Record CHOP

Summary

The Record CHOP takes the channels coming in the first (Position) input, converts and records them internally, and outputs the stored channels as the CHOP output. The optional second (Active) input is used to enable and disable the recording.

During recording, the Record CHOP uses only the values of the first input at the current frame. The Type determines how the input values are converted.

Tip: The Trail CHOP also records the last window of samples, and more powerfully, the gestureCapture component in the Palette gives more control over multi-captures and smoothing channel data.

If Record is set to Auto Range, and the Active input goes on, and TouchDesigner is playing, then any existing storage array is cleared, and the channels are recorded in a new storage array until Active goes off. This behaves like a sampler.

The Mouse In CHOP and Keyboard In CHOP are often attached to the Position and Active inputs respectively of the Record CHOP to perform the recording of channels from mouse movements, enabled by pressing a keyboard key (see the Keyboard In CHOP).

Record Segment is useful for recording trails, snakes, and other models that use a time-history of motion.

See the Time Slice CHOP for input smoothing.

recordCHOP_Class

Parameters - Control Page

Record record - ⊞ - When and how much to record:

• Off off - Leaves the output unmodified.

• On on - Always records when playing forward. When the active input is in the off state the input is maintained at its current values.

• Add add - Adds (offsets) to an existing set of channels previously recorded in the Record CHOP. The channels are left unmodified while the Active input is in the off state.

• Auto Range auto - Creates an interval based on Active on/off.

Record Input sample - ⊞ - Determines whether record should sample the time slice or the current frame. You would generally want to use Current Time Slice, for audio, as all frames will be evaluated.

If the interval is set to be the Current Frame, it will always cook (only look at) the current frame (things downstream still cook regardless of this setting however). Thus, it should generally not be used for audio, but rather fro things like device input, because it interpolates the values between the captured frames.

• Current Frame scur -

• Current Time Slice sslice -

Interpolation interp - ⊞ - Determines how to compute missed input samples using interpolation. Using Hold Previous Value does just that; Linear and Cubic interpolation will create a mathematical blend of values in a linear (straight line between values in time), or cubic (smooth round-off curve between beginning and ending values).

• Hold Previous Value hold -

• Linear linear -

• Cubic cubic -

Record Output output - ⊞ - Determines the frame range that gets output from the CHOP.

• Full Range full - The frame range grows from the moment and frame you start recording. Samples get recorded over when TouchDesigner goes over a frame a second time. Press Reset Channels to start again.

• Current Frame curframe - Outputs the current frame only.

• Current Frame at Frame 1 frame1 - Outputs the current frame but shifts it to frame 1. If the channels are not changing value, it reduces the amount of cooking that takes place.

• Current Time Slice slice - Outputs the current Time Slice of samples only.

• Segment segment - Outputs a sliding window of samples defined by the Record Segment start/end length.

Record Segment segment - ⊞ - The data gets recorded in a fixed-range interval and the most recent data gets recorded at the end of the interval and the remaining samples get shifted toward the start of the interval. This is useful for making snakes.

• segment1 -

• segment2 -

Record Segment Unit segmentunit - Select the units to use for this parameter, Samples, Frames, or Seconds.

Reset Channels reset - The current output is cleared and all subsequent channels will commence single sample lengths.

Reset Condition resetcondition - ⊞ - Enabled when a CHOP is connected to the Record CHOP's 3rd input (ie. Input 2). Determines what condition is required to trigger a reset using this input.

• Off to On offtoon - Resets the recording when the input channel goes from Off to On ie. 0 to 1.

• While On on - Resets the recording when the input channel is On ie. 1.

• On to Off ontooff - Resets the recording when the input channel goes from On to Off ie. 1 to 0.

• While Off off - Resets the recording when the input channel is Off ie. 0.

Parameters - Common Page

Time Slice timeslice - Turning this on forces the channels to be "Time Sliced". A Time Slice is the time between the last cook frame and the current cook frame.

Scope scope - To determine which channels get affected, some CHOPs use a Scope string on the Common page. See Pattern Matching.

