BCC Beat Reactor Integrated

Category: Common Controls

Effect Name: BCC Beat Reactor Integrated

The BCC Beat Reactor Integrated, part of BCC Common Controls, is a parameter group found at the bottom of many BCC filters which can be used to influence other effect parameters based on a specific audio track. BCC Beat Reactor displays a spectrum graph including vertical bands representing the audio levels within various frequency ranges. This graph can be used to help target particular elements within the audio track for use in influencing other effect parameters.

The Continuum suite of effects also includes the BCC Beat Reactor standalone filter, part of the BCC Time category. This standalone filter, available in After Effects only, has a somewhat different workflow. For more information on the standalone BCC Beat Reactor filter, Click Here.

Working with the Filter

Presets and Common Controls

BCC filters come with a library of factory installed presets plus the ability to create your own custom presets and preview them with the BCC FX Browser™.

BCC filters also include common controls that configure global effect preferences and other host-specific effect settings.

For more information about working with presets and other common controls, Click Here.

Selecting Audio Layers in After Effects:

To use Beat Reactor it is necessary to first select the layer including the audio you wish to use for influencing effect parameters. Once a Sound Layer with audio is selected, by default the spectrum graph should display bands on frames including any significant audio levels.

• Host Sound Layer: (After Effects Only) Selects the audio layer from the composition.

Using External Audio Files:

Since non-Adobe After Effects hosts cannot directly access audio from their timeline, the workflow for using Beat Reactor in these hosts involves directing the plugin to an external audio file. The audio file must be an AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) file using the .aif or .aiff file extension. AIFF files of various sample rates and bit depths are supported.

• External File: Selects an audio file for Beat Reactor to use.
• Watch Folder: Directs the filter to look for the file in a specified folder. Useful when transfering projects to other systems.

Working with Audio

Once an AIFF file has been selected, the audio graph will display vertical bars representing the audio levels within different frequencies, and it is possible to enable an Apply Parameter and begin adjusting the Beat Reactor.

• Channel: Determines which audio channel will be displayed in the spectrum grap.
• Delay (sec): Offsets the spectrum graph display in time from the audio.
• Show Graph: Determines how the Audio Spectrum Graph is displayed.
• Yes: Displays the graph over the source image.
• No: The graph is not displayed.
• Only in Draft Mode: The graph is displayed only when the AE layer’s Quality switch is set to Draft (it will not display when the layer is set to Best quality).
• With Black Background: The graph is displayed with a black background.
• Apply Parameter: Select the parameetr Beat Reactor will apply transformations to.

Each enabled Apply Parameter is represented by a white sampler rectangle on the audio spectrum graph display. After Effects users may find it useful to expose the audio later's waveform display in the AE timeline While targeting audio events with Beat Reactor.

The process of using the audio spectrum graph sampler rectangles to target a particular audio element within an audio layer for use in influencing effects parameters involves a workflow process something like this:

• Make sure that the audio playback can be clearly heard with as much detail as possible.
• Enable audio playback for the audio chosen in the Beat Reactor group, and disable audio playback for any other layers in the timeline (to be able to hear the important audio layer more clearly).
• Preview To Ram (PTR) with audio, listening carefully while closely watching the graph to see the movements in the spectrum bands that coincide with the audio event of interest. It is often useful to let the PTR loop a few times listening/watching carefully in order to get a good look at it.
• Pause PTR playback and position the current-time indicator on a frame at good instance of the audio event of interest. It can sometimes help to scrub the timeline with audio to do this accurately.
• Use the on-screen (Corner 1 and Corner 2) position points to place the sampler rectangle so it covers the area in which the audio event occurs, trying as much as possible to exclude spectrum band activity which is not part of the audio event.
• PTR with audio again, listening carefully and watching the sampler’s output meter (the white band on the far right edge of the graph) to see if the sampler is picking up the audio event well enough to use for influencing the parameter. If necessary, pause PTR playback and re-adjust the sampler rectangle, PTR with audio again, readjust samplers and so on.

Note: Falloff and Delay are parameters that relate to how Beat Reactor affects parameters (discussed in the next section of this document), but their effects are also reflected in the graph display output meters. For more direct and accurate audio visualization, disable these parameters by setting Delay amount to 0 and setting Falloff to Unused during the process of placing Samplers to isolate audio events on the graph.

Adjusting Apply Options

The Beat Reactor can influence up to 3 different parameters using the Apply Parameter (A, B, and C) and the corresponding Apply Options (A, B, and C). Each active Apply Parameter will be represented by a sampler rectangle on the graph.

