Norns

The Lounge Other Gear
#56

I don’t remember :slight_smile: I spent the good evening just browsing through apps, which actually isn’t a great way to approach the Norns. Since they’re so different and don’t follow an exact, though mostly similar, interaction pattern, just firing them up for trial is a bit of a confusing experience.

Once I realised that, I settled for just Awake, which made the most sense to me. I love it. It sounds great, the sequencer is simple but original and just recording stuff to the Norns tape and then playing it back is a treat.

Now, I’m using that with Reels. Make something in Awake. Record it to Tape. Put it into Reels. Go to (tape recorder) town.

Next up, I’m just going to try and make an interesting beat with Step and then find a sequencer app that uses Molly the Polly, which is the best synth engine I’ve found within Norns so far. It does sound great, though. I love this broken character it has, I wasn’t really expecting great VA emulations here but more like a unique tone, like the OP-1, and that, it seems, the Norns engines have in spades.

1 Like
#57

Yes - both 3d printing an enclosure for neotrellis grid as well as laser cutting one.

#58

awesome, might take a look at building one now that I’m getting stuck into max, would be cool to properly run all the old monome programs. although I was always more fascinated by Arc - those super high res encoders and ring of lights are so very appealing!

#59

Arc

3 Likes
#60

Look forward to seeing how it goes. I am doing the same this year

2 Likes
#61

I keep a blog with all my builds if you are interested…

www.batguitars.co.uk

(The modular/synth diy is in modular->diy_builds)

2 Likes
DIY Eurorack modules
#62

Bringing it into the rig now.

image
image4032×2544 2.19 MB

9 Likes
#63

Nice. What are you using for samples?

I’m currently in the middle of designing a patch based on Cheat Codes for my Zoia.

1 Like
#64

Right now, I sample directly from the Norns into its tape, and then experiment with that within different Norns apps. Once I get more comfortable with a few of the apps, I’ll import my favourites from my Blackbox sessions into Norns and play with those.

The internal disc isn’t huge, around 4GB, so I’ll have to be fairly selective which ones I use.

#66

My curiosity was piqued by posts mentioning Orca and Otis. Found this vid of somebody explaining how he set up Orca serve as an Octatrack replacement. Looks like he has to rely on human memory to recall what buttons are triggering what, unlike the OT whose display changes to match whatever params you’re tweaking. Doesn’t seem to be using the live coding aspect of Orca.

Still nice to see it in action, with a user explaining what he’s doing.

3 Likes
#67

Seems like some folks out there are modding their norns with a compute module 3+ (CM3+), which allows for up to a 32 gb storage. I’m considering it, but for the moment I want to see if I can stay within the current bounds. Heck, doesn’t the Digitakt only have 1GB of space on the +drive? It also is a more involved upgrade, requiring one to install the OS etc. from scratch. Stuff I’m comfortable with, but only if it really seems necessary. Limitations, right? Nice looking setup by the way. I totally trainspotted your knob positions on the SiX, hehe. I haven’t boosted my faders up that high yet, too afraid (but I also am new to such a mixer).

1 Like
#68

This is such a wonderfully minimalist and nice setup.

1 Like
#69

Wait you can record anything into Norns tape??? That is a holy shit moment for me.

1 Like
#70

So tape is not another app? You can record into the tape recorder to use in another app?

1 Like
#71

Yes, one tape record and one tape playback channel are always available in addition to the running script! This was a huge deal for me as well.

You also have reverb and compression always available. The softcut sampling engine is also always running independent of the script, but doesn’t do anything if the script doesn’t implement it.

This flowchart does a pretty good job explaining the signal flow, but it’s missing the tape play and rec. The tape play comes in at the same place as the “monitor” and “softcut” blocks, and recording is done right before the output.

2 Likes
#72

Haha :slight_smile: yeah, the SSL SiX is so sensitive to how you tweak it, those knob positions aren’t going anywhere now. I’m applying the same to a set of tracks I’m working on. With no patch memory in sight or similar, I’m just waiting for one of the kids to turn a knob or two and I’m back to square one.

At these settings, the summing works pretty hard and touches the red, but doesn’t go into it. There’s a slight distortion going on when it doew, which sounds really nice on drums but not so much on my fragile Prophet loops. So I’m keeping it just out of reach for the red stripes.

I’m not pushing the ch1 and 2 compressors all that hard, but the bus compressor is busy at work. That’s where the sound really comes into its own.

#73

Yep :slight_smile: it records whatever’s going on. It’s great for workflow. Record something from Awake or Molly the Polly or whatnot. Fire up mlr or Takt or whatever. Go to sample town.

That alone makes this investment worthwhile, seeing as I (partly) funded it by selling my pedals. It’s like having synths and fx processors in one box, with a seamless workflow between the two.

1 Like
#74

Thank you!

Ever since I sold my OP-1 I’ve been lusting after something as fun as the OP-1 tape was, a creative recorder if you will. And Norns seems to do that and go beyond what the OP-1 ever could.

This went from being interesting till high on my want list! Even without grids I see a lot of use for this!

#75

I mean, the Reels app alone is four tape tracks with a sample on each. Even looks like the OP-1 tape recorder.

Overall, the Norns isn’t nearly as difficult to approach as some would have it, monome themselves included :slight_smile: the OP-1 is much more obtuse but still loved by the thousands. But the Teenagers are really clever at marketing and positioning. And the timing of its launch, of course.

1 Like
#76

4!!

I was straight up ok with 1.
Now I have to figure out if a want a hydra synth desktop or Norns :smile: