— arcologies —

tyleretters · 2021-01-23T16:01:57.209Z

oh wow yeah that is definitely a bug. i guess i only transpose stuff down

renegog · 2021-02-04T08:00:14.273Z

added 6 more samples with a midi sequenced microgranny

tyleretters · 2021-02-06T01:27:58.935Z

this is really freaking cool. i love the stuff going on at 2 min

renegog · 2021-02-06T01:33:43.041Z

B-) that part has to do with microgrannys extremely weird* midi implementation where the lowest 6 notes select the sample and then any higher notes will repitch the last played sample (or scroll through the grains depending on the settings). as a result, manually pressing different samples will get different ones in to be repitched until the midi selects the next one to take priority—so there was some manual disruption going on there.

Was going to do a video but my DV camera is at a friends house digitizing childhood memories ^.^, will definitely be doing more with this and sharing. Microgranny and norns are bffs I think.

*this might not be weird i’ve never really midi’d before

Ukasz · 2021-02-06T20:37:31.569Z

Love this script Destroy and seed new is my favorite function. With enabling just 2-3 structures.

Is there a way to switch the synth engine to rings or passersby?

tyleretters · 2021-02-07T04:01:38.874Z

so glad you’re digging it! yeah i love starting really primitive like that. “age of empires mode.”

that’s this one right? mi-eng/ResonateR_engine.lua at master · okyeron/mi-eng · GitHub

yeah it is totally possible with a few code changes. update this to the right engine: arcologies/includes.lua at main · northern-information/arcologies · GitHub and then this is the part of arcologies that plays engines: arcologies/sound.lua at main · northern-information/arcologies · GitHub (it is just two lines). you wouldn’t have control over all the other params but i’m sure it’d still sound interesting.

Ukasz · 2021-02-07T15:49:55.859Z

Wow, thank you!

Recently I’ve been using Hive, Topiary + Tunnel for generating random seed. Everything hungs up quickly if I add too much of them and I have to switch the unit off. Is this somehow dangerous for norns to “abuse” it like that?

tyleretters · 2021-02-07T17:13:24.246Z

switching it off isn’t great because data can get corrupted. i don’t think it has happened to me yet and i’ve frozen my norns literally thousands of times while developing.

can you share the steps to reproduce the freeze? it sounds like a bug i could fix.

Ukasz · 2021-02-07T18:30:41.803Z

I see. So I enable only Hive, Topiary and Tunnel. Then set the number of cells to 32 or some other high number. And make new random seed a couple of times. It usually got stuck for me after about 5-10 times.

Edit: actually it gets stuck even faster, now it did after second reseed.

shoggoth · 2021-02-09T03:40:28.142Z

FYI to the gridless crowd: two Launchpad mini mk3s and the generous folks who maintain the midigrid library significantly lower the barrier to entry for this absolutely incredible app. The Norns:alternative grid thread has some crystal clear instructions on the minor script tweaks that are needed.

blueroses · 2021-02-09T11:12:02.223Z

and if you only have one Launchpad, the 64-key version also works a treat

shoggoth · 2021-02-11T04:09:52.110Z

Got curious and was able to hack my way to adding a Pan parameter to all the Synth glyphs - Shrine, Topiary, Vale. Just crawled through the scripts and found anything similar to velocity and duplicated it for Pan (except where it related to a MIDI glyph).

Only unique pieces were basically setting the pan ranges from -100 to 100 in the pan mixin, adding engine.pan(x) to the sound:play() call, and passing cell.pan/100 into sound:play() since the engine range is really -1 to 1.
Not extensively tested but worked for the jamming I did, even with Cloakroom modification of the Pan param.

EDIT: upon further reflection, this really speaks to how well this app is architected for ‘extensibility’ and good naming practices since a beginner/novice like myself can naively say ‘I need something like velocity, let me just copy all that without even knowing how it all works’ and then… it works. I’m constantly in awe of this platform as a whole and all of the thoughtful contributors.

tyleretters · 2021-02-11T15:36:52.445Z

@shoggoth wow awesome work!! @license and i were just talking last night about how much of an investment it is to “get inside someone’s head” enough to make changes to big scripts. thank you for the kind words about the architecture. i’m so happy you had an idea and went for it.

@Ukasz i have logged this issue and will try to fix in a future update! in the interim setting a lower number of cells to randomize should avoid the issue.

