Rolodecks

Twisted Tools ROLODECKS Plugin

removing ext effect ability - there were also extL extR outs to to able to connect your own effects from the outside (not only macro) but they were unconnected anyway. need to check hints and doc to remove that

don’t forget ab view (ext related)

Welcome

Thanks for purchasing ROLODECKS. We hope you enjoying using this tool as much as we enjoyed making it!

ROLODECKS is a multi-effect processor that allows for real-time slicing, stutter and time-based effects using a dynamic semi-modular effect chain adept at rhythmic sound transformation.

ROLODECKS is built for Native Instruments Reaktor and free Reaktor Player.

System Requirements

In order to use our Powered by Reaktor instruments and effects, you will need to meet the following system requirements for optimal performance:

System Requirements

Installation

All Twisted Tools plugins follow a similar installation process. To learn how to install Twisted Tools Powered by Reaktor plugins, please follow the link below:  

Installation

Manual Conventions

Important warnings. Always read these!

Notes: Useful notes and relevant additional information.

Tips: Tips and advanced techniques.

What is ROLODECKS

ROLODECKS is a real-time dynamic multi-effect made up of six effects

ROLODECKS is a multi-effect processor that allows for real-time slicing, stutter and time-based effects using a dynamic semi-modular effect chain adept at rhythmic sound transformation.

The built-in ROLODECKS effects are: Slicer, Flange, Filter, Delay and Reverb.

(grain-STRETCH)

How Does It Basically Work?

ROLODECKS can be played, sequenced or freely running. You can route live audio into Rolodecks or use the included sample content to feed the effect. The effect signal flow is always in series from left to right, though the effect order can be rearranged on the fly by clicking and dragging an effect. Each preset can dynamically store and recall up to eight scene variations.

ROLODECKS Feature Highlights

  • Slicer: Slices up incoming audio, allowing you to rearrange and manipulate it based on an adjustable buffer size.

  • Flange: Creates classic or extreme flange effects.

  • Filter: High Pass/Low Pass Filter with distortion.

  • Delay: Tempo synced delay effect, with dub style controls.

  • Reverb: Room simulator with an EQ.

  • grain-STRETCH

  • Envelope Follower: Detects the amplitude of the incoming audio (or any signal connected to the EF) and generates a modulation signal based on the changes in amplitude which is then routed throughout ROLODECKS.

  • Scenes: Each preset has 8 scenes which you can think of as sub-presets. These sub-presets store all the non-global settings. All the knobs, modulation lanes and envelope settings are stored with a Scene. You can copy/paste Scenes to quickly make variations and play the Scenes via MIDI.

  • Gate Mode: When Gate Mode is on, the effect will only be on when ROLODECKS receives a MIDI note. Attack and Release settings can be set to shape the wet signal over time.

  • FX ON Sequencer: Allows you to turn the effect off and on for any 16th note step.

Getting Started with ROLODECKS

Setting Up ROLODECKS In Plugin Mode -----

Setting Up In Plug-in Mode [todo]

Overview of ROLODECKS

Global Settings

Above the FX Tabs, you’ll find all the global settings. These settings are universal and not tied to any specific effect.

  • BYP: Bypasses the entire effect. Sound is unprocessed by ROLODECKS.

  • GATE: If switched ON, scenes work as FX triggers when MIDI note is pressed. Default mapping is white keys of the C3 octave (QWERTYU on your computer keyboard when in Reaktor standalone mode and in most hosts).

  • A: Global attack time for the effect when GATE mode is ON. In other words, this is the time it takes for the wet sound to reach its maximum level, which is set with the MIX slider.

  • R: Global release time for the effect when GATE mode is ON. In other words, this is the time it takes for the wet sound to return to dry.

  • MIX: Global mix (dry/wet) parameter. Allows you to control the balance between processed and unprocessed sound.

  • AMP: Global amplitude (volume) of the instrument. This is the master volume level for everything that comes out of or passes through ROLODECKS.

With the exception of BYP and GATE, all the global settings above the waveform display are stored with your Scenes by default. Sometimes you might prefer that these settings don’t change with your scenes. You can Scene Isolate parameters to prevent them from being affected by Scene changes. When you click the parameter's text label the slider will turn yellow to indicate it has been scene isolated.

