A NamedControl directly combines a ControlName and a Control UGen conveniently. Also this makes it safe even if several identical controls exist (see example below).
There are syntax shortcuts that generate NamedControls from the name:
add a new instance of AudioControl with given name and default values. If lags are given, apply a Lag UGen to it.
\symbol.ar(values, lags, spec)
is a synonym.
add a new instance of Control (kr) with given name and default values. If lags are given, apply a Lag UGen to it. If fixedLag is set to true, create a LagControl(lags cannot be modulated then, but fewer UGens are required).
\symbol.kr(values, lags, fixedLag, spec)
is a synonym.
add a new instance of Control (ir) with given name and default values. If lags are given, apply a Lag UGen to it.
\symbol.ir(values, lags, spec)
is a synonym.
add a new instance of TrigControl with given name and default values. If lags are given, apply a Lag UGen to it.
\symbol.tr(values, lags, spec)
is a synonym.
add a new instance with the given rate, name and default values. If lags are given, apply a Lag UGen to it. If fixedLag is set to true, create a LagControl(lags cannot be modulated then, but fewer UGens are required).
In the situation when functions are used to combine UGens to more complex SynthDefs, it may not be known which ControlNames are already taken by others. NamedControl allows to reuse existing control names.
Here is a basic example using a dictionary with functions that can be combined to build SynthDefs.