#29

Yes this is definitely a bit of a personal project, while also making an opening, and a public suggestion upstream as an idea to get into norns. I really appreciate and respect that rather than trying to solve the entire field of ā€œhow to make sounds with computersā€ problem, monome is working with this product. Pushing the hardware side of things makes a little uneasy actually, and I really donā€™t want them to get bogged down in hardware compatibility support (see also the ā€œrunning norns on the new, more powerful Raspberry Pi 4ā€ discussion). But there isnā€™t anything OP-Z specific actually (my new development sketches are more ā€“ not less tied to OP-Z, though neednā€™t be).

I am not sure how far this idea would generalize before hitting limits, perhaps to all USB compliant devices perhaps not. Have you tried it? The basic idea is, currently: running alsa_in process and patching it to jack.

#30

Iā€™m new to Norns and Linux in general, but I think I should be able to follow. Iā€™ll give it a go and feedback!

1 Like
#31

How would I do that? Still a bit of a newb.

#32

It is working, thank you @xmacex!
Changed the device address and sample rate to 48000.

Now a couple of issues:

  1. my analog input is noisy, is there a way to disconnect monome input ?
  2. usb input is low, any option to boost 6 or 12 dB?

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4 Likes
#33

If you are not familiar with maiden - check this video, it answered many noob questions of mine https://youtu.be/Vf-Br3wwQRw

2 Likes
#34

Nice interesting, good job! This thing is generalizing, and will hopefully eventually generalize itself into oblivion :wink: The name is now already misleading, which is by design.

  1. There is another method which is somehow also better than running the alsa_in process, and thatā€™s the -d hw:0 ā†’ -d hw:1 change in the norns-jack service in /etc/systemd/system. This conserves CPU too, but there are so other complications with it which i havenā€™t sorted out yet. I am not sure if this would help with noise from analog input.
  2. I need to see about boosting. There is some commentary about it in another thread, i am not sure if itā€™s implication, eg will it be distorted.
1 Like
#35

Thanks! I got it running! I wish there was a way for this to be a feature of Fates so you could run other patches with it. Great job on this!

1 Like
#36

Super! Agree, that would be a killer system feature for Norns. Especially with more input gain :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#37

Now with separate input and output in version 0.3.1. I mean: now output is actually also implemented.

This means sampling/resampling fun fun fun directly into OP-Z, while also allowing conservation of norns CPU when audio norns ā„² OP-Z is not needed.

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9 Likes
#38

This is a huge deal - the OP-Z / norns pairing is so powerful, but difficult to get right (you REALLY need a $15 USB power isolator). This solution is so much more elegant than that. Now if you can get this working on my ipad, Iā€™d appreciate it! When you connect those two, it does stupid ā€œApple knows bestā€ things like turning off the headphone out.

3 Likes
#39

Thanks for voicing that this little utility is useful, inspiring or otherwise interesting. Sorry to hear about that loss of a signal route, I hope youā€™ll find a way around it somehow.

1 Like
#40

Ok wait. This almost sound to good to be true :slight_smile: So if I have this program I only need the usb cable between the OP-Z and the Norns to pass midi and audio? Is it possible to run cheat codes this way?

1 Like
#41

Yes absolutely, thatā€™s the (only) purpose of this entire thingĀ¹.

Ā¹ i mean not cheat codes specifically, but any norns script.

1 Like
#42

Damn. That is so cool. Great work!

1 Like
#43

Cheers! Itā€™s a bit of a kludge and i dream of it being implemented closer in the norns itself since itā€™s a bit antithetical (because multitasking), but it does the job. I use it almost every day.

Happy to hear if it brings you joy (and free inputs) :green_circle::large_blue_circle::upside_down_face::red_circle:

1 Like
#44

Really love the combo OP-Z and norns. Great work with this! I have some issues with pops and clicks in the audio (see attached). I have turned off USB charging. I have read above but maybe missed something. Is there a solution for this?

Thanks a lot!

1 Like
#45

Hi @Nick_Martin and thanks for the kind words, I am very happy with this combo.

The pops in your recording sound familiar. I donā€™t have a great diagnosis for the pops and clicks unfortunately, i believe it is simply because of processing limitations. What the script does is it runs a parallel process which routes audio between the two devices. The process takes surprisingly lot of CPU power on norns, and the realtime nature of audio processing, such as on norns, is unforgiving.

Iā€™ve registered the issue earlier on GitHub and some remarks about it. A recentish update I made separated the norns ā†’ OP-Z and OP-Z ā†’ norns audio connections, and enabling only the one you want to use seems to help.

Sorry i donā€™t have an analytical or implemented, final solution for it. If anyone has ideas to try, they would be most welcome.

In my own experience this happens with some norns scripts, but not all. Also make sure to give enough :electric_plug: electricity to norns; I have two power sources with norns shield and the lower ampere one creates more of this paraphenomena than the other with higher amperage.

Alternatively, put loads and loads of reverb on it and consider it procedural/generative (sorry not a helpful joke).

Cheers!

1 Like
#46

Thank you for the answer!

This is actually only running this script and if I run another script itā€™s not really effecting this.

I noticed if I plugged in the WiFi adapter it became worse.

I tried a couple of different cables but it didnā€™t change anything.

If look at the Norns itā€™s only around 23-30% cpu running less concepts with audio running through USB.

Iā€™m actually experiencing a lot of latency as well. It seems that the pops come from that. Is latency something you experience as well?

If this became part of the Norns system as you speak of above, would that bring down the CPU usage?

Thanks!

#47

This is not too surprising. The WiFi adaptor and the other device are competing for bandwidth on the single USB bus. One of the main benefits of the norns/shield audio hardware is to avoid the contention on the USB bus allowing the audio interface to run at much lower latency (and smaller buffer sizes) than a USB connected interface will ever be able to hit.

#48

Yeah i thought so too. Just wanted to test what happened and report for future references :slight_smile: