Accusonus Rhythmiq $149 PC MAC

With machine-learning and AI inside, this groove remixing and rearranging plugin could help you take your loops to the stage

The latest plugin built on Accusonus’ proprietary machine learning-based drum kit separation technology – as previously deployed in Drumatom (9/10, 206) and Regroover (7/10, 240) – is a loop deconstruction and rearrangement instrument that “allows you to instantly jam with your beats”. Indeed, Rhythmiq (VST/AU/AAX) can even generate variations on imported audio loops all by itself.

Brains and beauty

The three Stem ‘slots’ at the bottom of Rhythmiq’s gorgeous interface each host either a full audio loop or one of three stems auto-extracted from a full loop, and their mixed output is represented in the overview waveform at the top. A 365MB library of WAVs and preset Projects (see below) is included, with add-on packs available through the Accusonus website; but far more importantly, importing your own beats couldn’t be easier. Simply drag a loop (up to four bars long) into the interface and, in the dialogue that pops up, choose whether to import the whole thing into one of the three slots or carve it up into stems based on its spectral content: kicks in Stem A, snares, toms and other mid-range content in Stem B, and hi-hats and cymbals in Stem C, loosely speaking – there’s invariably crossover between sounds in all but the most cleanly-mixed loops. Further loops can be dragged in to replace the contents of individual slots, so you can mix and match three full loops, or one or two full loops with one or two stems from another loop.

The global loop length is switchable between 1, 2 and 4 bars, but the playback start point is fixed at the beginning of the loop, so you can’t set the range to, say, just the middle two bars of your four-bar beat. Tempos are detected on import and all audio is time-stretched to match the host DAW’s project tempo in real time.

All change