Introducting jambient Matrix

jambient Matrix is a Reaktor ensemble in the jambient series. Ensembles in the jambient
series are designed for live jamming with samples, geared to ambient-style sound making
and nonrythmical audio collage. This one is designed to be played as a VST instrument
and is inspired by the capabilities of Ableton's Live sequencer. But it is designed to do
something that Live strangely makes impossible: playing and organizing samples, Live
style, without having them be locked/stretched to a rhythmic grid.

The main instrument is the jambient Matrix. This contains eight sample banks, each
containing eight samples. Use drag and drop (for example, from the jambient Browser,
available in the Reaktor user library) to fill up and continually change your matrix of 64
samples. Click on the buttons to select the samples in the matrix you want to play, and
change pitches (including playing in reverse) as you like. When using VST automation
for selection, this means that you can travel through samples with a turn of your hardware
controller.

jambient Matrix also lets you use bank sequencing, so that when a sample in the bank
completes, there is a probability that the next, previous or a random sample in the bank is
played. This is controlled by the dropdown and bar at the bottom left of each bank. In the
B view, you can also draw pitch sequences for all samples in the bank, to give melodic
contours to your sequence.

Master controls on the righthand side of the instrument let you quickly select and play the
samples in first, second, etc. row of your matrix. Banks can be isolated from this
behaviour using the dropdown at the middle bottom of each bank.

The output of each bank has a gain control that fades output up and down at a speed
defined in B View. Clicking on Swch fades up the sound if it is muted, and fades it to
mute if there is some volume. A Master Swch lets you fade to mute all banks currently
sending output, and fade up all banks currently muted, to achieve dissolve effects.

See the tooltips for further documentation.

The ensemble ships with one sample that is loaded into all slots, so you don't have to tell
Reaktor to respond to missing samples 64 times--but normally you'd have 64 different
samples loaded.

The jambient Matrix instruments accepts four modulation inputs which can be selected
on a per bank basis to modulate the pitch of sample playback. Included in the ensemble is
an instrument containing a jaModulator (see documentation) for achieving turntable like
effects.

Some elegant programming (using one ramp oscillator per eight lookup tables) and
interface tricks makes this ensemble relatively light CPU usage: 21% on a 2.4 GHz P4,
versus 64% for an instrument that uses 64 tapes or regular sample modules. VST
automation IDs and names have been tweaked to make it easy to map automation
parameters in your host.

Throwing

In the jaModulator, the XY control pads are set up to enable 'throwing.' Basically, if you
quickly drag the cursor between two points and 'let go' of the cursor, it will start bouncing
around in the rectangular region defined by the endpoints of the drag. The speed of
bouncing is proportional to the speed of your drag.

Dropdown menus beside pads let you turn off throwing, restrict it to the X or Y axis, or
enable it for both X and Y axes. You can also modify the type of travel: straightline
Bouncing, sinusoidal Curving, or random Drifting.

If you want throwing to stop, 'grab' the cursor and hold it in place for a length of time, or
click on the little red light that goes when the cursor is travelling. This length of time is
specified by the Sns (sensitivity) setting in B view. If you want to increase the range of
different speeds you can throw at, increase Sns; if you want to able to stop throws in
shorter period of time, decrease Sns.

Note that the settings for throws are stored and recalled in snapshots, but are not
otherwise permanent across saves.

The V setting in the B view controls the speed of the cursor for a given speed of throw.
To decrease speed, increase V.

jaModulators

The purpose of jaModulators is to let you set up complicated dynamic modulating

patterns using a small number of settings. Instead of specifying all the detail of a pattern
step by step, with one throw of a cursor, you can set up a slowly changing frequency
pattern that varies and evolves over the playback of a jamLoop. How does this work?
Let's take a look at the jaModulator and see how it works with the Slp function.

The third dropdown menu from the top is where you pick the function for the
jaModulator: Nrm (normal), Lvl (level), Slp (slope), Sin (sine), Tri (triangle). (The top
two dropdown menus beside the parameter pad control 'throwing' of the cursor in the
parameter pad, see above.)

Select the Slp function, then click or drag in the parameter pad as your sample is playing.
Watch the yellow dot in the background of the parameter pad--it scans across at a
frequency set by the scan knob.

The slope of the line is set by the X position of the cursor in the parameter pad, the
intercept by the Y position of the cursor. When the cursor is centred left-right, the slope is
flat; to the left of center, the slope is negative, to the right positive. So, using the
parameter pad, you can make playback speed speed up over the course of playback, or
slow down, more or less drastically. Moving the cursor around during playback gives
nice scratch-like effects.

Now for the interesting bit: throw the cursor in the parameter pad. Depending on the
speed of throw, type of travel, the region in which the cursor is moving, etc., you will get
very different, evolving modulating effects. Try throwing so that the cursor just travels
left-right, or up-down (or use the X, Y, XY dropdown to restrict throwing to an axis).

This illustrates the basic principle of the jaModulator: dynamically setting parameters for
a function. Now for some more adjustments, and then the functions other than slope.

Adjusting output: The control to the right of the parameter pad lets you set a randomness
factor. After the random factor is added, the output of the jaModulator (which ranges
from 0 to 1) is scaled (multiply by a range, with an added offset). The output is then
damped and smoothed. You can set the factors for this in the B view. Playing with the
damping and smoothness settings can let you make the output more or less jumpy, etc. In
the case of the F jaModulator, playing with damping and smoothness is like playing with
the weight and damping of a turntable.

Speed of scanning: Adjust this with the scan knob.

Other functions:

The Lvl function is a special case of the Slp function--the slope is always level, and the
only parameter that matters is Y. The output varies with the height of the cursor, so
basically the jaModulator works like a knob. Throwing the the cursor in the Y axis will
make the output vary over time.

The Sin function computes a sine wave. The X value in the parameter pad sets the
amplitude of the wave, with positions to the left of centre giving a negative amplitude, to
the right giving a positive amplitude. The Y value sets the baseline, so you can move
your sine wave higher or lower. The control below the parameter pad lets you set the
number of cycles in the wave. Adjust to half a cycle to get a pattern that curves frequency
up and then back down.

The Tri function computes a triangle wave. Settings are as for the Sin function. Use this
with a half cycle to ramp frequency up and then down.

Nrm is a special function designed to let you quickly go back to normal when things get
too wacky. It always outputs the value 0.5. With the default scaling this yields a value of
0, i.e., no change to playback speed. Usually, you would choose the Nrm function by
clicking the Nrm button below the function dropdown. This selects the Nrm function and
stops throwing. After clicking the Nrm button, when you click in the parameter pad, the
function reverts to the type that you last selected (other than Nrm). (On startup clicking in
the parameter pad reverts to Slp.)
.