Controls
Control functions are used to turn patterns of strings (words) or numbers into control patterns. What is a control pattern you might say? A control pattern is a pattern that will govern how samples are playing in the SuperDirt audio synth (or other software you are using to control Tidal). This includes audio control functions such as gain
and pan
, sample manipulation functions such as begin
and end
, and effect functions such as delay
and shape
.
TLDR: Control functions are functions that are used to shape the sounds your patterns make (effects, parameters).
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Controls patterns are patternsEvery parameter is patternable! Everything is patternable.
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Control synthesizersThe default synthesizers, or any SuperDirt synthesizer can be activated using the sound
control pattern. For instance, this pattern will alternate between multiple synths over the same melody:
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Controls effectsMost of the time, you will use control patterns to use effects on your patterns. For instance, this drum pattern will be filtered:
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Combine everythingYou can easily combine the last two examples to get a filtered melody playing every three instruments rotating for each note:
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Learn more about control patternsLook at the sidebar. The Synthesizers
and Audio effects
page will give you a list of all the existing controls you can use on the vanilla version of Tidal.