#13

Thanks for all the feed back! I currently have a Grid, Ansble, and Norns. So I would mostly use it with Euro stuff and Norns.

#14

otoh, given that there are endless encoders and lights, Arc is well-suited to a motorized-faders-style approach to control, with the question becoming how to solve the problem of page selection.

#15

I had this approach for a bit where I used a 4x4 section of the grid to page 16 values on the arc. there would either be a row or column lit up for the 4 active controls on the arc, and a key combo on the grid would “rotate” the active values, so pagination is two dimensional.

pretty cool, but ultimately I prefer 24 low-res midi ccs all at the same dang time :sunglasses:

3 Likes
#16

woah, with this approach you could even mix and match! something like the last four grid keys pressed will have their corresponding values available for modulation on the arc … I had been imagining only dedicating one or two grid keys to paging through selections, but hmmmmmmmm :thinking:

2 Likes
#17

Arc is very tempting for sure. Personally, I’m going to see how’s it’s implemented in Norns 2.0 before making a purchase decision.

3 Likes
#18

I’m not sure there will be many Arc scripts right off the bat in 2.0. It might take a couple weeks of people playing with the new functions to get some new scripts built around it.

I’m working on a couple demo scripts to show some of the code/interaction, but still pretty basic stuff. The code is easy and works similarly to the built-in encoders for encoder data. LEDs work like grid (setLED, refresh). There’s also a nice “segment/range” function for leds. Button presses (from older Arc versions) are supported as well.

8 Likes
Arc pre-order now open
#19

I’ll do my best to explain the system I came up with. I use it in all my audio and visual apps now.

I essentially have things set up to split the arc into two sections, the left two encoders (0 and 1) and the right two encoders (2 and 3). On the grid I have a 4 wide by 8 tall section that is dedicated to page selection on the arc.

Basically each button on the grid represents a parameter bank. So lets say I have my parameter banks laid out like this:

attack decay sustain release
filter cutoff filter resonance filter lfo speed filter lfo depth

Each parameter is represented by a button on the grid.

Further, within my column of four I have two columns of two which I use to pick whether a pair of parameters is assigned to the right two encoders or the left two encoders.

Here’s some examples:

If I press the grid key where attack is stored (0x0), then the attack and decay parameters are mapped to encoders 0 and 1 on the arc. However if I press grid key 0x1 where decay is stored, then attack and decay are mapped to the right two encoders.

Then lets say I press grid key 0x2 (sustain) then the sustain and release are mapped to the left two encoders. Now if I press grid key 1x1 (filter resonance) then filter cutoff and filter resonance are mapped to the right two encoders.

I hope that’s clear enough.

The advantage of this system is that I’m never caught on a “page” of four parameters where I want to change a parameter that’s in another page of four parameters. With this system I can always get to the parameter I want when I need to get there.

4 Likes
#20

love this!!! thanks for sharing

#21

I got an arc from the new batch to use with Norns. Tonight I began to try some things using the following information sources

I got the LEDs to light up. I did a review on what a radian is and got some LED segments going. I got the encoder to print values to the REPL.

Are there any more resources to learn how to program this device?

1 Like
#22

Here’s two repos of norns 2 arc things. mangl is @Justmat’s variation on angle. clarck is a clock I made an arc demo. Not much else on norns yet (it’s still baby steps with arc on norns)

https://github.com/notjustmat/mangl
https://github.com/okyeron/clarck

Otherwise you could bust out some Max patches

3 Likes
#23

My grid and arc arrived yesterday. Because I had an arc with push button knobs years ago I assumed that it’s still that way, so I was a little disappointed to notice that the wheels don’t work as push buttons anymore. When and why did that happen – and how do you think and feel about this change?

Also the knobs are pretty stiff now. If any of you tuned arc to make it a little more loose: Could you please advice me how to do that?

#24

The change happened with the new iteration built within the grid like aluminium enclosure two years ago. As far as I understood, Brian was not satisfied by the existing push-encoder options on the market.

I have no experience with the original Arc but my feeling is that the push encoders are missing. You have push on something to switch between modes, states, pages or anything again and again and doing this either on the computer or on the small Ansible buttons (which then have long/short press gestures, because there are just two of them), takes away some of the magic from playing Arc and Grid as instrument interfaces. Watching the old push-button videos always seemed like a more organic workflow to me.

Then, I don’t have norns yet but I imagine it would feel different to me in this regard as I have a feeling that grid, arc and norns would build a functional unit again - with the modular or the computer arc somehow does not so much (while grid does).

Maybe it’s the aesthetic minimalism and and functional focus I imagine the new monome trinity will provide someday (On a side note, while seeing its usefulness I am also not very excited about crow to connect norns to the modular because the concept would then again lose this focus for me).

#25

if you refer to push encoders, small correction. the 2012 editions arc2 and arc4 already didn’t have push (but also superior encoders than the original if I recall correctly).

but I totally agree that norns is a very good friend to cover some kind of push turn interaction. my arc2 had a great resurrection since 2.0. the arc encs specially feel great to scrub audio buffers, and I can easily justify it being there just for angle alone. but then I can’t help but still see so much potential with arcs, and given how relatively easy it is to write scripts for norns… great times ahead!

2 Likes
#26

Thanks for your in depth replies, @Leverkusen and @sakul! I have to explore what the current arc can do in combination with grid, but I agree that the button less arc seems like a pretty big step backwards in terms of organic workflow and flexibility when using it with a computer or modular.

On push button arcs the poti axis was less firm than on the current ones, so the wheels tilted a tiny bit when applying pressure to the edge of a wheel. I can see why Brian wasn’t entirely satifsfied with that quality – but personally I’d rather accept this compromise than give up the button functionality.

I don’t know yet if I’ll take the Norns or Ansible or computer->Max-> CV route, so I’ll wait until we know what Crow brings to the table.

2 Likes
#27

Ups, you are absolutely right of course!

Scrubbing audio in a sampler is what I am dreaming of since I have the Arc. Unfortunately I did not find a way to do it with in the modular by now and did not find a used norns that I can afford.

I was always hoping for an Ansible app that outputs something like acceleration or speed values of the encoders. One could patch it like an endless encoder then and scrub through recordings within the ER-301…

Gate on/off for encoder movement detection
CV for speed of encoder movement

:heart_eyes:

#28

from old threads about this change…

1 Like
#29

That’s why I’m waiting for Crow. :slight_smile:

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#30

These are both very helpful, thanks. Making a clock on an arc came up as a fun demo in a conversation while I was hacking yesterday.

3 Likes
#31

I made a little Norns library that lets you register Norns parameters to work with your scripts, so it “Arc-ifies” most Norns apps with a few lines of code.

This is still a little unpolished, I’ll probably clean it up and give it a better name for the official Norns release:

22 Likes
#32

Great! This is my next challenge. Was looking for details on how to work with the arc – this may offer a glimpse.

1 Like