Once Samplers have been placed so that they do a satisfactory job of targeting the audio events which will be used to influence the parameter(s), then it is possible to make adjustments to the Apply Options.

• The Effect on Parameter: Determines how Beat Reactor affects the specific parameter.
• Replace Value: Replaces any parameter value already set on the parameter.
• Add to Value: Takes the value derived from the samplers and adds it to any parameter value already assigned to the parameter. This can be used to deviate below and above a specific value (by defining the range so both positive and negative values are added to the current value).
• Subtract from Value: Takes the value derived from the samplers and subtracts it from any parameter value already assigned to the parameter.
• Output Range, Output Min, and Output Max: Determine the numeric range within which the Beat Reactor will influence the parameter. In this case, Output Min does not need to be a lower number than Output Max. Output Min is the value mapped to the lowest (quietest) part of the output meter and Output Max is the value mapped to the highest (loudest) part of the output meter.
• Apply Strength %: Determines the influence of the Beat Reactor on the parameter. Besides offering a quick way to increase or reduce the Beat Reactor influence, it provides a convenient way to animate the influence over time.
• Falloff and Falloff Time: Offer options for creating different behaviors for the Beat Reactor influence immediately following the sampled audio event.
• Unused (Immediate): Means there is no falloff beyond whatever is dictated by the sampled audio event.
• Linear: Creates a falloff where the animation curve would appear as a straight line.
• Quadratic Hard: Creates a falloff that starts a bit faster and eases toward the end of the falloff period.
• Quadratic Soft: Creates a falloff that eases at the peak and accelerates toward the end of the falloff period.
• Sustain: Maintains the highest value within that occurrence of the audio event for the duration.
• Build Up to Max: Keeps adding to the value (integrated over the audio event period), up to the maximum value in the graph. With this falloff type, a large Falloff Time value will build up slower than a short Falloff Time.
• Build Up Indefinitely: Uses the Falloff Time to determine the time span over which one unit of build up is calculated and then builds up the value based on that.
• Falloff Time: Determines the duration of the falloff in seconds.
• Propagation Mode and Propagation Time: The integrated Beat Reactor found in BCC Pin Art 3D and BCC Particle Array 3D includes a unique feature that allows for having the influence of the audio propagate through the particles in 3D space over time. Propagation Mode determines the starting point and direction of the propagation and Propagation Time determines how long it takes (in seconds) for the propagation to move from it’s starting point till it is completes within the particle array.
• Sampler: includes options determining the sampler’s mode.
• Box Percentage: Finds the percentage of the sampler box area that is filled by the spectrum bands and fills that same percentage of the output meter.
• Max Frequency: Compares spectrum bands and finds the one that is filling the greatest area of the sampler, then finds the percentage full on only that band (as if the rectangle were only as wide as that band) and fills that same percentage of the output meter.
• Toggle ON/OFF: Fills the whole output meter (Output Max value) if there is any piece of spectrum band within the sampler rectangle, and goes straight to an empty meter as soon as there is no spectrum band within the rectangle.
• The Sampler Corner 1 and 2: Set the sampler rectangles’ placement corners (these parameters are usually adjusted using the on-screen position point since they are placed in relation to the audio spectrum bands).

Audio Spectrum Options

The Audio Spectrum Options group contains options for adjusting how the spectrum graph visualizes the audio.

• Freq Resolution: Determines how many distinct bands are used to represent the frequencies included in the graph. It is sometimes useful to increase the resolution in order to visualize and more accurately sample a specific audio event.
• Scale (%): Determines the vertical scale of all the bands in the graph (scaling them toward the top of the graph). For audio with lower levels it is often useful to boost the scale a bit so it better fills the graph area. Sub-Bass, Bass, Mid-Range, and Treble (%) offer the same functionality for individual areas of the spectrum (with Scale % acting as a master control).
• Low Cutoff dB: Determines what level is used as the cutoff point at the bottom of the graph.
• Min and Max Freq (Hz): Determine the frequency range displayed in the graph.
• Smoothness (%): Makes the graph smoother by averaging out the values of neighboring frequency bands. This can be useful for more easily visualizing broader patterns in the audio, although smaller smoothness values offer more precise isolation of sound.

Audio Graph Options

• Graph Opacity: Sets the opacity of the graph.
• Graph Top Left Corner: Sets the position of the top left corner of the graph.
• Graph Bottom Right Corner: Sets the position of the bottom right corner of the graph.