Monthly Archives: January 2013

Chroma Update 1.0.3

Here is version 1.03 of the Chroma and Gris Gris sequencer and synth, which adds a few features and fixes a couple of minor bugs. The Gris-Gris synth now has two additional filter types, bandpass and high pass, and a ring mod control for metallic and bell tones. It comes with a much expanded and refined Lemur template that allows full editing of sequences.

To celebrate the release of this new version, the Chroma and Gris-Gris sequenced synth ensemble is temporarily reduced in price from $24.99 to $19.99

Chroma can be purchased and downloaded right now. Remember, Chroma is a Reaktor ensemble and requires a full installation of Reaktor 5.8.0, not just Reaktor player.

Buy Chroma and Gris-Gris Now Add to Cart

A link will be emailed to you immediately upon completion of payment.


I’ve also added further support for Lemur. The new template has three pages – the original quickpage, plus a sequence edit page and a full synth edit page that offers control of every parameter in the Gris-Gris synth. The quickpage now has controls for sequence speed, key and scale type.

Here’s the sequencer page. Swipe a finger across to set pitch and velocity, or use multiple fingers to adjust many values at once. If you enable bidirectional control, all parameters in Lemur will update on snap change, including sequence lengths and values. Note the cursors – their position will move as Chroma plays, letting you know where you are in the sequence without having to keep your eyes on the computer screen.

Here’s the synth page. All Cgris-Gris parameters are editable and also update when you change snaps in Reaktor. The filter section features a drop down menu to select scale types.

 

Here’s the updated cheat sheet – new features on the GUI are highlighted in blue.

chromanotes 02

Now, about that bidirectional control – in order to have your Lemur controls update when you change Reaktor snapshots, simply create an OSC target called Lemur, and direct it to port 8000 and whatever the IP address of your iPad is on your local or ad hoc network. Here’s what my config looks like:

Pretty easy, actually. Make sure you use port 8000 for Lemur though – that is its standard port and cannot be changed. (I use port 10001 for Konkreet Performer and TouchOSC)

More info on Chroma and Gris Gris, including video, is here.

Collaborative Building on Google Plus

As you may know, I’ve been kicking ass and chewing bubblegum working on a collaborative Reaktor project on the G+ Reaktor group. Our first project is to create a metasequencer by having one Roux macro modulate another.

Since it’s early in the new year and people are sluggishly recovering from the holidays I’ve gone ahead and done the assigned homework and here is a cheat sheet.

That’s the front panel – “Meta” is our modulator, and it modulates the “Roux” macro. There’s an “active” button to turn the metasequencing on and off, and a Snap# numeric readout to let you know which snapshot you’re selecting with the mouse in the meta-sequencer.

Which brings us to how Meta modulates Roux: it selects and recalls different snapshots. Here’s what it looks like inside:

As you can see, there’s some additional structure in this macro. Important note: the Snap Value [] array module, as you can see in its properties, is set to snap isolate and Morph/Rnd isolate. That’s because we don’t want it changing its own sequence as it recalls different snaps – we only want those events to select different sequences in the other Roux macro.

A couple of other things to note – the value coming out of the Snap Value [] module is scaled between 1 and 16 and quantized to integers. You can’t see it here but the event table has been modified to accept values between 1 and 16. This is perhaps not the optimal way to do this, as we have to change that max value of 16 in two places, but it’ll do for now. Why have a max value at all? It’s easier to select a value with the mouse that way. Again, there are other ways to do it, but later for that.

After the event table the values go through a router which is used to activate or deactivate the metasequencing, then into an order module which directs the values to the Snp and Recl input ports on a Snapshot module. This part should be self explanatory.

I could offer a download of the ensemble I built, but that defeats the purpose of collaborative building. I’d like anyone following along to build their own instrument / ensemble, come up with their own questions, and possibly their own ideas for improvement.

So get cracking!