Hi all.

I have been working on a dozen or so different 40h applications in
Reaktor lately, and one of them is finally at a point where I feel like
sharing it with all of you.

'tempi' is essentially a seven-track sequencer controlled via the 40h.
It works quite differently from something like an ordinary step
sequencer though. Each track has seven different 'sequences' attached to
it, each of a certain configurable length. Notes are entered by pressing
a 40h button at the desired time of the note. As each sequence loops
when it reaches the end, this makes for some quite nice polyrythmic
possibilities. It outputs midi, so remember to connect it to your
instrument of choice in reaktor.

That is basically the gist of it. Details can be found on panel B of the
instrument. I have compiled a fairly detailed explanation. I am
currently using 'tempi' both for creating some complex arpeggios, but I
have also found it extremely useful for percussion. I'd add some demo
videos, but I haven't got a digital video camera.

As this instrument was built using the 'make it up as I go' approach,
the structure is a bit silly at places. For one, I definitely should
have used polyphony instead of the endless copying and pasting of
modules for the tracks. Also, there are some slight initialization
glitches that I simply haven't bothered to track down.

I most likely will be updating this thing as I come up with ideas for
things to change or add. Any comments, bug reports, or feature requests
are most welcome.

Cheers.

- jesper / nubilus

...Damn, Reaktor ensembles are really compressible!

Ah, first bug fix already. Changing notes of the track now switches off 
any notes playing. This should help avoid hanging notes.

- jesper / nubilus

im just starting to understand this, but i have to say - amazing!  you 
are one creative reaktor programmer!  even the GUI is flawless.

i would consider adding a sound generator as a demo, although i can see 
being hesitant that users would think it was part of the ensemble, thats 
why for demos i use factory instruments often.  im playing it with 
Carbon 2 right now, its a blast.

also, the page updating thing can usually be fixed by having the page 
update button somehow delayed of offset, so that after the new values 
are sent to the OSC send (make the top values of the module go into a 
value), the page select triggers the value module at the top of the osc 
send.  im sure you know that the osc send only sends values after 
receiving an event at the top input, this makes doing refreshes much 
easier.  actually, if you are ever working with led_row instead of col 
or led, using frame is even easier for this, since you only have to send 
one trigger value (but, you also have to refresh the 40h at every clock 
step or button press).

amazing work!  is the wiki working again?  if so, id post it up there,.

also, is the fact that a note doesnt sound when presses intentional, or 
a technical limitation?  ive considered doing something similar to this, 
have worked on a few projects, and have always been on the fence about 
this, if i want presses to sound when presses, or only after the first 
time thru the loop.

one more thing, the only other constructive criticism i can give, is 
that included help is great, but i had to read the forum entry to really 
understand how entering notes works.  this should be a bit more clear in 
the help.  again, this is minor, this is a really amazing ensemble, so 
far both your contributions for the 40h are becoming my favorite reaktor 
ensembles.  cant wait to see where this project goes.

Wow, thanks for the extremely rapid response and the nice comments. As 
for your comments/suggestions:

It could be made so that pressing a button causes a sound. I decided not 
to do this though. Also, I guess it would be rather tricky to set it up 
so that it would actually sound in sync with the sequence, at least as 
the instrument works now. As it is now, when you press a button, the 
currently played step is flipped. I would have to change this so that 
pressing a button would flip the next step instead. This should be 
rather easy to change though, I just found this way of doing it rather 
counter-intuitive when working with it. Another way would of course be 
to just play the note once as you hit the button. That might actually be 
a better idea...

