Beat DJ is rebranding to Auwen

Change is inevitable... but luckily this change is for the better!

Auwen is the same program you know and love - now with a fresh name, a new logo, and a major update featuring a redesigned interface, piano roll, mastering command, sidechain effects, and more.

Auwen = Audio + Awen

Awen is a Welsh, Cornish and Breton word for "inspiration" (and typically poetic inspiration). In Welsh mythology, awen is the inspiration of the poets, or bards; its personification, Awen is the inspirational muse of creative artists in general. The inspired individual (often a poet or a soothsayer) is an awenydd.

— Wikipedia, Awen

I have Welsh ancestry and I have been an artist since a young age. My favorite guitar style to play is fingerpicking. I also enjoy painting/drawing. My great grandfather was a banjo player, my grandmother is a wildlife artist, and my dad went to school for computer science... so... HERE I AM! Some combination of all those traits.

The word "awen" deeply resonated with me to describe how it feels to make music. It often feels as if I'm channeling something greater than myself when I'm creating music, and I wanted a name that reflected that feeling.

The new hourglass logo is not only the 4 channel mixer in Auwen but also represents a connection between the mental realm (top) and the physical realm (bottom). Auwen is the link that helps facilitate this connection. It's a tool that opens a portal to the realm of inifinite possibility where all ideas can be manifested instantly.

Here is what's new:

• new graphical user interface design
• added new expressiveFX like highpass, lowpass, bitcrusher, and sidechain that work directly on sounds and can be smoothly edited with transistion times
• new pr piano roll command for editing melodies and rhythms in a piano roll interface
• new positions command for changing the positions of chops in a sound
• new howlong command for converting musical time to real time
• new arrangement commands like transformArrangement, next, yank, etc for more easily manipulating arrangements
• new listCommands command to list all commands by category
• fixed bugs with wonk
• fixed a bug with playback not playing the first sounds sometimes
• removed adjustScreen command because the UI has changed and it isn't needed anymore
• improved screenshot command to be more simple and fast
• removed screenshots from multiplayer because they were just confusing
• changed most commands to only work on chops that are toggled on for less typing and more predictable results
• removed keyboard shortcuts for windows/linux and left them for mac only because they were mostly for mac users and they were causing too many issues on other platforms
• removed composer command for now because it needs to be reworked with the new changes and the piano roll is better anyways
• fixed bug with small ogg files being filtered out of source folder
• added a mastering command and a command for converting to other file types with ffmpeg

With all that said, Auwen is actually about you. It's about channeling your own awen.

I hope to see Auwen being used to create all kinds of music and art that inspires and moves people. And I hope it brings people together in real physical spaces to dance and feel a sense of togetherness. I am grateful for everyday I get to work on this project and today is no exception! Thank you for supporting Auwen and I hope it brings you as much joy as it brings me.

Grab the download and run the migrate command to move your projects over if you need to.

And please please please stop by the Discord and say hi if you have any questions, suggestions, or just want to chat about music and art and stuff. We would love to hear from you! The community is what makes this project so special and I want to make sure you feel welcome and supported in any way I can.

Nes