#102

<3 ! that’ll do ! <3

1 Like
#103

just a quick note for folks – if you want to re-enable the old default of “everything loops at start”, just change line 1403 in the main script to:

pad.loop = true

and that’ll do it :slight_smile:

i changed the default because i’d gotten more than a few folks saying that looping was the first thing they turned off when they loaded a session. so, if you want to get back to those good ole times, just swap that line!

3 Likes
#104

A few days with the arc and cheat codes, and I feel obligated to point out how brilliantly they work together. I use arc constantly now to adjust loop positions, as well as start and end points, as I edit a trig (sorry, damaged from Elektron’s workflow there) and work its parameters simultaneously. Adjusting filter or envelope curve (for example) with my left hand while shifting the loop around with my right is an amazingly fluent and inspiring workflow.

And I haven’t hardly explored pattern recording with arc yet, more than figuring out how it works. Which also seems mindblowingly cool.

5 Likes
#105

I’ve read the manual and played with Cheat Codes for a couple of hours now. Amazing instrument! One thing I can’t find is if there is a button combo to clear the settings (reverse, pitch etc) for one (or all) pads? I want to be able to go back to “normal” quickly.

3 Likes
#106

This keeps getting more interesting. I’ve found a way to create just a string of happy accidents, by first recording a pretty standard loop, to fill up the buffer. Say, a nice little chord sequence or a bubbly arp or something. Then, I’ll be as creative as I can with that loop, spread out across the pads with filter tweaks, play order, trims and stuff. I’ll work all those into a pattern (or even a string of patterns if I feel bold enough to use the meta sequencer), and then, I wipe the buffer, keep the patterns running and record something entirely else into the buffer, and just let it play out as my tweaks kick in.

The results are never boring. Always interesting. Sometimes amazing.

Cheat codes makes the Octatrack feel ordinary :slight_smile: and I love the Octatrack :slight_smile:

9 Likes
#107

thanks for the very positive vibes, all!

this will get a better-thought-out implementation in the next update (which should drop in the next week!), but for now you can do this on a per-pad basis – grid-ALT + the unlit key next to zilchmo 3. that’ll reset whatever pad is currently playing’s rate back to 1x (forward).

this is my faaaaaaave. super easy way to get into wild new territory by just changing your source material :slight_smile:. thank you for sharing your discoveries!!

5 Likes
#108

so i test drove the “random record” feature last night and it’s really amazing!
i posted a sample of it in the Lissadron thread…

1 Like
#109

Now you’re making me really intrigued and excited about the grid that is inbound to my house this week. Gotta remember baby steps, though. I might have to pick your brain if I get impatient! Hehe.

4 Likes
#110

Man oh man, you’re in for it. I’ve had grids in one fashion or another fit 10 years and STILL feel confounded. Cheat Codes is a huge step forward in the ‘complexity’ department. It’s got a little of everything!

Sampler; check
Clip launcher; check
Meta sequencer; check

Total mind bender? Double check

4 Likes
#111

You know where to find me, mate :slight_smile:

My biggest learning experience with all this new, is that my old methods of creating something more comprehensive don’t really work here. When you’re from fire and forget country, just launch your trig recorders on the OT or auto sampling from the Blackbox and you got a track going, this place is like that Playstation video David Lynch did many years ago.

With the difference, though, that it really comes down to how you approach the way you make stuff. For each day, I’m coming up with new and more consistent stuff that has this blend of my old-fashioned beat making and rhythmic approach to stuff, but with this new spice added to it that just makes it into something else.

I was playing with mlr yesterday and I was like “If there’s any script begging for trig recording, this is the one”, but as I just fed it with new material, I was like “But this is pretty funky, too.” And I can’t think of any other platform that would’ve taken me to that place, so quickly and with so little effort (and look so lovely at the same time).

Of course, it would’ve helped if mlr saved the stuff I did, as well :slight_smile: seems like it doesn’t, only the settings, not the samples or the patterns. Oh, well.

(and I could be wrong on this, I’m still learning, so correct me if I am, I’d love to be wrong on this one)

Cheat codes’ the same in this regard, for me. First, you’re like “what the hell is going on?” Then, you find the quantize setting in the tempo screen. You explore the meta sequencer. You split up the buffer and spread out the recordings over the grid. And all of that is new, but the idea of making a beating track, I can bring that with me from what I’ve learned before.

6 Likes
#112

The norns+grid combo is absolutely genius and well worth the money imo. I feel this platform has enabled me to make music closer to the stuff I like to listen to (that I’ve never really understood how I could do myself)

Cheat Codes in particular is sooo deep and powerful. I can see lots of different ways to use it already, from live-mangling of sounds to controlled pattern sequences

9 Likes
#113

Hey @dan_derks I’m noticing some odd behaviour from cheat codes as I go deeper. Two things happen with some frequency, though I can’t give a solid repro case because I’m not sure what triggers it.

The recording buffer sometimes snaps back its starting point to zero, exactly at the beginning of the buffer, even if I adjust it forward. As soon as I stop adjusting it, it snaps back. The only thing I know for sure is that this happens when I tweak the rec loop enc resolution parameter.

Also, the clock and sequencer just stops and won’t start. So pattern recording doesn’t work, nor does the meta sequencer. Cheat codes still recognises external clock, though. It just doesn’t do anything with it. Changing it to internal clock makes no difference. This, also, seems to happen when I tweak the rec loop enc resolution parameter.

