1. First steps in Reaktor Core - Native Instruments

Some types of processing, mixing for example, make sense for both
audio and control types of signals. In those cases, you will find versions
of such macros dedicated to processing audio and versions dedicated to
processing control signals. For example, there are audio mixers and control
mixers, audio amplifiers and control amplifiers, and so on. Generally
it’s not a very good idea to misuse a module to process signals of types
it was not intended for, unless you really know what you’re doing.
Having said that, quite often it’s possible to use audio signals for control
purposes. The most common example would be to modulate an oscillator’s
frequency or a filter’s cutoff by an audio signal. That is absolutely
OK because you are intending to use an audio signal as a control signal.
We assume that the opposite case, in which you really mean to use a
control signal as an audio signal, would be pretty rare.
The separation between audio, control, event, and logic signals is not to
be confused with event/audio separation on the Reaktor primary level. The
primary-level event/audio classification refers to speed of processing, audio
signals being processed faster and requiring more CPU. Also as you probably
know, primary-level event signals have different propagation rules than audio
signals. The difference between audio, control, and event signals in Reaktor
Core terminology is purely semantic, defining the meaning of the signal rather
than the type of processing. There is not a one-to-one relationship between
primary-level event/audio and Reaktor Core audio/control/event/logic terms,
but we can still try to explain their relationship:
- a primary-level audio signal normally corresponds to either a Reaktor
Core audio signal (for example, an output of an oscillator or an audio
filter) or a Reaktor Core control signal (for example, an output of an
envelope).
- a primary-level event signal is typically a control signal in terms of
Reaktor Core. An example of such signal would be an output of an
LFO, a knob, or a MIDI pitch or velocity source.
- sometimes a primary-level event signal corresponds to a Reaktor Core
event signal. The most typical example of that is a MIDI gate (Reaktor
Core event signals will be described later, as we promised).
- sometimes a primary event signal resembles a Reaktor Core logic
signal; however, they are not fully compatible, and there must be
explicit conversion between them (a topic that also will be covered
later). Examples include signals processed by Logic AND or similar
primary-level modules.
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