Sample Rate Match srselect - ⊞ - Handle cases where multiple input CHOPs' sample rates are different. When Resampling occurs, the curves are interpolated according to the Interpolation Method Option, or "Linear" if the Interpolate Options are not available.

• Resample At First Input's Rate first - Use rate of first input to resample others.

• Resample At Maximum Rate max - Resample to the highest sample rate.

• Resample At Minimum Rate min - Resample to the lowest sample rate.

• Error If Rates Differ err - Doesn't accept conflicting sample rates.

Export Method exportmethod - ⊞ - This will determine how to connect the CHOP channel to the parameter. Refer to the Export article for more information.

• DAT Table by Index datindex - Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the index of the channel in the CHOP.

• DAT Table by Name datname - Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the name of the channel in the CHOP.

• Channel Name is Path:Parameter autoname - The channel is the full destination of where to export to, such has geo1/transform1:tx.

Export Root autoexportroot - This path points to the root node where all of the paths that exporting by Channel Name is Path:Parameter are relative to.

Export Table exporttable - The DAT used to hold the export information when using the DAT Table Export Methods (See above).

Operator Inputs

• Input 0: -
• Input 1: -
• Input 2: -

Info CHOP Channels

Extra Information for the Record CHOP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.

Common CHOP Info Channels

• start - Start of the CHOP interval in samples.

• length - Number of samples in the CHOP.

• sample_rate - The samplerate of the channels in frames per second.

• num_channels - Number of channels in the CHOP.

• time_slice - 1 if CHOP is Time Slice enabled, 0 otherwise.

• export_sernum - A count of how often the export connections have been updated.

Common Operator Info Channels

• total_cooks - Number of times the operator has cooked since the process started.

• cook_time - Duration of the last cook in milliseconds.

• cook_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the component timeline.

• cook_abs_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the absolute time.

• cook_start_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator started cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cook_end_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator finished cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cooked_this_frame - 1 if operator was cooked this frame.

• warnings - Number of warnings in this operator if any.

• errors - Number of errors in this operator if any.

TouchDesigner Build: Latest\n2021.100002018.28070before 2018.28070

An Operator Family which operate on Channels (a sequence of numbers (Samples)) which are used for animation, audio, mathematics, simulation, logic, UI construction, and data streamed from/to devices and protocols.

A built-in panel in TouchDesigner that contains a library of components and media that can be dragged-dropped into a TouchDesigner network.

A Time Slice is the time from the last cook frame to the current cook frame. In CHOPs it is the set of short channels that contain the CHOP channels' samples between the last and the current cook frame.

The term "Frame" is a measurement of time used (1) in the Timeline, (2) as a time-unit in CHOPs, and (3) as a time unit in movie files that are read into TOPs and written out from TOPs. The frame rate is the frames per second (FPS).

A parameter in most CHOPs that restricts which channels of that CHOP will be affected. Normally all channels of a CHOP are affected by the operator. TOPs have Channel Mask, a similar feature.

samples-per-second of a CHOP. Each CHOP in your network has a sample rate. In contrast, the overall timeline has a Frame Rate, which is the number of frames to cook and display per second, generally your monitor display frequency, default 60.

Exporting is the connection of CHOP channels to parameters of operators. The output of each exporting CHOP is one or more channels, active only while the CHOP Viewer is on. The current value of a channel can be exported to a parameter of any operator, overriding that parameter's value. See Parameter.

An Operator Family that manipulates text strings: multi-line text or tables. Multi-line text is often a python Script or GLSL Shader, but can be any multi-line text. Tables are rows and columns of cells, each containing a text string.

The location of an operator within the TouchDesigner environment, for example, /geo1/circle1, a node called circle1 in a component called geo1. The path / is called Root. This path is displayed at the top of every Pane, showing which Component's network you are currently in. To refer instead to a filesystem folder, directory, disk file or http: address, see Folder.

Every operator in TouchDesigner has a set of control Parameters that can be integer or floating point numbers, menus, binary toggles, text strings or operator paths, which determine the output of the operator.

TouchDesigner is a hierarchy of components. "root" is the top-most network in the hierarchy. The Network Path or Path for root is simply /. A typical path is /project1/moviein1.