How to add custom values with Reaktor’s Multi Text

Here’s how to use Multi Text in Reaktor to display custom text when you move a knob or other control.

If you are anything like me, editing and creating in Reaktor is as much a process of designing a nice-looking synth, as it is designing a powerful one.

One of the coolest features available in Reaktor is a way to add custom text feedback to replace the default knob values.

This has many purposes, for one, you could have a text box respond with feedback based on your work.

If we consider at a compressor plugin for example, we might want a text box that shows a different explanation when the attack time is slow or fast.

You might want to control an LFO and, as you turn the speed knob, it outputs values such as “16th Beats” or “4 Bars”, rather than just numbers.

This is all possible with Reaktor’s Multi Text.

SEE ALSO: Top tips for building synths and effects in Reaktor

Getting started with Multi Text

Getting started is easy. Simply add it in and connect it to the knob or other event source of your choosing.

Multi Text will not show up unless that event source is connected to other components (which are connected to the output). Make sure that if you don’t have any other parts to your project, you connect the knob to one of the outputs.

You have two options from here, firstly, you can edit in the Reaktor properties menu, secondly, you can edit it as a text file.

I prefer using text files. To do this, simply create a new text file in the project folder (or even on your desktop) and add new words each line.

The first word will match the 0 index, then 1 corresponds to the second word, 2 for the third, etc.

This text file can then be loaded up in the Reaktor Multi Text feature. Make sure you click on Multi Text and go to the Properties menu. You can then open the file directly and it will load the data in.

(You will of course have to do some maths to make sure the knob values of 0, 1, and 2 then correspond with the matching timings listed in the Multi Text.)

Next we can edit the size and look of the Multi Text. You can choose the font and the text size (for all fonts except default). You can also choose the background colour scheme.

Getting creative with Multi Text

I want to showcase a really cool use of the Multi Text feature, it was added to a little synth project I was working on for the Reaktor User Library.

I was making a one-button synth that output random presets and wanted to have a way to show the randomness.

I used the Multi Text to randomly pick a word from a dictionary each time the button was pressed.

To do this, all I needed to do was add a dictionary of words to the text file (each on a new line) and insert a random number generator which would select an index at random.

It is worth noting, as mentioned in the image above, that doing it this way isn’t reversible, that is, the random word can’t be considered a seed.

The synth I had made was one-way, and used multiple Randomise Events macros throughout so even if the same word came up again, it would not necessarily match the same sound as last time.

For that, I’ll leave it to you! The ensemble link is here, please take all the macros and save them for yourself, reverse engineer the plugin, and learn as much as you can from it.