Noob: I need a sampler that loops 24 times per beat

amaury
amaury Member Posts: 16 Member
edited February 2023 in Reaktor

Hello,

I'm very new to Reaktor and not that talented :)


I'm after building the simplest device to drive my ERM Multiclock. Reaktor seems appropriate as I want to sync it via Link, and output sound on my ASIO soundcard.


But, I'm totally new to Reaktor. I found the Looping Sampler, the basic one, and can have my sample playing in a loop. Now, I need 24 triggers per beat. I'm not sure how to go about that.


Any help appreciated. Thank you!

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Comments

  • amaury
    amaury Member Posts: 16 Member

    Ah, stupid me, 8T is 24 divisions per beat. Now I need to find how to have that simple loop sample react to BPM changes and how to enable Link. I'll come back if I don't find out. Any pointers welcome.

  • Paule
    Paule Member Posts: 1,328 Expert

    Double click the the BPM on top and type in your desired new bpm.

  • amaury
    amaury Member Posts: 16 Member

    I found this out, but what I'm asking is different. I made the simplest Ensemble possible, it only has the build-in Beat Looper found in the Library of Reaktor.


    This play audio fine, loops the sample fine, but doesn't react to Reaktor's transport tempo. It seems to play at its own tempo.


    I'm not sure sure where to go from there (never learned to use Reaktor so far)

  • colB
    colB Member Posts: 761 Guru
    edited February 2023

    A standard sample player playing a complete loop will always play at the original tempo unless you change the pitch. Pitch it up and the speed goes up, pitch it down and the speed goes down... just like with tape recorders, or vinyl.

    There are various more fancy approaches that can alter the tempo without altering the pitch and vice versa, but they are much more hi tech, and each approach has it's compromises... Probably something better handled in a good DAW than in Reaktor.

    For beat's it might be better sometimes to chop the loop into individual hits and sequence them explicitly, then the sound doesn't change as you change the speed...

    Not sure what beat slicing things are in the User Library. For pitch vs tempo stuff, a good starting place would be Jan Brähler's page:

    He has a bunch of ensembles that process audio in pitch vs speed ways...

    (seems the new forum doesn't like direct links to the user library :))

  • amaury
    amaury Member Posts: 16 Member

    Thank you for your answer. I wasn't clear. All I need is to play a very short sample, a trigger, 24 times per beat, to send signal to an ERM Multiclock.

    Surely there's a way to do that reliably without a need for a complex Ensemble?


    But then as Reaktor standalone didn't implement Sync Transport Start/Stop for Ableton Link (AFAIK) which was released in 2016 as an update, my usecase wouldn't work..

  • Paule
    Paule Member Posts: 1,328 Expert
    edited February 2023

    It's inside since Reaktor 6.1 from 2016

  • colB
    colB Member Posts: 761 Guru

    Why do you need a sample player for that?

    Can't you just send a trigger signal?

    Maybe even just the output from one of the midi modules?

  • amaury
    amaury Member Posts: 16 Member

    There was an update to Link with an additional feature. On top of synchronizing tempo, it would offer to start and stop the transport of all participating software together. i.e. starting Live's transport would also start Reaktor transport.


    I haven't found this option and see no settings for Link in Reaktor. I could have missed it. Is it there?

  • amaury
    amaury Member Posts: 16 Member

    It is to sync an ERM Multiclock, they provide a specific sample so I thought it would be better to use that one.


    Is it complicated to make a sampler trigger in 8th triplet reliably? I guess not. I'm just not that talented :). But I can learn, and will I guess.

  • colB
    colB Member Posts: 761 Guru

    Is it complicated to make a sampler trigger in 8th triplet reliably? I guess not

    Not, it should be pretty simple to do that. Separate it into two parts, a clock processer/generator, and a one shot sample player. Then drive the sample player with the clock.

  • colB
    colB Member Posts: 761 Guru

    Just had a look at that sample, and it seems to be 50 samples of value = 1, then value = 0 after that... easy to do that with or without a sample player...

    One way would be: Set the output to 1, count to 50 at sample rate, then set the output to 0 ;). Do that each time there is a clock from your clock processor/generator

    I imagine that the sample is needed for situations where there is no programmable real time output... like if you were using a drum machine as your master rather than Reaktor? ...or some DAW that didn't have configurable clock generation (is that a thing??)...

  • colB
    colB Member Posts: 761 Guru

    Here are some options:

    There are two sampler options:

    one based on the more modern table framework samplers where you drag the sample onto the sampler front panel

    One based on the OG primary sampler where you need to load the sample into a sample map

    and a third that just generates the clock gate on the fly - no sample required.

    These are all running at 24ppq, so if that's wrong, you would need some sort of divider between the clock module and the gate macro or sample player...

    The core cell is the fun bit - worth understanding how it works - its pretty simple if you take 10 minutes to work through it!

    An event at the input sets the output to 1 via a latch into the bottom of a merge. The input also resets a counter by sending a 0 to another merge that feeds a loop. In the loop the value is checked and if its not 50, 1 is added, if it is 50, nothing is added, and a 0 is sent to the output... that's it pretty much. Should give the same results as the sample player versions, without the hassle and overhead of loading and processing samples.

    The only possible thing to watch with any of this is different sample rates... if the ERM unit is super sensitive to trigger length, then for higher sample rates, you might need to increase that 50 in the loop test to a higher number like 100 or more... or add some extra logic to automatically change the value depending on the current sample rate (easy to do if required!)


  • amaury
    amaury Member Posts: 16 Member

    Thank you so much! I'll look into that in the next days. That's very generous of you.


    Now I hope to find/or NI adds that Link feature that available :)

  • Paule
    Paule Member Posts: 1,328 Expert
    edited February 2023

    From a fresh dl of „Getting started“ Reaktor 6.4

    It's the upper Ableton link from the manual. Is it enough?

    Now I hope to find/or NI adds that Link feature that available :)

    All is there. Please read the manuals carefully.

  • amaury
    amaury Member Posts: 16 Member

    Hi, thanks. I may have missed it but. I know about what you posted, I have Link working, tempo is synced, I know where the button is in Reaktor, it plays along with Live as long as I press Play in the transport in both applications.


    Now, there was an update to Link in 2016, which additionally to all you highlighted does the following:

    This, I haven't found, neither in the Reaktor documentation that you quoted (I went to read it again, thanks), nor in Reaktor itself.


    That's what I'm asking for. It requires NI updates the Link library that it available from Ableton, and probably adding a setting somewhere to allow enabling/disabling the feature.


    This is further described here:

    32. Synchronizing with Link, Tempo Follower, and MIDI (ableton.com)


    Now I'd be very happy to be proven wrong, when someone points me to the feature in Reaktor. Alternatively, I'd be eternally grateful if it gets implemented :)

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