Waveform/EnvelopeFollower Display

The Waveform display shows the audio as it comes into ROLODECKS and the area that will be processed by the effect. If the Enveloper Follower’s VIEW mode is on, the display shows the modulation signal generated by the Envelope Follower.

Global FX ON Sequencer

Allows you to turn the effect off and on for any 16th note step. Speed of the sequence is synced to BPM.

FX Tabs

There are six main effects in ROLODECKS. They are the Slicer, Flanger, Reverb, Filter, Delay and Grainstretch and can be selected, edited and ordered using the FX tabs.

  • Left-click an FX tab to show an effect’s knobs and settings in the center stage area, directly below the tabs and access modulation lanes for the effect.

  • Left-click on CPU toggle to switch the effect on/off.

  • Right-click on CPU toggle to solo current effect, right click again to unmute all effects.

  • Left-click, hold and drag allows you to reorder the signal flow (in series) of the effects.

The order is stored with the current Scene, which means you can rearrange the effect signal flow on a scene-by-scene basis and thus reorder effects on-the-fly!

The Effects Parameters and Settings

Slicer

The Slicer is a real-time audio recycler, that allows you to rearrange and manipulate slices of the audio as it enters the live audio buffer.

The length of the captured audio is defined by BUFFER SIZE parameter and the slices are 1/16th note length. It is also possible to FREEZE the buffer capture, effectively looping the captured audio while block any further incoming audio.

Slice Sequencer Area: Left-click to draw slice position, right-click works like a ruler to reset the slice positions in the main slice window or draw horizontally in the modulation windows.

Slicer Modulation Area:

  • AMP: Slice amplitude (volume).

  • DEC: Slice decay (or length).

  • PAN: Panorama setting to place each slice left/center/right in the stereo field.

  • ROLL: Slice retrigger effect.

  • PITCH: Pitch (transposition) offset for each slice. Center position has no effect.

  • REV: Slice reverse (on/off).

Flanger

The Flanger effect creates classic and extreme flange effects.

  • EF: Bipolar Envelope Follower modulation amount control. Modulation is routed to the Tone parameter. Click the triangle icon to quickly reset EF amount to zero.

  • TONE: Flanger tonality (delay time).

  • STEREO: Introduces small stereo offset to Tone parameter, producing a nice spacious stereo effect.

  • FBCK: Amount of audio feedback. More feedback produce more extreme and tonal effects.

  • MIX: Amount of Flanger effect to be mixed with the signal arriving at the Flanger’s input.

Filter

The Filter effect has either a high-pass or low-pass filter, with distortion and envelope follower modulating cutoff parameter.

  • EF: Bipolar Envelope Follower modulation amount control. Modulation is routed to the filter Cutoff. Click the triangle icon to quickly reset EF amount to zero.

  • DRIVE: Amount of overdrive saturation. Nice for adding a bit of “dirt” to the sound or extreme distortion effects.

  • CUT: Filter Cutoff.

  • HIGH PASS: If switched ON, the filter is in High Pass mode, if switched OFF, the filter is in Low Pass mode.

  • RES: Filter resonance amount. Filter resonance boosts frequencies around the cutoff position.

  • MIX: Amount of Filter effect to be mixed with the signal arriving at the Filter’s input.

Reverb

The Reverb effect is a room simulator with an EQ and envelope follower effect.

  • EF: Bipolar Envelope Follower modulation amount control. Modulation is routed to the Mix parameter. Click the triangle icon to quickly reset EF amount to zero.

  • LO: Boost or remove low frequencies of the wet signal.

  • HI: Boost or remove high frequencies of the wet signal.

  • SIZE: Reverb size control. Allows you to change the size of the room effect.

  • MIX: Amount of Reverb effect to be mixed with the signal arriving at the Reverb’s input.

Delay

The Delay is a tempo synced beat-delay effect, with dub style controls and an envelope follower effect.

  • EF: Bipolar Envelope Follower modulation amount control. Modulation is routed to the Mix parameter. Click the triangle icon to quickly reset EF amount to zero.

  • TIME: BPM synchronized Delay time.

  • TRIPLET: If switched ON, delay time is in triplets.

  • FBCK: Amount of delay feedback.

  • PONG: Stereo ping-pong effect. Works best with long delay times.

  • MIX: Amount of Delay effect to be mixed with the signal arriving at the Delay’s input.

  • FREEZE: Freezes the audio stored in the delay buffer, resulting in infinite looping of the captured sound.

