Reaktor For You Community - Using Beat Loop module: way to make your live sessions more interesting

8/2/09 3:56 PM

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Using Beat Loop module: way to make your live sessions more
interesting
reaktorforyou April 29th, 19:14

I've seen lately there were some requests for tutorials about live tools for Reaktor. I would like to start with
Beat Loop module that is made mostly for playing different loops, however you can use this tutorial for other
sample modules. I'll show you how to randomize your loops, as well as some tips for interesting approaches
will be shown.

Beat Loop module

We'll start by browsing Beat Loop module and its inputs. I'm sure you're familiar with some of them, however
short description will be very helpful:

1) Clk - this is input clock event that strikes every 1/96 beat. Usually you will connect 1/96 Clock module here
from Midi In.
2) Rst - event input for resetting the clock of above input.
3) P - input for pitch control.
4) Sel - input for choosing a sample from your Sample Map.
5) St - start position of sample from length of sample in 16th notes (for example to start with 2nd of 16th note
input of 2 should be connected).
6) LS - loop start position of sample in 16th notes length.
7) LL - loop length position of sample in 16th notes length.
8) SO - this is input for modulating sample offset from its 16th notes position.
9) Sm - smoothness of re-synthesis - the more it is, the smoother sample plays, when changing pitch for
example.
10) Pan - pan control of sample (Left & Right).
11) A - amplitude control of sample.

Beat Loop module has stereo outputs (L & R), and very important outputs for total control over your sample:

1) Len - length of sample in milliseconds

2) L16 - length of sample in 16th notes
3) P16 - current position of sample in 16th notes (this output can be really useful for some manipulations)

Preparing Beat Loop module for work

First we will connect following modules:

Gate to Rst inputs of Beat Loop

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Gate to Rst inputs of Beat Loop

1/96 Clock to Clk input of Beat Loop
Note Pitch to Pitch input of Beat Loop
Constant of 1 to A input of Beat Loop

I strongly recommend you to connect knobs to LS & LL and try to play with them to understand how Beat
Loop works, however I won't stop on this - instead I will show you how to use this inputs in creative manner.
Don't forget to switch on Play button in Reaktor engine. Also I would suggest to load some loop with 32th or
64th note position, so you can loop it without any difficulties.

Creating randomizer macro

We're going to create randomizer that will fit our purposes first. Let's say we want randomize Loop Start and
Loop Length of sample, or its pitch. Let's decide what it will do:

1) We need positive integer randomizer (for example, to manipulate 16th note of sample or pitch diapason -
float values like 0.001 or -0.5 won't fit our purpose);
2) We need range input for randomizer (for example, range of 1..16);
3) We need randomizer with some speed control (so it will give us fast or slow random numbers);
4) We need randomizer that will go in sync with our Beat Loop (so it won't react like out-of-nowhere
randomizer).

To create such randomizer we will need following modules:

1) 1/96 Clock module as triggering device;

2) Frequency Divider module (in Event Processing), that allows to divide frequency of trigger on N parts (for
example, our 1/96 Clock hits each 1/96 note, but we will need it to hit much slower) with width of triggering
between 1 and 0 and vise versa;
3) Randomizer module (in Event Processing), that randomizes values in some range when there is event
triggering (we will use Frequency Divider module for this trigger);
4) Some math modules like Modulo, which lets go through only integer values and Rectify |x| module, which
lets go through only positive values.

So, let's build randomizer. I suggest you to create new Macro with 3 inputs (Rst - it will reset randomizer, Rng
- it will randomize values in this range and N - speed of randomizer), and 1 output (Val - we will use this output
for different inputs of Beat Loop module to control its different parameters).

The structure of randomizer will look like this:

(http://pics.livejournal.com/reaktorforyou/pic/00019psy/)

There is also going to be randomizer for Pan input of Beat Loop and as Pan has values of -1..1 we'll use
following randomizer:

(http://pics.livejournal.com/reaktorforyou/pic/0001a8g6/)

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Reaktor For You Community - Using Beat Loop module: way to make your live sessions more interesting 8/2/09 3:56 PM

(http://pics.livejournal.com/reaktorforyou/pic/0001a8g6/)

Okay, how does this randomizer work you'll ask? First, there is 1/96 Clock module that triggers every 1/96th
note. So, to get it trigger slower, all we need to do is divide this trigger by some value, however if you simply
use Divide module you won't get any result, because 1/96 sends midi events. To divide triggering frequency of
this module Frequency Divider is used. It divides Trig by N. It also has width of frequency (see my post with
Pulse waveform description for this explanation), so I would suggest you to set it to 0.5. After that event going
out of Frequency Divider makes Randomizer to generate some value in range input and it generates float
positive or float negative number. After that there is Modulo that gives us integer value if we divide float value
by 1. And after that we make positive value out of it. Done!

Playing with Loop Start, Loop Length, Note Pitch and Pan of sample

Now, by proper connection of above randomize macro with different parameters and inputs you will get
interesting random values for your sample, so it will sound unique. For example if you want to randomize
Loop Start, easy - just connect L16 output of Beat Loop module to Rng input of randomize macro. For Rst
input use Gate module and for N use whatever value you want - for example, 48, so randomizer will strike
each half beat. However, for beginning I would suggest not to randomize Loop Length, so you can hear how it
all works. I set it to 8. As for Note Pitch - don't set too big value for Rng input (I would suggest 5 or 10), so
sound of your sample won't change dramatically, however it all depends on your taste and N input. After that
sum up your Note Pitch module with randomizer macro output, so it will stay in your range. With Pan it is the
same - just connect Rng input (value 0.25 for example) and N input (I have 256). Sounds interesting, isn't it?

We've done with this tutorial, however there is lot of space left for your imagination. If you have any questions,
they will be answered fast! Don't forget to post your comments.

Pavel Gerus(Anonymous) Thanks for this tutorial! i have a question! I have 4 loopers controling by midi (such as
jump forward or back ) and effects ! what should i do to switch effects from one loop to another? (not using effects
on general output)

Re: Pavel Gerus : reaktorforyou: Hi Pavel! Would be better if you could post picture of your ensemble,
but I think you may use Selector/Scanner module with List or Knob as Pos input, or Distributor/Panner, if you
want to switch one effect to different loopers. Feel free to e-mail me reaktorforyou@gmail.com. Aleks.

Re: Pavel Gerus(Anonymous) Thanks for immediate reaction ! I ii try that stuff as soon as possible!
Pavel Gerus(Anonymous) Hi Again! Sorry but i have no possibility to make a picture of ens.and i did as u said! i
load a Selector\Scanner module on general output with knob as pos input! I ve connected effects with 0 input ( left
and right channel) through Selector\Scanner and no Effect yet ! What sould i do?

Re: Pavel Gerus : reaktorforyou: Pavel, please, contact me through e-mail: reaktorforyou@gmail.com and
send me picture or ensemble there.

You should use Distributor in this case I think. First, connect List or Knob with values 0, 1, 2, 3 to Pos input of
Distributor. After that connect your effect to In input. And connect 0 output to 1st sampler, 1 to 2nd sampler, 2 to
3rd sampler and 3 to 4th sampler. After that when you change position output will be from 0 to 3 changing from
1 to 4 sampler.

Re: Pavel Gerus(Anonymous) Thanks !!!I did it !!! Working great! Thank you !!! it was not so difficult as i
thought!

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Re: Pavel Gerus : reaktorforyou: You're welcome!

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