RayTone - Tutorials

Tutorials: Starter Guidebook!

Let's get started by reading the starter guidebook, which explain basic operations in RayTone as well as where to find documentation and example patches.

Open the PDF version (10 MB)

Welcome To RayTone

Tutorials: Your First Patches...

Loading Projects:

To follow the tutorials, click on the setting button in the top-right corner of the screen, click on LOAD, and open projects in Tutorials folder.

Saving Projects:

If you would like to save modified versions of the tutorial projects, please feel free to create a new folder on your local disk outside the RayTone executable.

Emptying Canvas:

You will need to empty the Canvas before loading each new tutorial project:

Select all Units:

Left-click on empty section of Canvas and drag to select Units with a select box
or ctrl/cmd + A

Delete selected Units

Press delete key
or Click on X button on the right side panel

Soft Keys:

The panel on the right side of the screen is called Soft Keys and contains shortcut buttons for basic Canvas operations. Many of these operations can be executed using a mouse and computer keys as well. Please refer to the documentation page for a full list of mouse commands and shortcut keys!

Hello RayTone!

Welcome to RayTone: a node-based audiovisual sequencing environment!

Are you ready to make bleeps and bloops in RayTone? The following step-by-step tutorials describe demo projects that you can open to learn patching operations, different Unit types, and techniques for designing your first audiovisual composition in RayTone!

If you get stuck on loading / clearing projects, feel free to go back to the Starter Guide Slides or the beginning of this "Your First Pathces" section.

Getting Started...

RayTone has 3 types of Units: Control, Voice, and Graphics.

Click on C, V, G buttons on the right side of the screen (or with corresponding computer keys) to open Unit selection panels.

Basic Canvas operations:

Left-click to select and move a Unit.

Left-click on empty Canvas and drag to select multiple Units.
A green dot with a ring represents an inlet to the Unit, and the red dot represents an outlet. Click on an outlet and drag a cable to an inlet to make a connection. Double click on an inlet to disconnect.

Please refer to the documentation page for a full list of mouse commands and shortcut keys!

GUI: Slider, Buttons, Monitor...

GUI control Units are used for controlling and monitoring the state of a patch. Feel free to re-patch them to learn how they interact with each other!

Monitor: monitor a number every frame.
Number: set a constant number.
Sequencer: a circular step sequencer that outputs a value every step. Please check the next tutorial patch for more details!
Slider: a slider with 0-1 range.
Toggle: a toggle button with 0 or 1 state.
Trigger: a button to manually send a trigger.

Please refer to the documentation page for a full list of control Units!

More sequencing...

Sequencer is one of the fundamental GUI control Units, used to control audio/visual parameters as well as Canvas states.

1. Double click on the inner area of a circular sequencer to enter "edit mode".

2. Use left and right arrow keys to select a step to edit.

3. Use up and down arrow keys to edit step value. (Hold shift to move the step in increments of 10)

4. Click on the slider button on the right side of screen to open submenu and edit sequencer properties.

Try ctrl/cmd + R in edit mode to randomize all step values!

Panning

Panning refers to the placement or distribution of audio signals in the stereo field. In RayTone, Voice Units are panned based on their relative positions to the camera. In this example, two square oscillators are panned to the left and right.

Panning can be selectively disabled for Voice Units that are emitting sound (usually the last Unit in each signal chain). You can enter the "edit mode" by double-clicking on a it (or with 'E' shortcut key) and turning off "spatialize" toggle button.

Shader programming with GLSL

Graphics in RayTone is handled by a single GLSL fragment shader as well as textures assigned on Canvas using Image, Video, and Webcam Units.

There are various resources for learning GLSL shader programming online, such as The Book of Shaders (non-affiliate external link).

The Graphics Units category of the documentation page describes preprocessor macros that you can use to read Inlet values and assigned Textures. Please feel free to take a look at the template code!

You can enter "performance mode" to hide the patch and only display graphics with ctrl/cmd + T.