@blueroses & @shoggoth i am going to look into getting midigrid added now thank you for the tips. this will fit nicely with the “grayscale” grid feature requests.

bharris22 · 2021-03-07T12:31:28.862Z

Hi Everyone - I have a quick question about using Arcologies with a 64 Grid. I have Arcologies running successfully with two Launchpads using the mg_128 version of midigrid. If I just wanted to plug one Launchpad in, do I need to change any settings within Arcologies to get it to see a 64 pad grid, or will it always think it is running on a 128 grid? In other words, as I have Arcologies working with (in effect) a 128 grid, will it just run automatically the same way when a 64 grid is plugged in, or do I need to change a setting within Arcologies or some of the code?

In addition, I have edited other scripts (Buoys, Zellen) to run on both midigrid (for one Launchpad) and mg_128 (for two Launchpads). When I have done this, I install the main version and add the midigrid line for a single LP, rename that one “Buoys-64” for example, and then reinstall the script from Maiden in order to add the mg_128 line, renaming that one “Buoys-128”. This method works for both Buoys and Zellen, but when I try this with Arcologies neither the version with 64 grid code nor 128 code work, even though I have only changed the name of the parent folder in Maiden as described (i.e., to “Arcologies-64” and “Arcologies-128”). Any idea why that would happen, and if so, what would be the easiest way for me to have two Arcologies scripts (one for a 64 grid and one for a 128 grid) on my Norns at the same time?

I apologize for the long complicated post, especially on a Sunday, and thank you in advance for all your help!

Edit - I believe I have answered my own question . Running Arcologies with the mg_128 code but only one Launchpad seems to work absolutely fine - just 64 pads of the 128 are available, which is what I would expect. Thus, there is no need for two separate versions of the script on the Norns.

Autogeneric · 2021-03-07T20:07:51.309Z

Hi - recently got a Norns shield, this script is as amazing as this thread suggests. Thank you @tyleretters for such an amazing, erm, instrument?

I believe I’ve found a couple of bugs: I’m surprised these haven’t been noticed before though, so there may be something I’m doing wrong.

Both are on the first page:

When changing the root note, turning E3 in either direction increments down a semitone. This is out of sync with the displayed note value which behaves as expected. There’s no real work around here, you can only go down in pitch rather than up, and you can’t correct any mistakes. The only way to go up the scale is to reload the saved Arcology. I rapidly got to super deep notes before I realised what was going on!
Transpose does not affect the Crow Output (haven’t tested with MIDI). I2C and the internal synth will move up and down octaves, but the Crow output does not change.

Am still working out how to use this, but these seemed not to be by design/not in line with user expectation.

Thanks!

tyleretters · 2021-03-09T23:37:48.524Z

i’m so happy you’re enjoying it!

good finds. i’ll get these fixed in the next release

renegog · 2021-03-10T00:03:08.162Z

how does one use an arc with arcologies? I see it in the tags but haven’t seen anything in the docs… control-f “arc” doesn’t seem to reveal anything more than one might expect

tyleretters · 2021-03-10T01:43:29.536Z

— arcologies — Library

v1.2.0 “arctangents & archangels” [arctangents-and-archangels] NEW monome arc support. This allows you to map your arc to various controls: norns encoders 1-3, “browse cells”, change crypt directory, global transpose, BPM, and “danger zone” clock.sync(x). One interesting convention of note: encoders that “sparkle” will musically alter your arcology. Encoders that do not are “safe” and are reserved for tasks such as menu navigation. Map your arc encoders and set orientation via the norns par…

aye i could probably document it more. there is extensive arc support. basically crack open the params menu and map each encoder to what you want

renegog · 2021-03-10T01:51:15.960Z

I recognize the artwork but somehow missed this on my last round of searches, sorry for being thick! very cool!

Autogeneric · 2021-03-13T10:53:31.035Z

Another bug report, but I’m afraid one that’s difficult to reproduce:

Arcologies seems to get more unstable as more external devices are used. I have a Crow (Just Friends and physical outputs) and a Grid, and am also using Midi devices on Ableton via a usb-host-host device. I’ve found:

Crow is not always recognised. I start Arcologies with Crow attached, and it will not recognise it. I have had most success by switching to another application, then opening Arcologies again.
Midi is not always recognised either, the midi outputs will often not function in this fuller configuration.
I’ve had a number of crashes - just now I had a stuck note on Just Friends, and the application then crashed. Opening some arcologies files can also cause crashes. (Potentially when Crow is not attached?)

Hope this is useful, I can try to recreate if this is more helpful, but it doesn’t appear particularly consistent.