Animator

[crim]

Animator

aka “doodles.”

2D polyphonic sequencer for grids.

Instagram demo

instagram demo 2

I had this idea for a grid-based sequencer interface, but wasn’t sure if it would work until I built it. It takes some influence from other sequencers like loom and meadowphyics, but hopefully is also unique enough that folks find it inspiring.

The basic idea is that you “draw” sequencers across both axes. Sequencers can be placed vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, as long as they are straight lines.

Notes are stacked in 4ths vertically, and move in 2nds horizontally. Interesting patterns/melodies/polyrhythms result from sequencers of varying lengths interacting with one another.

Norns encoders will shift the sequencers across the x or y axis. You can also use LFOs (thanks again to @Justmat for the Lua LFOs) in the parameters to automate sequencer movement and get semi-generative results.

Each sequencer has an “intersect rule” which can be selected from the options page, and is triggered If two or more sequencers intersect at an active note. The rules are “octave”, “mute,” “reset self,” “reset others,” and “reset all”.

You can take up to 4 snapshots of the current state for storing and playing back sections that you like.

It currently uses Molly the Polly (thanks @markeats) as the internal synth engine, but you can also use it as a midi sequencer, or with Just Friends via crow.

Requirements

varibright grid, norns, molly the polly engine

Documentation

More detailed docs on github

Download

v1.0.0 - https://github.com/crimclark/animator/archive/master.zip

[crim]

This is now in the community catalog and can be installed via maiden

[mattlowery]

This looks super cool! Can’t wait to give it a try.

[sno]

really enjoying this @crim! thank you!
in a future update it would be great to save the “draw” sequences in the presets

[crim]

Thanks! I’m glad you like it.

Yes I forgot about presets . I’ll add this to the roadmap.

[sno]

that would be nice and thanks for the script

[crim]

OK, I’ve updated Animator to save your sequences as presets.

Use the “save doodle” and “load doodle” options in the parameters menu. When loading, make sure to select the file with the “.doodle” extension.

I modeled the load/save code on the norns orca port (thanks @its_your_bedtime).

I also updated snapshots to store the clock division and intersect behavior per sequence (previously it was only storing the note values).

[bereenondo]

Hey,

I’m having trouble with this app – I get the sequences running, but there’s no sound on the internal engine and if I switch to Crow ii JF nothing happens at Just Friends’ end (I restarted both a few times but to no avail, Crow works normally on other apps).

[ground_state]

I could be wrong, but I had this exact experience - until I realized that you have to actually press keys on the grid “inside” one of the sequences to turn notes on (and off).

[crim]

@ground_state is correct. It’s sort of a quirky interface, but you can think of it like first you create a step sequencer, and once that sequencer is running, you press keys within the sequencer to activate which notes should play. Let me know if this is what you’re already doing and it’s still not working properly.

[bereenondo]

Thanks @ground_state and @crim, indeed it worked! This is a really inspiring sequencer, and I immediately recorded a bunch of initial ideas with it, will post something later on here

[crim]

Thanks, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. would love to hear anything you come up with

[yobink]

am really digging this sequencer @crim! love that you can use the lfos to move the sequence around, makes it a deep generative tool. was wondering how hard it would be to include crow CV out and clock in? less concepts handles this really nicely (although I can’t get the clock in to work). thanks much for this cool tool! here’s a little noodle with animator playing JF with marbles/plaits.

[crim]

Sounds really cool! Thanks for sharing.

crow CV out and clock in shouldn’t be hard. Of course you’d be limited to 4 voices, but I suppose that’s plenty. I’ll add that to my to-do list

[yobink]

Excellent! On less concepts, there are parameters to select all of the various combos - audio, audio + crow CV + just friends, etc so having that would enable 2 voices out of crow in addition to JF and norns engine audio, plus clocked to rack. That would be super duper! Thanks again @crim

[bereenondo]

Here’s something from the first session with it:

Bereen Ondo

[crim]

sounds awesome. love the slit-scan video too. it’s creepy in the best way

[crim]

Pushed an update requested by @yobink a couple weeks back. Thanks for the suggestion! I’m already having a lot of fun with this.

• added new output modes: “crow cv”, "crow cv + JF", and "audio + cv + JF"
• added crow clock input

I used “less concepts” as a reference point, and copied the “beatclock-crow” file to help implement crow clock stuff (thanks @dan_derks!).

[yobink]

Great! Can’t wait to try it out! Thanks @crim!

[cosmicsoundexplorer]

Awesome!
Id love to see these output modes and crow clock as a standard in all apps.