Grainstretch

B VIEW

There are 3 modulation sources and destinations available. You can think of modulation as ‘internal automation’ that allows you to automate the parameters you chose using the destination setting.

Source - Source of modulation. Choose any EXT Mod or Envelope Follower as a source of modulation.

Dest - Chose how and/or where you would like to send the modulation selected at the source.

OFF - Modulation will not be sent.

IC SEND - Modulation will be sent via IC SEND. IC SEND’s are useful for quickly making internal connections. When you choose IC SEND, use the menu below to choose the destination for the modulation.

IMPORTANT: Please note that IC SEND settings are stored with the ensemble, not the snapshot (preset). This is standard Reaktor behavior that can’t be changed.

CC- Modulation will be sent as a MIDI Continuous Controller message. You can use CC messages to control any internal device or external device that understands them. One benefit to using MIDI CC messages is that they are stored with Reaktor snapshots.

MIDI NOTE- Modulation will be sent as a MIDI Note message. You can use MIDI Note messages to control any internal device or external device that understands them. One benefit to using MIDI Note messages is that they are stored with Reaktor snapshots. You can use MIDI Note messages to trigger playable effects like Buffeater, that depend on receiving a note message to trigger the effect. A value of . 5 and above is a note on, whereas a value of .5 and below is a note off.

RANGE- Allows you to choose a range for the output of the modulation. This way you can get more focused and/or subtle changes. For example, a modulation value that was originally 0-1, can be scaled to .75-1. Double click to reset.

FX Mod Lanes And Settings

The FX mod lanes allow you to automate certain FX parameters for the currently selected effect. The Mod tabs work the same as main FX tabs.

  • Left-click an FX Mod tab to select a modulation lane.

  • Left-click on CPU toggle to switch the lane on/off.

  • Right-click on CPU toggle to solo the lane. Right-click again to unmute all lanes.

  • Left-click and drag to draw values.

  • Right-click and drag to draw equal values (ruler) or reset values (depends on mod lane).

Mod Settings

Each mod lane has its own modulation settings. In other words, these settings are for the currently selected mod lane only.

  • SMTH: Turns on modulation smoothing causing the values to glide in between steps. If off, values will instantly jump between steps causing more abrupt changes.

  • CLOCK DIVISION: Sets the division or resolution of each step. If set to 1/32nd, it means that each step in a modulation lane is 1/32nd note long.

  • LEN: Sets the length in steps for the modulation lane.

Global Mod Settings

The mod lanes have global envelope settings that become available only when in Gate mode. These settings are applied to all modulation lanes. If ROLODECKS is in Gate mode, the following Envelope Mode settings appear:

  • ENVELOPE ON: When on, the modulation lanes will be triggered by in coming gate (note) messages and will sustain for as a note is held.

  • ENVELOPE LOOP: When on, the modulation will loop for as long as a note is held.

Edit Functions

The edit functions allows you to randomize and manipulate data for the modulation lanes and slicer.

MODE: Allows to choose the destination of the edit functions, which are applied to the modulation lanes and the slicer (not the FX parameters). Please note that if a modulation lane is bypassed, they will not be affected by edit functions.

The modes are:

  • All: All modulation lanes and the slicer will be affected by the Edit Functions.

  • Slicer Only: Only the Slicer will be affected by the Edit Functions.

  • All FX Mod Lanes: All the modulation lanes will be affected by the Edit Functions.

  • Current FX Mod Lanes: Only the currently selected effect’s modulation lanes will be affected by the Edit Functions.

  • Selected Mod Lane: Only the select modulation lane will be affected by the Edit Functions.

The functions are:

  • RND: Randomize slicer and/or modulation lanes.

  • RST: Reset slicer and/or modulation lanes to default values.

  • SHFL: Shuffles sequencer lanes preserving the original values but reordering them.

  • Left/Right/Up/Down arrows: Shift slicer and/or modulation lane values left right, up or down.

Envelope Follower

The envelope follower detects the amplitude of the incoming audio (or any signal connected to the EF within the structure) and generates a modulation signal based on the changes in amplitude. This signal is hard-wired to effect parameters throughout the instrument and is also available as a freely assignable modulation source found in the EXT effect’s source menus. The signal can then be routed anywhere inside or outside of ROLODECKS, making ROLODECKS a fully functional Envelope Follower.

  • THLD: Controls the sensitivity of the peak detection.

