Sound Reactor Information
Choose the right product for the job. Use the information below to help you make a decision.
Product Comparison
Uses
Standard is used for creating content that reacts to audio frequencies. One of the more popular uses is creating a simple spectrum visualizer. However, you are not limited to just making visualizers. You can trigger events and drive any accessible property with a frequency. For the non-programmer, you can drive: position, rotation, scale, color, physics, and particle system. For the programmer, you can drive any property you have access to, and also trigger events.
Third Party Tools
Standard relies only on Unity and audio files. However, it is more beneficial for sound engineers who author their own music because they can separate tracks wherever needed. For example, a sound engineer could save audio to a separate beat track, and then have Standard only react to that. That means sound engineers would need some kind of sound authoring tool.
Programming Knowledge
Some basic programming skills are required to get the most out of Standard. It's true that Standard comes with basic drivers, but if you want to animate camera zoom, or affect light brightness, or anything other than what the included drivers can do, then these drivers would need to be written by the user. To help you get started there are demo scenes included that use custom drivers.
Uses
Pro is used for creating rhythm games. This is made possible by leveraging MIDI files which can be authored to contain notes with specific timing and key positions.
Third Party Tools
A third party DAW or MIDI sequencer is required in order to make MIDI files. You need it to lay down the MIDI notes in the places you'd like them to be, and in time with the music.
Programming Knowledge
Since making a rhythm game requires writing scripts that are indirectly related to Sound Reactor, you should at least be an intermediate programmer. Pro itself is very similar to Standard when it comes to writing custom drivers, so all that's needed there are basic programming skills.