What stands out might be that I’m using a Keystep Pro into the norns. It sequences my Prophet 12 and sends clock into the norns. I’ve had some other Keystep Pro-related issues with the Blackbox, as far as timing goes. Not sure this has anything to do with it, nor am I sorry I can’t provide a 100% repro case. But I figured, if you’re getting bug reports from elsewhere and you’re doing the puzzle thing on finding out, perhaps this helps.

1 Like
#115

suuuuuper weird stuff investigating this live buffer windowing issue. thank you for the ping + report!

hairy math!

image
image874×124 7.54 KB

looks like we’re picking up some really unexpected inequalities…here, 1.0 is somehow less than 1.0 :slight_smile:

putting in a print for all false positives:

image
image532×1204 11.7 KB

wild!

this would suggest a total failure of the clock system – any maiden output when this happens?

#116

As per your question on what confirms the clock’s still working, the bpm count in the Clock module still syncs with the input from the Keystep Pro. So it’s taking the signal all right.

But it does sound like the issue might be the combination of external clock, perhaps then specifically the way the Keystep Pro handles this, and the tweaking of the buffer’s enc resolution.

I’ll do a maiden print-out next time it happens.

I don’t know how to do that :slight_smile: but I’ll figure it out.

#117

gotcha – i think the buffer enc resolution issue is separate from the hangups. i’ve solved the encoder issue, will bundle the fix in next release :slight_smile:

the pattern wonkiness is fully clock-based (the bpm won’t reflect the weirdness, but the transport counter on [timing] totally would), so maiden will automatically print a ton of errors as soon as something goes wrong. with norns on the same wifi network as a laptop, navigate to norns.local in your browser and it’ll do its thing when something goes wrong.

quick q’s about your pattern setup:

  • quant or quant+trim?
  • are you including zilchmos in the patterns?
  • are they fast-press button-mash style? or more calculated?
  • how many events are in the patterns, typically? 10? 40? more?

thanks so much for the help, @circuitghost !

1 Like
#118

Only quant.
Some zilchmos, mostly reverse.
More calculated, say MPC style playing.
Around 12-16.

Happy to help :blush:

1 Like
#119

hmm. testing heavy sessions on my side, i wonder if the clock issues might be addressed with the updates pushed in the last few days…i’m running the latest pull from github, rather than the current release. this bodes well, perhaps! i’ll keep hacking at it though. thanks andreas!

1 Like
#120

No worries, happy to contribute.

Got a repro case for you now -

Start a clean session.
Go into Parameters.
Set 1-shot sync to next bar
rec loop enc resolution to 1/16

And now, the buffer resets itself shortly after you adjust it.

Happened three times in a row for me now.

Nothing on the tempo yet, though. Though as I recall it, that one didn’t actually happen until I’d recorded something into the second (b) loop. Not sure if it’s related, but seeing as I’m still experimenting and learning in general, I don’t always get as far as beyond the (a) loop, still just trying out techniques and stuff. But this time, I did, and for some reason, that’s when the sequencer died and the patterns stopped working. In terms of user experience, it was the equivalent of reseting and stopping the meta sequencer and it wouldn’t start as I tried to launch it.

1 Like
#121

oh, i think i get it. thank you @circuitghost!

so, to confirm, if you move the loop window around and then change that param, it resets back to the start of the buffer, right? but you can move it again afterward?

changing rec loop enc resolution is designed to reset the position of the record head back to the start when you change it (as i assumed it was a set-and-forget setting). so yes, if you’re dynamically changing the resolution param, it’s constantly resizing and (to me, at the time) the safest way to resize was to start of the current buffer and size out from there. that way, you aren’t stuck between beats when you’re trying to get a clean 4-beat loop.

sounds like that’s unexpected from a user perspective, tho – i admit, i didn’t think that folks would use rec loop enc resolution dynamically. i assumed that you’d set that once at the start of your session and use the encoders on the [loops] page to dynamically change your loop size. but you’re finding it easier to preferable to change the resolution on the fly? would giving you midi-controllable loop params be better? i’m planning on adding control over the record buffer loop points to the arc’s 4th encoder, so perhaps that’ll be most helpful?

1 Like
#122

Ah-ha! So it’s expected behaviour. Very interesting.

See, here’s how I was expecting it to behave - once I set the resolution, the start and end points snap to that resolution, like a quantized sequencer. Which would mean that whatever window I set, I knew it’d start and end on a perfect 1/16th, for example.

A typical use case would be that I had one bar recorded first, then just moved the buffer one entire bar to the right, recorded a new one and so on, until I was out of space.

If the loops then had the same resolution, that would mean that I could easily define a perfect one bar loop from my recordings within the loop, if I so wanted, but also shift that window after the same quantized principle as well, moving freely from a traditional perfect 4by4 beat to a complete polyrythmic version of the same.

Not that I get it, though, I’m not necessarily expecting cheat codes to behave like this. It’s more along what I assumed this synced recording to be, as I’m damaged from years on the Octatrack and about a year on the Blackbox. So my experience is very subjective here.

If the buffer snaps to the start if I go for 1/16th, 1/8th or similar, this feature won’t be of much use to me since cheat codes to me feels very much about free form, and I enjoyed the idea of a quantized window of some order within this lovely chaos. I would probably just stick with more granular resolutions then, and keep the more wild nature intact.

Should you throw in buffer loop points to the 4th arc, though, that would be very cool - and more in line with what the arc primarily does for cheat codes already. I use it all the time for adjusting the loop points as I play the grid live. It is lovely stuff, Dan. Lovely stuff.

1 Like