As for the help; yeah, I found it difficult to explain how the thing 
worked. It is always difficult to explain my own creations, they seem so 
obivous to me. :)

Thank you very much for the feedback. This is a truly excellent 
community, I am just glad to be able to contribute to it.

as per request, i have now attached carbon2. so tempi now features
instant gratification in the shape of a truly wonderful loop. khudos to
anyone who can withstand it for more than 30 seconds.

i stress that people should try all kinds of sound sources. percussive
sounds are loads of fun for this app.

heh, you dont like carbon?  ive gotten some cool sounds out of it, its 
pretty thick sounding, but its easy to spend tons of time with nothing 
good coming out.  still, i find the presets pretty good for demoing 
purposes.

oh, you misunderstood. i like carbon, it is a great synth. it was more a 
comment on the small sequence i tossed together. :)

Wow. Great app! I've been "taking breaks" from work all afternoon to 
play with it.

I too wasn't initially clear on what I was doing when pressing buttons, 
but with a bit of trial and error and general mucking about, I actually 
find it more intuitively inline with my own way of thinking about loops 
than most other step sequencers that I've used.

I've got a couple of thoughts about features, but am running late to 
meet up with some friends for dinner because I've been having too much 
fun. I'll write them up later on. Just wanted to drop some quick thanks 
for this cool app.

> oh, you misunderstood. i like carbon, it is a great synth. it was more a 
> comment on the small sequence i tossed together. :)

my bad!  i see what you mean though when you stress above about trying 
with differant sound sources, it would be a shame if people just used it 
with carbon.  percussive sounds are good, but the source must take in 
notes at many pitches for it to be useful, something like memorydrum 
would work well.  also, did you ever download letruc from the user lib? 
i havent tried this with that ensemble, but it is one of my favorites, 
and will probably sounds nice with this.

im using tempi right now, im beta testing kore 2, but i dont have the 
kore controller and im too lazy to plug in my oxygen8.  regardless, this 
makes testing much more fun, i think this is probably one of the coolest 
sequencers i have ever used.  again, thanks!

>im using tempi right now, im beta testing kore 2, but i dont have the 
>kore controller and im too lazy to plug in my oxygen8.  regardless, this 
>makes testing much more fun, i think this is probably one of the coolest 
>sequencers i have ever used.  again, thanks!

Thanks a lot. Glad you like it, I am quite proud of how self-contained 
the sequencer turned out to be, in terms of 40h control.

do you need reaktor to use this?

unfortunately, yes.  its the only major fault i can give Reaktor.  if 
you have the money, check out the demo, its an awsome app, but for 
someone also getting into maxmsp, i think id wait.

yeah, it is starting to bug me a little that i am limited to sharing my 
40h stuff with reaktor users only. seems like a lot of people here are 
using max/msp instead. unfortunately, i think it would be quite a hefty 
task to port this app to max.

no doubt!  i find it much harder as a Reaktor user to even get anything 
great from max/msp to begin with, let alone porting something.  probably 
easier if i were a max user from day 1.

i feel like max nd reaktor serve different purposes. reaktor focuses on 
making intense effects and get into the nitty gritty of synthesis 
immediately and low level building blocks make it easier to a newb user. 
in essense its fun right away. BUT max/msp is far more open and is much 
more about control data and working with other apps or technologies. i 
like max and reaktor but for different reasons, i have to say tho i keep 
coming back to make for its versatility.

bolig, you put it perfectly, like exactly how i feel.  except, i always 
go back to Reaktor, its just what i know i guess.

So, I finally picked up a copy of Reaktor, and want to try this ensemble 
out.  Can someone give me some basic instructions?  Do I have to run 
monomeserial in order to use this with the 40h (I'm on XP)?  What order 
should they be launched?

Also, on a side note; does anyone else notice a LONG lag when setting 
the MIDI and Audio settings in Reaktor?

Hi,

Yes - you run Monoserial first - make sure you have the latest version.
Open Reaktor and check your OSC settings are correct.
It should looks something like this

http://www.leoleox.com/oscleo.jpg

also there is good help here on setting up Reaktor to communicate with 
40h:

http://forum.monome.org/topic/686#new

http://forum.monome.org/topic/819#new


cheers,

mudlogger