users engineer mixes by wiring together "machines": generators such as synths and sample players make sound, and effects take input sound and modify it.

History and license

Version 1.0 of the program was released into the public domain by its author, a coder known as Arguru, when he lost interest in the project. Since then, Psycle has been maintained by several programmers, whose modifications are licensed under the GNU GPL.

Most of the program's plugins are free software; however, a few (the Phantom synth, for instance) are not.

Comparisons to Buzz

Psycle is often compared to Jeskola Buzz, a more well-known program that shares the "machine" idiom.

One notable difference is that, while Buzz allows patterns to be made per-machine and the patterns sequenced together side by side, Psycle only uses one set of patterns to control all machines. In this respect, Psycle is closer to trackers such as Impulse Tracker. Some Buzz enthusiasts point to this as a step backward, while others maintain it makes Psycle better suited to pop music and Buzz better suited to experimental music.

Psycle, being younger and less widely used than Buzz, has far fewer machines for it. On the other hand, users generally describe Psycle's synths as being smoother and easier to work with than Buzz's.

Psycle tends to require more CPU power than Buzz.

External links

Psycledelics is the Psycle homepage and community.

Psycle is also the name of a club promotor who run psy-trance nights in Nottingham, UK. The nights happen either in Blueprint club, Alfreton Road or in a warehouse in the area somewhere. They have a website here: Psycle