Approaching: norns

[xmacex]

Ok that’s not it then… what could it be? Which norns version do you have?

[jasper_ryder]

It’s factory gray model 32gb. It seems to have better luck if it is restarted after each script installation perhaps. I just installed a couple scripts with success doing this.

[alanza]

is WiFi / update / files | monome/docs what you had in mind?

[jasper_ryder]

Thanks! It is good to be back with a Norns! When I received it I did have to do the special update. Now it’s operating on 240221.

I’m thinking it’s probably a signal strength issue. My computer and music room is a good distance from the Wi-Fi router and that’s where I’m using the Norns most with Maiden. Norns has the supplied small usb Wi-Fi nub.

What is a really good signal strength number to see on the Norns generally?

[3-foot-1]

Just as a point of comparison, I fairly regularly get stalled install and update displays in the maiden web interface. But the updates/installs always seem to have succeeded! So it is possibly a web browser issue, and only cosmetic.

What happens if you type ;install ... in the maiden REPL instead of clicking on the “install” link?

[jasper_ryder]

Yes I did notice that some of the time a script would succeed installing even though the Maiden page hung up. Yesterday everything was working great again and I installed a lot of scripts! I haven’t done the other method of installing scripts yet though.

[robbie]

@jasper_ryder

What is a really good signal strength number to see on the Norns generally?

Signal Strength	TL;DR		Required for
-30 dBm	Amazing	Max achievable signal strength. The client can only be a few feet from the AP to achieve this. Not typical or desirable in the real world.	N/A
-67 dBm	Very Good	Minimum signal strength for applications that require very reliable, timely delivery of data packets.	VoIP/VoWi-Fi, streaming video
-70 dBm	Okay	Minimum signal strength for reliable packet delivery.	Email, web
-80 dBm	Not Good	Minimum signal strength for basic connectivity. Packet delivery may be unreliable.	N/A
-90 dBm	Unusable	Approaching or drowning in the noise floor. Any functionality is highly unlikely.	N/A

From Wi-Fi Signal Strength Basics | MetaGeek.

[TheProblemBelieg]

In a few days I’ll receive my Norns Shield, which I am really excited about!

I have noted Norns has many features relating to midi, such as control through midi devices and providing input to midi devices.

But can it also just play midi files? I have some compositions and phrases with all kinds of tuplets, which I can play back e.g. on s Korg Volca. But can I do that with Norns too? Probably this is a very n00b question…

[x2mirko]

I’m pretty sure that there’s no app or library on Norns as is that can do that, yet. So the short answer is: No

The longer answer: If you’re looking to program your Norns yourself, it could be a pretty cool project to get some basic midi playback working. I’ve worked with midi files a long time ago and I think that with the midi abstractions that are available in the norns core library, it shouldn’t be too much work to get the basics to work. It should be mainly about opening the file, reading the meta-data of the chunks and then extracting the timing info and event data. The lib already can take care of making sense of the midi data and sending it out to a device, so all you’d need to do is to queue the events up in order (as they show up in the file) and send them out at the appropriate time (as specified in the file).

Still quite a bit of work, but probably very doable. It only starts to get tricky if you try to solve it for all edge cases and special messages and multi-streams and all the other weirdness you can theoretically put into a .mid file. If it’s a single track of midi with nothing but notes, it’s not too bad.

[modularbeat]

norns: ideas

Did some research years ago to see if we could just have ALSA play midi files (as part of the core MIDI api), but i think I ran into issues because norns is using rawmidi? or could not get port numbers? (can’t remember details now) Alsa Opensrc Org - Independent ALSA and linux audio support site pmidi could be used on the virtual port perhaps? Lets try… OK yeah - from the command line I can get pmidi to play the file and route it to the hardware midi out on shieldXL Here showing midi output f…

[Audio_Jog]

Hi @tehn , Good Day…!!

I hope you are keeping well

Not sure where to ask, will there be a grey/silver(the pre 2022, https://monome.org/docs/norns/image/norns-grey.jpeg) Norns available in any near future?.

I started my Norns journey with fates few years back, now I am desperate to get an OG .

Thanks

[dani_derks]

hi @Audio_Jog , hope all’s well! excited for the new chapters in your norns journey.
no concrete plans for silver – we’ll keep monome.org updated with this type of info as we go, though!

[Audio_Jog]

Thanks @dani_derks for swift reply. All good, I hope you are doing great.
Indeed its an exciting journey any day I get to use Norns.

Just watched @modularbeat 's DS script dev update .

What a great community…!! and thanks to everyone who put their efforts around norns.

[Rushup_D]

Hi!

Im new in this community and I have been interested in the Norns Shield for quite the time now. Just want to know some basic info before I purchase it.

• Is it still working good with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ instead of a RPI 4? Or is it a big difference in speed etc?

• How much is the scripts depended on the Norns Grid? I have a Kenton Kontroller Killamix and Keystep but nothing more.

• How many scripts can I have on a single MicroSD card? And how difficult is it to change the scripts?

Cheers!

[mei]

@Rushup_D

Is it still working good with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ instead of a RPI 4?

there should not be any issue running scripts on a 3B+, it should work just as well as a 4.

@Rushup_D

How much is the scripts depended on the Norns Grid? I have a Kenton Kontroller Killamix and Keystep but nothing more.

this varies script to script, but you don’t need necessarily need a grid to use a norns. plenty of scripts in www.norns.community only use a midi controller, plenty of others don’t even require that. (and it is worth mentioning that many norns users write their own scripts, or edit existing scripts to fit their tools/needs)

@Rushup_D

How many scripts can I have on a single MicroSD card? And how difficult is it to change the scripts?

how many scripts? a whole lot. in my experience the bottleneck is not at all scripts, but rather audio files, and even then it’s never been a problem – for context, i have a norns with 32gb of memory, and i have never once felt like that was limiting to me.
for how difficult it is to manage them – it is quite easy because of maiden | monome/docs.

[3-foot-1]

The biggest practical limit to the number of scripts you will be happy to use at once on norns is the effort of scrolling through the script menu. When you want to use a script at the end of the list, you sometimes wish you hadn’t grabbed quite so many.
You can install hundreds of scripts in theory. In practice, I prefer to keep it below 30.

[xmacex]

Yes, this is my life. You can scroll faster in all norns menus if you hold K2, and mark some scripts as favorites, so they appear at the top of the list.

[Rushup_D]

Thanks Mei! That was little I was wondering about.

I will fill up with a hand full of scripts and try em out! But about the samples

[charbot]

@Rushup_D

Is it still working good with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ instead of a RPI 4? Or is it a big difference in speed etc?

as Mei said, Pi 3 vs 4 should be the same. the biggest speed and “perfomance” upgrade one can give to norns (shield) is to use a really good, fast SD card. This can cut boot and shutdown times to just a few seconds.

[xmacex]

This is such a precious thing about norns: one product, no models. A key to success and joy.