Event Tables #2: A Table With Multiple Rows

This post follows on from a previous post about Event Table and Iteration modules. Towards the end of that post, I was imagining using an event table with several rows of data; using Row 0 (the first row) to control some parameter of my instrument, using Row 1 (second row) to control another parameter, Row 2 (third row) to control a third parameter...

And someone on the Reaktor forum called my bluff and asked me to show how to do that. This week, I suddenly thought of how I might do it, so this post is an attempt to implement that technique:

Watch the video

I'm not actually making any noises this time (the last episode got a bit spooky, so I'm giving the atmospheric sonics a rest), I thought I'd test my theory with an ultra-simple instrument that simply sends the event table's outputs to a number of numeric readout panel controls. I actually found this simplification really useful: it meant I was able to see the results of my work as numbers, rather than having to interpret the numbers' effects on a sound. The video might also be useful to anyone looking to start processing and controlling events with iteration, value and order modules.

Note: I've been testing Azureus Vuze as a platform for my videos and I've discovered that I don't like it very much. This time, I'm testing a website called Sclipo, which has ropier sound but gives you a handy full-screen feature (right-hand side of the video control panel), looks more like Youtube than Azureus does, and where you can also learn how to play "Roses" by Outkast on piano or electronic keyboard. Sweet mother of the baby Jesus.

Event Table & Iteration Modules

Event table and Iteration modules: Playing with an event module; using Reaktor's Iteration module to program it.

Watch the video

I've been using event tables in a simple way for a while: filling them with random numbers, and repeatedly playing sets of those numbers within pattern sequencers.

But I've been struggling when trying to build a multi-row table, because I don't know how to make Native Table Files - data files in which Reaktor stores event table information, which can contain any number of rows. All I've been able to do so far is to import text files, which can only contain one row of data. So I decided to build an instrument which let me:

• Import a (single-row) text file into an event table
• Write that information into a second, multi-row event table, in a specific row
• Repeat until the multi-row event table is full

Then, I can save the multi-row data as a genuine Native Table File.

I decided to use an Iteration module, featured in the second half of the video, to whip along a row of data, reading a cell from my "import" event table, and write it into my multi-row, "target" event table. While I was working, I started to realise what the Iteration module might be useful for in the future, so I thought it was well worth a diary entry.