  • DEC: Decay time.

  • SMTH: Controls the smoothness of modulation signal.

  • MODE: if switched on, envelope follower works in a Sample&Hold mode, where sampling is triggered by peaks.

  • INV: Inverts modulation signal.

  • VIEW: Allows user to monitor the envelope curve in the Waveform/EF display at the top of ROLODECKS interface, making it easy to understand what is happening.

All effects, with the exception of the Slicer, allow you to use an Envelope Follower as an additional source of modulation.

The envelope follower (EF), detects amplitude changes in the incoming audio and outputs a control signal which can then be used throughout ROLODECKS. This way you can get rhythmic modulation that mirrors the signal selected as the EF Source.

As you make adjustments to the Envelope Follower settings you can easily see the signal that is being detected and generated.

The white ghost knob surrounding the tone control is a visualizer to show you the result of the envelope follower modulation. In the picture above, the EF knob is set to 100% negative. The tone Knob was set to 100% positive. The result is the negative modulation of the the tone parameter, as if you were turning the knob counter-clockwise to the rhythm of the music.

NOTE: While the destination for the envelope follower is hardwired for the main effects, you can route it wherever you like by using the EXT effect’s modulation matrix. Please see theAdvanced Topicssection of this manual for instructions.

Scenes

Scenes are a powerful part of ROLODECKS and you can think of them as dynamic sub-presets that you can create and recall on-the-fly. These sub-presets store all the non-global settings. For example, all the knobs, effect routing, modulation lanes and envelope settings are stored with a Scene. You can copy/paste Scenes to quickly make variations and you can even play the Scenes via MIDI.

Use white key MIDI notes starting at note C3 to recall the Scenes via MIDI. In Reaktor standalone mode, the QWERTY keys correspond to the white keys beginning at note #60 (C3). You can use the global Gate mode in conjunction with the Scenes MIDI recall.

  • COPY: Copies the entire Scene.

  • PASTE: Pastes the last copied Scene into the currently selected Scene.

The Source Section

The source is where you can select what audio should be processed by ROLODECKS and what signal you’d like to use as the source for the Envelope Follower.

-----------------------Please see the end user license agreement for more information.-----------------------

The Source has the following parameters:

  • LOOP/LIVE MODE: When set to LOOP, the samples in the Beatlooper sampler will be routed into ROLODECKS. When set to LIVE, ROLODECKS will look for audio from your host software when in plugin mode. In standalone mode it will look for audio from your hardware interface, so that you can route turntables, synths and microphones directly into ROLODECKS.

  • MIDI RETRIG.: Incoming MIDI notes will restart the sample playback.

  • BPM: An additional correction selector to multiply or divide the samples tempo by 2 in the event that the BPM was incorrectly detected.

  • SMP: Selects the sample to be played back.

  • PITCH: Sets the pitch of the sample being played back.

  • START: Sets the start position of the sample in 1/16th notes.

  • LEN: Sets the end position or ‘length’ of the sample in 1/16th notes.

  • AMP: Sets the overall volume of the BeatLooper.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Changelog

1.0.0 RP (Reaktor Player release)

  • Rolodecks is now Reaktor Player compatible and does not require the full version of Reaktor to run

  • NKS browser integration

  • Light Guide support for the KOMPLETE KONTROL S-Series keyboards

  • Fixed bugs related to Presets recall

  • Fixed leaking smoothers for some parameters (notably Mix controls)

  • Improved Beatlooper instrument

  • Improved randomizers

  • Improved MIDI Clock restart behavior

  • Fixed some missing mappings for Lemur control template

  • Various minor fixes

REMOVED EXT PART (KINDA) ----

preset recall is good except one thing - fx tabs. fixed (check mouse area/snapval8 macro inside tabs macro if needed). - done

fixed randomizers

Replaced beatlooper engine (better sound, less clicks)

Fixed leaking mix/amp smoothers

Replaced 96p/clockdiv macros

ideally stretch fx needs buffer restart setting? - connected to slicer buffersize so that stretch is triggered on each first step (originally there was weird free-clock 1bar rate retriggering stretch so i think clock related is better for actual meaningful results)

Resaved EXT Stretch snaps (renamed and slightly changed to better show the sound)

Slightly improved EF line graphics

check rolodecks triagle rst image and apply osc modules with that addr -done

First step soft attack fixed check test ens

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