Fun with X/Y scopes - method inquiry

Hi guys!

Through the endless use of Reaktor & exploring the many variations of scope displays I have seen, I was curious if I could solicit ensemble makers to give some brief explanations of how they use the scopes to get the diverse variations I have seen..I mess with them in my own little disasters but rarely get displays that have knockout visual behavior like I see on the Menace, Jams iCer, & Brainwaves ensembles for example..

Don't despise me for this, as I'm at a very early state of instrument building & just wanna pick up some tips from you guys..So have some mercy on me

Thanks in advance & I'll thank you afterwards as well..howzatt sound?

 

A lot of it has to do with understanding formulas for the X-Y plane - things like y = sin(x) for making cirlces and stuff like that.

Take a look at "The Tag Artist" instrument in my El-Destrukto ensemble. This is basically what I did. I start with a formular for a circle where the radius was controlled by the amplidtude of the audio signal. The I just started adding different weird functions to it - by experimenting only. In the end I came up with something that has a cool randomness, combined with the fact that it always stays in the window (it doesn't wonder off) and it is also very responsive to the incoming audio - as there are several parts of the math tied to the amplitude of the incoming audio. It was justa lot of playing around though.

Another thing a lot of people do is have the x and y simply be the stereo L and R channels after the sound runs through a chorus or something. Or having them run for two sine-wave oscialltors in an FM synth.
This tend to give the spiro-graph "Lissajous" patterns that you see very often.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Curves/Lissajous.html

- CList

 

Thanks, Chris, I was hoping I could get you to reply. My problem is I'm a mathematical retard, and realize that will have a powerful negative effect on the depth & scope of my own work's functionality & uniqueness..

About the Lissajous stuff, yeah, I love that look..One in particular that always impressed me was Rick's display on rachToy 2..That one is excellent..

I look at some of Leboz's structures & my mind is completely boggled..

Work in progress I guess. But I intend to eventually be a contributing member of the uploading community so I'm just gonna have to look harder, think deeper & eventually tear my brain down the middle..



I really do have enormous respect for ensemble builders. I have to say that I spend at least 5 hours a day in Reaktor at this point, and every day I am more & more impressed by the ingenuity I see applied to Reaktor ensembles..

I'm quite pleased to be a Reaktor user if it isn't obvious enough already

Thanks again, Chris!

 

i also have problems with maths, i think the important thing is to look at a lot people's work and just try things out. programm child is another builder to have a look at, and of course rick scott.
try things out, have fun, don't worry if at first you don't like the results.

btw, the simple XY in Stockhaused in my System, was done by trial and error. basically i wanted the rectangles to work from the middle outwards, so i mucked around with the maths, have a look at the structure.


sowari

 

...

Word up - I think the "just mucking around" with a simple is a great way to go with this.
You can also learn so much about math by getting the instant visual feedback of the XY control for the numbers that are running through your formulas!

-----Original Message-----
From: Native Instruments forum <forum68_thread16224@forum.native-instruments.net>
Sent: Jan 12, 2005 2:43 AM
To:
Subject: [NI] User Library Creator"s Section - Fun with X/Y scopes - method i... -


New post to the NI forum on 2005-01-12, 11:39 h

Title:
----------------------------------------------------------------
i also have problems with maths, i think the important thing is to look at a lot people"s work and just try things out. programm child is another builder to have a look at, and of course rick scott.
try things out, have fun, don"t worry if at first you don"t like the results.

btw, the simple XY in Stockhaused in my System, was done by trial and error. basically i wanted the rectangles to work from the middle outwards, so i mucked around with the maths, have a look at the sturcture.


sowari

 

I agree with that, I've learnt a great deal about reaktor by just trying to make nice scopes.

If you want to learn how to make most of the different displays from the use the library, without learning any maths at all, simply get an XY module and two Sine waves , and then link each of the outputs of the sines to the XY inputs. Then synchronise one of the sine waves to the other, and set the phase of one of them to 0.5, with them both having the same amplitude and frequency.

By Magic you will see a circle appear! If you change around one of the sines for a triangle you will get a diamond shape. If you add an input signal to one or both sign waves you will get a circular oscilloscope. If you set the pitch of the signals to the same note pitch that's coming into the audio instrument (MIDI) you will get an accurate oscilloscope. Then try multiplying some of the sign waves by an incoming audio signal and you will get a dynamic oscilloscope which tracks amplitude nicely. Try using ramp oscillators and any tricks you can think of to make a new and interesting results trying to dive- in your mind in between the more chaotic signal paths so you find the best looking ones.

Hope that helps

 

Thanks guys!

*enters basement for a few days*

 

have fun!

ciao herw

 

One of the best things about the XY is using the fade time to create artefacts so that geometric shapes become apparent in the occlusion of a very fast fading set of lines.
When you are using two basic signals for each half of the coordinates, it's great to do pitch changes in between both.
Using a selector to interchange both signals with a multiplied value of one of the signals modulating the selector position can have also great results.

 

In this case Occlusion = concatenation = combination

 

my 'Pong Synth' in the user library (under SPECIAL) is based around using the XY scope as a graphics display. i haven't got any exciting swirly images going on with it, but perhaps you can learn something from its design?

 

I completely forgot to grab that when you uploaded it..

Thanks for reminding me about it, haydxn, and thanks everyone else for the suggestions.