Blippoo: a Blippoo Box clone for Norns

cfd90 · February 8, 2021, 4:34pm

blippoo

an audio sound generator that operates according to the principles of chaos theory.
~ Rob Hordijk

blippoo is a Blippoo Box clone for Norns.

It is based on @olaf’s SuperCollider implementation, which can be found on sccode.org.

Requirements

Norns

Installation

Blippoo is available on Maiden in the community package section.

Alternatively, enter this command into Matron to manually install:

;install https://github.com/cfdrake/blippoo

Reboot or reset your Norns, as this script installs a new engine.

Documentation

The main Norns UI provides two pages of performance controls. The first page affects the oscillators and output volume, and the second page affects the twin peaks (filters). A third page affects the built-in delay effect.

KEY 2 tap for oscillators page
KEY 3 tap for filters page

KEY 1 hold for delay page

ENC 1 / ENC 2 / ENC 3 alter params on page

For detailed control of the synth, head to the PARAMS page. All of the modulation controls are located here (FM from S&H, the Rungler, and oscillators). Small adjustments can have a drastic effect on sound, so hold KEY 3 when changing parameters to finely tune them!

Development

Github Repo

DuellingAnts · January 30, 2021, 6:38pm

wow! can’t wait to try this

xmacex · January 30, 2021, 7:02pm

Strange. It makes weird sounds. I have no control. I don’t know what is happening. Who am I? What is what? I love it. Thank you!!

Senorakubra · January 31, 2021, 3:56pm

Thank you @cfd90
This is wonderful. Totally amazing. What a script. David Tudor. Thanks for porting. Head cleaner. I was admiring mudlogger’s bippobox on Instagram this week and now this.
Heartily recommended.

Mad86 · January 31, 2021, 4:28pm

Thanks and congratulations !!
We can feel some NLC vibes into this script

yghartsyrt · February 1, 2021, 1:06pm

amazing script. thanks a lot.

here’s a simple lemur script with some exponential scaling so it’s easier to dial in lower values
Blippoo.jzml (34.0 KB)

Blit · February 1, 2021, 5:25pm

Funny, as a friend yesterday was showing me the Blippoo, which i havent noticed for a reason. Then i found this. I love Lines
Not sure what im doing here. I mapped the parameters to the 16n for inmediate action

Thanks for the script!

cfd90 · February 1, 2021, 5:36pm

It makes weird sounds. I have no control. I don’t know what is happening. Who am I? What is what?

~~

Thanks everyone Glad y’all are enjoying it, I immediately had a ton of fun when I found it on sccode.org and knew I had to port it. Kudos again to the original author

@Blit love it, nice recording! I have a MIDI Twister being delivered later today, would love to add some kind of “first class” auto-mapped feature for Twister and 16n if that’s possible.

~~

P.S. I silently added this to the official Maiden index yesterday

cfd90 · February 2, 2021, 5:46pm

Pushed a small update today…

Reverb is no longer disabled by default
Added first class support for MIDI Fighter Twister
Better tuning of parameter ranges (including exponential control for oscillators)

~~

Steps:

Connect your MIDI Fighter Twister in SYSTEM => DEVICES => MIDI on port 1. Ensure Bank 1 is selected on the MFT.

Run blippoo.

If you see [mft] displaying in the lower left, it means your device was found.

Dials should display the values of the initial patch, and are automatically mapped to params in the order they show on the PARAMS page (dials 1-15, 16 is unused).

Note that your MFT needs to be plugged in before launch.

Cementimental · February 2, 2021, 10:08pm

This thing sounds amazing, played around for a couple of mins and got great circuitbent speak & spell type sounds already

Blit · February 3, 2021, 12:52am

Im having too much fun with it. Does it sound too different from the real thing? (which is impossible to find)

How can i save the midi mapping?

cfd90 · February 3, 2021, 2:04am

TBH I’ve never played the original, but I’d love to!

Are you setting up MIDI mapping in PARAMS => MAP? Assuming you have the same MIDI device on the same port between runs I think it should persist?

ntrncr · February 3, 2021, 5:06am

I have an original Blippoo and am loving the combination of the two in complete chaotic tandem.

The Norns version sounds great! I find the biggest differences so far are how you interface with each device. The Blippoo is very reactive, every minor manual transition creates new territory to explore. The Norns version is similar but less immediate given the interface. I haven’t mapped anything via MIDI so I’m sure that opens up a lot of similar-ish possibilities.

Sonically they sound similar but I don’t think it’s an exact 1:1. The low frequency percussive territory as well as high frequency full chaos zones have different outcomes. Neither better or worse. All that said this Norns version is an absolute blast to explore Thank you for the time and effort on this one!

SPIKE · February 3, 2021, 7:33am

ok…WOW.

i just updated and wired in the MFT…way cool!

@Blit
i also have an actual Blippoo Box and they are similar and not in several ways.
the actual noiz from a Blippoo Box is very watery sounding.
(best way i can describe it)
it tends to easily sound like forms of water…drops, drips, rushing, etc.

this norns version can mimic that but it can go into digital noiz terror land rather easily.
also…the filtering tends to sound more like a Formant Filter on the norns version.
which the actual Blippoo doesn’t.

@cfd90 thanks for creating such an awesome script of the Blippoo!
i am REALLY digging this and also i really dig the couple of things the Blippoo doesn’t have:
MIN / MAX knob button presses!
A VOLUME KNOB!

Blit · February 3, 2021, 6:36pm

yes but it doesnt get saved after turning off.

cfd90 · February 8, 2021, 5:06pm

Hmm interesting - what type of device?

I just tried (on a new-to-me Norns) to launch Blippoo, map some knobs to my OP-Z (virtual port #2), reboot, and the knobs are still mapped on the subsequent launch.

There should be a file at ~/dust/data/blippoo/blippoo.pmap to store your MIDI mapping. I don’t think anything is required to save it, it should just happen. Did your Norns power off correctly? Maybe it wasn’t written to the SD card after a bad shutdown?

cfd90 · February 8, 2021, 5:09pm

Update: the latest version of Blippoo now has a built-in delay (disabled by default).

The delay is implemented using Softcut (same code as Awake), so no reboot should be needed AFAIK.

Controls are the same as before (K2 = oscillators, K3 = filters), but now you can hold K1 to edit the delay effect. When you let go of K1 you will be brought to the prior page you were editing, to keep a nice flow when performing.

In delay mode, ENC1 is delay volume, ENC2 is delay rate, and ENC3 is delay feedback.

~~

Edit: And one more update… MFT can now be connected on any virtual port and still be discovered, and (bugfix) will no longer show as connected if still configured in virtual ports but not physically connected at launch.

Blit · February 9, 2021, 1:53am

It’s a 16n faderbank. Oddly, other apps save the midi mapping so I’m not sure what’s happening

cfd90 · February 11, 2021, 2:28am

Are you on the latest Norns update? I think older Norns versions require you to save a PSET to get the MIDI mappings to save. Newers Norns versions should save the MIDI mappings automatically though.

Past this I’m not too sure, especially with no 16n to test Any worrisome looking console logs maybe?

~~

Pushed a teeny tiny update: moved the delay code into lib/ so no extra blippoo_halfsecond.lua entry should show in the script launcher anymore.

xmacex · February 11, 2021, 9:05am

The La Synthèse Humaine has a video where they explore the ideas behind a Blippoo box. It might provide context for this script for y’all, like it did for me.