you need to rebuild em

2 Likes

If there is one thing I’ve learned well, it is that when playing with a few coding environments such as pd-ext, supercollider, or even on the Aleph - when starting a project on something like the AVR ATtiny code I will start my ideas on paper.

Then I scribe the code, patch the terminal objects or connect the hardware routing (cable arrangements, values etc…). Then I write down what I am doing with that system.

I end my ideas on paper.

It makes things like this fun. It’s also a good way to grimoire/journal ideas and magic if you found a win. Documented wins like new arithmetic or logics.

2 Likes

I can rebuild my own simple scenes but I’m a bit out of my element when it comes to rebuilding the Bees included scenes or cool scenes I’ve downloaded made be other folks (Skitter, Space, this etc…). Do you know if these were posted somewhere with 0.8.x? I didn’t see them in the linked sdcard download.

If I wanted to move them forward to BEES 0.8.x I’d need to first load the BEES 0.7.1 firmware, dig through the scene to figure out its structure, write that down then reload the 0.8.1 firmware on Aleph and build the scene from the notes I made? I don’t have a mac or linux computer so no Beekeeper.

Thanks

2 Likes

I haven’t looked, but you could live boot a Linux distro, and use gparted or another partitioner to format the SD card into a master boot record, FAT32, and test it out after backing up your copy.

I’m sure after digging through the scene files it might just be a small copy paste procedure.

I should go on git more often to look at this, but have been knee deep in other projects.

2 Likes

Basically yes. I will post some scenes for Bees v0.8 soon, was just too busy being on vacation after working too much. But the last things I made with the Aleph will most likely please you. Then if there are specific scenes you’d like to see ported to v0.8 maybe ask the people who made them first, just in case… Otherwise the people who still own an Aleph and develop for it - including me - might want to join forces and update the things that are worth updating, so indeed we don’t have a Bees version with nothing to put in it apart from what we have made on our own. I must say, I haven’t jumped on the Norns wagon yet but its release seems to have put the Aleph development down after a few months of regained activity, and I think it is a shame: lots of great stuff are still to come out of it!

3 Likes

That would be great Yann_Coppier. I look forward to trying them out. I’ve also been spending a lot of time with Norns recently but I believe the Aleph still offers a lot of interesting possibilities.

2 Likes

i just got my aleph back after 1 year of it being broken. i had a stupid schedule which prevented me from getting it fixed sooner. however, i’m still super interested in the platform though i don’t develop myself. at the least i am super excited to test out scripts as possible! i have to thank everyone for being so generous and sharing their code and keeping this alive!!!

1 Like

@sergemodular and @instantjuggler I just uploaded a complex one here: Aleph: Sniarg

3 Likes

i made an echo (0.8.1). perhaps someone else will enjoy it.
Aiecho.scn (256.1 KB)
edit: replaced above file… tightened up, improved.

it’s like an 8-bit space echo. fun!

controls:
sw1–randomish pitch shift (not equally tempered)
sw2–cycle predictable range adjustment
sw3–toggle all inputs through to outs
sw4–toggle all inputs into echo

enc0–time
enc1–echo volume
enc2–feedback
enc3–filter

6 Likes

anyone have midiclk working?

Think it should be working, yes. What’s your test setup? Are you sending clock into aleph or out of it?

norns usb–>aleph device port (tried various scripts w clock out switched on)
midiclk/tick–>timer/event

ticks not registering, timer/time is not changing
quite probably misunderstanding something here. thanks!

1 Like

you don’t explicitly mention a USB-midi dongle in the description - that is currently the only way to get midi clock in/out of the aleph. I’m planning to make aleph talk to norns as a USB device, but it won’t be a straight-up midi thing, rather it’s an aleph-specific serial protocol.

With a little bit of norns-side work it will be possible to make the norns trigger BEES inputs directly but I don’t know when I’ll finally get round to tying up this loose end with the aleph firmware… (ie adding host-side aleph-serial support to matron)

4 Likes

yeah to be super-clear: neither aleph nor norns can be usb-MIDI devices. only hosts. [*]

in both cases, the device ports are hardwired to a subprocessor and show up to the main processor as plain old UART.


[*] ok, technically you could customize the sub-processor firmware, at least in the case of aleph. not easily.

2 Likes

There’s reference here from a few years ago to varispeed lines, or “varilines”, as opposed to the old lines. But lines on 0.8 seems operationally the same to my memory as lines on 0.6. I guess I’d imagined div/mul would be different or replaced by something more… like varispeed. Perhaps it sounds better but feels the same. No complaints, really just curious if I’m missing something.

No that’s correct ‘lines’ should not have changed in sound or functionality and ‘varilines’ should have been included in the release iirc. Varilines is not perfect, artefacts still pretty noticeable. But not totally horrible, ymmv. It’s not been tested or used much.

I’ve been following development of softcut and seems the problem of getting really smooth varispeed digital tape would have been pretty hardcore on the blackfin!

2 Likes

So I’d go aleph usb host port out to one of those usb to midi converter cables, and then how does the midi cable end get converted back to usb for norns?

I mean, you could theoretically use two usb midi converters, one for the norns, one for the aleph. This would work best if one of the usb midi devices is, like, a keyboard or something with female DIN connector, and one of the usb midi is, like, a regular usb midi with male DIN connector.

However aleph can only take one usb device at once so you wouldn’t be able to plug a grid simultaneously in this setup. Adding aleph support to norns is definitely the way forward!

4 Likes

I ordered this. Let y’all know how it goes.

any progress with this effort btw?