Reaktor/Tutorials/Reaktor as effects processor/Precision snap morphing and randomizing

Precision snap morphing and randomizing
You've no doubt already played with the cool snap-morphing feature in R4; you simply load a different snap from the same instrument into the Snap A and Snap B slots, and then move the slider and watch and listen as the panel controls (except the buttons and switches) move from their settings in one snap to their settings in the other. The rate of change can be timed, from 0.01 seconds to 10 seconds, using the Morph Time parameter, or it can be equal to the rate of the slider movement, if the Morph Time is set to 0. When set above 0, the rate applies to any movement of the slider, so that no matter how far you move the slider, it will still take the designated time for the affected parameters to morph from the starting position to the ending one.



The key point is that only those parameters that have different settings in Snap A and Snap B will change during a morph. Those that are the same, of course, won't change.

It follows, then, that to target any number of specific parameters for modulation (except buttons and switches), you simply store the snap you want to modulate into two snapshot slots, change to new values only those parameters you want to morph in one of the snaps and overwrite that snap, then assign these two snaps to the A and B slots. Morphing between them will affect only those parameters you changed. You can set the target parameters to their minimum values in either Snap and their maximum values in the other to morph across their full range, or confine their settings to whatever range(s) and directions you want.

If you morph a master snap when the snap window is focused on a Master instrument or ensemble, it will modulate the panel controls of all child instruments, so long as there is a different snap in the A and B slots of all their Snapshot windows. In fact, you can set up any pair of A and B snaps in each subordinate instrument; they don't have to be the same snaps chosen in the master instrument. (If you like your new settings, just store them as a new master snap.) When the Link icon is hi-lited, you can quickly switch the Snapshot window's focus by clicking on the target instruments, and thereby refocus the morphing function as well.

Randomizing just the parameters that are different in an A-B pair of snaps is the function of the RND Merge button on the Snapshot window, which makes it a very quick way to target specific parameters for randomization, compared to selecting all those parameters you don't want to randomize and random-isolating them in their Properties windows.



You can focus either randomizing function at both master instruments and child instruments, as just described for snap-morph focusing.

It's also easy to assign an external MIDI controller to the morphing slider, but not in the usual way, using a contextual menu and “MIDI Learn.” Instead, you have to open the Properties window for the ensemble, go to the Connections page and assign a “Morph Controller” number that matches the MIDI controller you want to use, using the value window, then turn the function on by hi-liting its button.



Of course, “MIDI In” must be activated, the desired device selected, and all channels set correctly, as usual... and you'll get the best results when the Morph Time is set to 0.

Naturally, it's also possible to assign an internal modulator, such as an LFO or envelop follower, to the morphing slider. I haven't been able to do this using the ensemble's Morph Controller number and an internal MIDI connection, as just described, but easy to do once you insert a snapshot module into your target instrument. There's macro version of this module in the tutorial downloads, and here it is in action:

(Almost all the same functions on the Snapshot window are also available as panel controls on the snapshot macro panel, but since they're just as easily accessed on the window itself, I've made only the slider visible in this example. )



It's hard to imagine an easier way to quickly target a variety of parameters, set their mod ranges and modulate them, than by automating a morphing slider like this. You can put a snap macro in at the master level (make it an instrument to put it in at the ensemble level) and then focus it where you want by setting A-B snaps for only those instruments you want to modulate.

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