Flora v0.1.0-beta

[jaseknighter]

Flora v0.1.0-beta

an L-systems sequencer and bandpass-filtered sawtooth engine

UI and Controls

Plant

e1: next page
k1+e1: select active plant
k1+e2: replace active plant
e3: increase/decrease angle
k2/k3: previous/next generation
k1+k3: reset plants to their original forms and restart their sequences

Modify

e1: next/previous page
k1+e1: select active plant
e2: go to next/previous letter
e3: change letter
k2/k3: remove/add a letter
k1+k3: reset plants to their original forms and restart their sequences

Observe

e1: next/previous page
k1+e1: select active plant
e2: move up/down
e3: move left/right
k2/k3: zoom out/in
k1+k3: reset plants to their original forms and restart their sequences

Plow

e1: next/previous page
k1+e1: select active plant
e2: select control
e3: change control value
k2/k3: remove/add a control point

Water

e1: previous page
e2: select control
e3: change control value

Community gardening
A community garden is under development to share L-system rulesets written by members of the lines community. See the community gardening documentation on GitHub for details.

Preliminary Roadmap

• Improve the quality and portability of the code.
• Improve the documentation.
• Add an option with all the outputs (Audio, Midi, JF, crow)
• Add a rudimentary pset “meta-sequencer”
• Add support for w/syn.
• (done) Make additional Bandsaw engine and envelope variables available for Crow, Just Friends, and Midi outputs.
• Add microtonal scales.
• (done) Add a global setting to bypass the midi_note_off delay
• Add parameters for envelope (plow) settings and modify sentences so they can be saved and loaded.
• Add modulation and probability controls.
• Add a randomize function
• Increase and decrease the brightness of the circles that appear when each note plays according to the level of the note’s graph/envelope.

Suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Requirements

Norns (required)
Midi, Just Friends, Crow (optional)
Computer (optional for generating custom L-system algorithms)

Documentation

Press K1+K2 on each screen for basic key/encoder commands.

Complete documentation on GitHub (jaseknighter/flora)

Download

v0.1.0-beta - https://github.com/jaseknighter/flora/archive/main.zip

jaseknighter/flora (changelog)

note: if downloading from GitHub directly, rename the default flora-main folder to flora.

Changelog (summary)

v0.1.0-beta (20210131)

• Envelope and Bandsaw Engine output parameters from the plow and water screens may now be sent to midi, just friends, and crow.
• New parameters may be used to send midi data to the 16n faderbank on multiple channels via sysex. The new parameters are:
  – plow1:midi cc channel
  – plow2:midi cc channel
  – water: midi cc channel

Acknowledgements

• Flora’s L-system code is based on the code in Chapter 8.6 of Daniel Shiffman’s The Nature of Code.
• Many of the specific L-system algorithms are based on code from Paul Bourke’s L-System User Notes.
• Bandsaw, a bandpass-filtered sawtooth engine is based on SuperCollider code for a marimba presented by Eli Fieldsteel in his SuperCollider Tutorial #15: Composing a Piece, Part I.
• The code for this project was also deeply inspired by the following members of the lines community: Brian Crabtree (@tehn), Dan Derks (@dan_derks), Mark Wheeler (@markeats), Tom Armitage (@infovore), and Tyler Etters (@tyleretters).

[jkbrogan]

Awesome! I’d like to better understand how pitches are derived and specified. Does the user select a scale and generated pitches are quantized?

[jaseknighter]

That is correct. Also, see the documentation on GitHub for a bit more info: GitHub - jaseknighter/flora: L-systems sequencer and bandpass filtered sawtooth engine for monome norns

[tyleretters]

my jaw is on the floor

[jkbrogan]

Nice! Also, +1 for Shiffman’s book!

[Ukasz]

Wow, love it! Cool name also

[mlogger]

Wow - looks and sounds amazing. Here’s a first play. Can’t wait to try this with Just Friends

Monome Norns - Flora Script

[SPIKE]

HOLY FRACKEN WOW!!!
this looks and sounds absolutely amazing!

it reminds me a tiny bit of an idea i submitted on the ideas thread using virus genomes as a string of instructions and the virus structure / shape / graphic as a pathway for things to occur.

but THIS is on a whole other level entirely!!!
WOW!

[dan_derks]

holy shit. that demo is deeply compelling and just, staggering. this is beyond. thank you so much for sharing this, for tending and growing it.

[jakecarter]

This sounds amazing. I’ll definitely be playing around with this tomorrow.

[pangrus]

I’m charmed by this beauty.
Many many thanks.

[SPIKE]

so i got lost in the noiz of the script for tonight’s session…perfect weather for it here as well…cold and raining…

two instances of Flora with Cheat Codes 2.
some help from a Blippo Box, Wing Pinger and an LXR:

ASTROGENIC HALLUCINAUTING - late night noiz for late night fiends

here’s some of the norns in action…
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ29FAVpxmt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[swhic]

this is excellent, thank you

[Alessio]

Wow!
Sometimes happens that script does not sounds as well as the concept behind BUT here we have a great result! Sounds amazing.
Thank you

[xmacex]

Crikey if this isn’t the ultimate auto-generator of the stereotypical modular/monome plinky+reverb æsthetic on norns, with appropriately interesting conceptualization, I don’t know what is! Great work!!

[Gexex]

I had a lot of fun mixing flora’s output with another sequencer to produce interesting twists on a prepared sequence. This script is quite fun to use!

Regarding crow - not sure if I flubbed a setting somewhere or if this is WIP, but I’m only getting one note/gate pair (outputs 1 & 2)? I wasn’t getting any notes from crow’s third output.

[jaseknighter]

Many thanks to everyone for their responses. I am deeply touched.

I just noticed my original post was missing an important UI feature: on the first screen (plant), the key/encoder combination K1+E2 cycles through a list of ten available plants. I’ve edited the post to include the missing feature.

@Gexex, when crow is selected all notes/gates are sent to outputs 1/2. I’m away from my crow today, but I should be able to work on this tomorrow and split the notes/gates so the first plant sends notes/gates to outputs 1/2 and the second plant sends notes/gates to outputs 3/4.

[hypoxic]

very very cool

note: to make it work i had to rename the default flora-main folder to flora as the includes path was hardcoded to look for that path.

[jaseknighter]

Thank you @hypoxic. I added a note to the Download section of the post about this.

Also, the program is now available via maiden’s project manager.

[Ukasz]

Very fun to explore! Would it be possible and beneficial to add a randomize function?