Norns

[cold_fashioned]

That was a great, candid review of the Norns. Aesthetically, it’s pleasing - very Dieter Rams minimal and clean. It always seemed like a lot of dough for something that didn’t seem to check many boxes for me. I enjoy coding, but haven’t had much time for hobby programming projects. Couple that with the eventual want/need for a grid to fully take advantage of Norns, and it’s a lot to overcome, despite it’s “coolness.” Hearing that there’s a lag in documentation and other ecosystem basics completes the gas relief for me. I do hope they overcome those initial obstacles though, because I think it’s a cool project. If it’s flourishing in a few years, I would consider it, free time permitting.

Then again, I’m having way too much fun with my Octatrack, and there’s enough there to keep me busy for at least a decade.

[xidnpnlss]

Octatrack, and there’s enough there to keep me busy for at least a decade.

When I gas for something I see if I can recreate it with the OT. With Norns, my interest piqued seeing people run it with MLRV. You certainly can get something similar with slices and live recording and maybe a couple prepped patterns, but the main disadvantage afaik is that you don’t have such immediate access with a grid based controller.

Though this issue would be almost moot if Elektron would enable MIDI triggerable slices

Ah well. OT certainly makes up for it in sooooo many other ways.

[oldbills]

I’m kinda weary of the whole coding thing myself.

I have no interest in coding but I like the idea of a minimal looper/sampler/tape machine that can get the job done quickly without menu diving. Tbh I feel like I’m going to invest in an Octatrack first because it seems to get the most out of it you need a grid and that’s now a 1500 dollar investment

[circuitghost]

In case anyone’s wondering what this really is, despite googling and youtubing and whatnot, latest issue of Sound on Sound has a great review on Norns. The reviewer’s clearly got some experience with Grid before and digs into the scripting part as well, so it gives a very fair description of what you can expect from Norns.

[Aksdnt]

Your post has helped me a bunch. If I start wanting to buy more instruments, I just sit down and try to make those instruments with what I have. Always works, and I learn more about the instruments I have too!
Thanks!

[mbillz]

TLDR - Monome Norns / Grid (running Takt) sequencing Blackbox with stock samples: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1pr6mgsvb1zld5b/1010takt.MOV?dl=0

Oh man. Someone created an app called Takt for the Norns which replicates most of the Digitakt’s functionality. I hooked it up to the Blackbox (running the Norns through a Keystep into the Blackbox since I don’t have a USB type A to MIDI cable).

Above is a quick vid I put together showing off some of the functionality with Blackbox stock samples. Takt has a Deluge style isomorphic keyboard (although I can only figure out how to hook it up to Midi channel 1). I installed the app 30 minutes before taking this so I’m sure there is other unique functionality I’m missing, but this Deluge / Elektron frankenstein sequencer with the Blackbox is super immediate and powerful.

Again, I didn’t buy the Monome specifically to sequence the Blackbox, I’m interested in writing my own software, but what a great byproduct!

[circuitghost]

Very cool. I’m intrigued for sure.

Are there any decent synth scripts for Norns, or is it more about samples and control?

[mbillz]

I’ve only tried one synth app called Molly the Poly, but it sounds way better than I anticipated. https://www.instagram.com/p/BoXJavpAE3R/

Norns runs the Supercollider sound engine which is a really nice sounding audio programming language.

You can view a list of some of the popular apps with descriptions here: https://monome.org/docs/norns/app/

[circuitghost]

Thanks.

Feeling the itch now …

[mbillz]

Apologies for encouraging more gear lust.

[circuitghost]

No worries😊I’ve been looking for someone who can just comprehensively explain what the Norns is, without falling into some kind of poetry prose on travelling without moving and how change is many things.

[Gaia.Tree]

glad you have had success with the Norns! Im definitely building a Norns Shield as soon as I can get income coming in again. My rig is becoming geared toward tiny as possible and a Norns Shield is waaaay smaller than an Organelle…

[circuitghost]

I’ve checked vids all morning now. Takt alone is a complete environment on its own. Geez, this thing is beautiful, versatile and flexible. Makes you wonder why more aren’t on board, as if there’s some obvious “Oh, all right, okay, well that won’t do”, that scares users away.

I mean, I can use this as an fx pedal, as a sequencer, as a sampler, as a loop creator, as a synth. Kind of like the Zoia, but with a more accessible architecture (for those who decide to venture into LUA land).

[mbillz]

ed clips and loops externally, that it got real ugly, real fast.

If you sequence the Blackbox externally, triggering one shots and similar, it’ll work just fine. However, I wouldn’t say it’s a promised land, because the Blackbox sequencer is actually quite powerful, but very specific and slightly fiddly to use. But its architecture lends itself to some unusual and powerful ways to create complex sequences, so apart from the fact that I ran into technical issues, I also didn’t really find a sequencer that matched the Blackbox in features on what I wanted to do.

The Elektrons come close, but not close enough.

Yeah I’m loving it… I had an Organelle in the past and found the interface to primitive and menu dive-y coming from the Elektron workflow. The Norns overall seems like a more cohesive product (although the latest Organelle updates were super intriguing and I love Critter & Guitari as a company).

I’ll likely build a Shields in the future too. I wish I had a device for each app!

[mbillz]

I held off on buying one for a long time because I had an Organelle a few years back for a similar reason as to why I bought the Norns. Essentially that there isn’t any single instrument that does the very specific things that I want from the plethora of sampling units out there (a little bit of Deluge, a little bit of Digitakt, a little Octatrack, a little Blackbox). But my day job is writing code and I found coding in a visual language (Pure Data) to be really cumbersome and wasn’t super excited about any of the community’s patches over dedicated synths and samplers.

The Norns fulfills the hopes I had for the Organelle (it is also 5x as expensive if you get the Norns + Grid + Arc). Writing code in Lua & Supercollider is much more similar to my programming experience (I also have a better understanding of how code & audio work these days). But the community’s apps are pretty mindblowing as well and while there are apps like Takt that expands on the built in Digitakt functionality, a lot of the app creators are attempting to create loopers, samplers, synths, and sequencers that broaden the scope of what music creation is. I’m diving into those worlds way more than I anticipated.

I’ve only had it for a few days, so I may be in the honeymoon phase. We should probably move Norns discussion to a dedicated thread if there isn’t one. While I’m not super interested in creating gear tutorials, I do think it’s extremely difficult to find basic information out there. For example, syncing it to other MIDI gear is rather confusing and a straightforward documentation about how USB midi hubs work as well as the fact that only specific apps support MIDI syncing would be nice to be aware of.

I have a pretty basic app idea that I’m hoping to build in the next few weeks - I’ll make a dedicated thread at that time as well.

[circuitghost]

Very cool, all this. Yep, there’s a Norns thread, not much going on there, but we can easily change that

Calling @LyingDalai or @AdamJay or @avantronica or @tr909 (or just the @Mods) Mod Edit Tags Fixed

Wanna move us to the Norns thread? We’re just getting started, after all.

[xidnpnlss]

I’m sorry to ask such a simple question but I couldn’t find an answer on Monomes website.

Can you run multiple scripts at a time or only one?

[circuitghost]

I took the dive now.

Sold of all my fx units in one go, and my Mono Evolver which was just a phase I had to go through. Got me just enough to fund this.

Norns and Grid incoming.

[circuitghost]

See you on the other side @mbillz

[cold_fashioned]

I took the dive now.

You guys are reading my mind or something. I’ve been eyeing norns since it was announced. Now that there are a lot more (awesome) scripts in the repository, it is getting more attractive. If @circuitghost is diving in, then maybe I should also dive in? I have some mad money in the stash after selling some gear. Really interested in FX / processing apps and granular stuff. Have had a hard time finding enough examples to push me over the edge. What Im afraid of is will getting norns require me to also get a grid?