Friends of norns: gear, accessories, etc

[noiserock]

Look no further(unless this has been removed in newer beta versions, I am a bit out of the loop these days):

< codebreaking >: cheat codes livestreams

setting up op-z we’ll need to make some adjustments to OP-Z’s MIDI settings, so grab a screen and navigate to the OP-Z’s MIDI SETUP menus: for globals, make only the following active: MIDI IN ENABLE MIDI OUT ENABLE CLOCK IN ENABLE CLOCK OUT ENABLE then, you’ll want to choose three tracks to control the three banks of cheat codes. how you set that up will depend on your end-goals, but make sure you take note of the midi channels for each track. if you’ve never edited the MIDI channel assignm…

[xcc]

Has anyone tried a Mutable CV Pal with the Norns?

[neronoia]

Any suggestion for a cheap/dirty/simple way to plug my guitar straight into Norns? Would I need a preamp that output stereo to do this?

I was thinking about something like a Zoom MS70CDR for putting some FX in the chain (and also it’s stereo) but as I understand it does not output line level?

Edit: From its manual it looms like the MS70CDR can output line level, so it would be perfect. Any experience with it?

[coreyr]

@neronoia

Zoom MS70CDR

Love it, its funky, its full of effects. I’ve run guitar>ms70cdr>Norns and it works just fine. You can introduce some stereo spread depending on which effects you use, there is a little 5 band eq, multi tap delays.

[rvense]

MS70CDR is fantastic. Extreme range of high-quality effects. Unfortunately it has some noise/ground loop issues when powered over USB.

[neronoia]

Thanks guys, it looks great.

I plan to power it with a wall wart at home and with an USB - DC step-up converter on the go so that could be a non issue for me!

[kbra]

I’d probably lean towards one of the “guitar multi fx” as well so that you’ll get something that resembles more an amplified / recorded guitar rather than the dry guitar signal if you want to. I suppose pretty much all of the normal digital ones (whether Zoom, Line 6 or something else) output some kind of line level signal - not necessarily a very hot one, but still one that’s usable with Norns.

FWIW you don’t really need a stereo output, you can as well plug a mono signal in. Stereo fx are fun, of course…

[coreyr]

Ah yes, the zoom power over usb noise problem. I usually power all my zoom gear with rechargeable batteries so I had forgotten about it.

[okyeron]

New friend (work in progress)

(Mech-key midi keyboard + knobs + small oled. Could also be a x0x-ish sequencer)

[kbra]

That’s very cool!

And actually made me think: what if one added an extra switch to a DIY mech keyboard (say, 40-60% size to be compact, maybe ortholinear instead of staggered layout) to make it start up either as a class compliant USB MIDI device or HID / keyboard depending on need. That way you’d have a keyboard that works both for playing MIDI notes and typing / programming something like Orca or Yggdrasil.

For someone who’s used actual piano keyboards it’s maybe not super tempting, but for people used to “keyjazz” on trackers or playing with isomorphic layouts (Linnstrument, Grid, etc.), that might actually be a pretty fun idea to carry one device that acts as both.

[2197]

super cool!
@okyeron did you design your own pcb for it?

@kbra love this idea. as someone who learned music by “keyjazzing”, having a hardware switch to change mode on a keyboard would be really neat : )

[kbra]

It would be fun to dust DipTrace and draw a PCB for something like this. I suppose (un)fortunately the easy way to do this would be just to take an existing freely available ortho PCB design and extend its firmware as the hardware would be pretty much identical anyway.

I’m clueless about USB enumeration though, not sure if it’s eg. possible for a single hardware device to appear as both a HID device and USB MIDI device at once. So instead of eg. replugging and choosing a mode at startup, one could just have a switch / key combination to determine which “virtual” device will send the keypress data, and sort of alternate between keyboard and MIDI input on the fly.

What would make it fancier hardware-wise would be to use ON-ON switches and make it velocity sensitive. I’m not sure if there are any Cherry / Kailh / Gateron / what-have-you type decent mech keyboard switches that are anything but ON-OFF though. There are experimental / expensive keyboards using IR sensing for determining velocity, but it sounds a bit too complex and expensive for a full keyboard.

[rvense]

You could totally make a keyboard firmware that showed up as both a MIDI device and a HID keyboard and then do as you say. I think the QMK firmware might already allow this, at least a quick search reveals this:

https://beta.docs.qmk.fm/developing-qmk/qmk-internals-in-progress/internals_midi_device

QMK is a great customizable firmware for (QWERTY) keyboards, it runs on many common microcontrollers and has a number of extra features, like support for displays.

[marcus_fischer]

Woah. So nice. Sign me up!

[kbra]

Should have guessed one of the universal firmwares already has things at least half ready … Thanks!

I actually have a mech keyboard under construction I was thinking of using QMK with, so shall investigate once the hardware is wired up

[ypxkap]

i have daydreamed about putting a contact mic into my mechanical keyboard for a long time. i love the weird quasi-performance typing tests keyboard nuts do on youtube to a/b switches, bodies, the brass?? baseplates, etc. would be fun to make a mechanical keyboard “rhodes” with blend control between the switch sounds and some computer generated tonal element…

[evancook]

unsure if this planck user has both HID and MIDI working at the same time, but there are certainly people out there working on a lot of interesting “MIDI in QMK” projects.

in my recent macropad build that uses QMK, i settled for firmware that did only MIDI, as i found getting MIDI in QMK to work at all personally challenging, and was content when i got enough of a result.

this thread also might be helpful in understanding the obstacles, but i am unsure because of my level of QMK experience.

[okyeron]

@2197

did you design your own pcb for it?

yes this is a custom design I made.

@kbra

possible for a single hardware device to appear as both a HID device and USB MIDI device at once.

Yes - Teensy does this pretty well (like MIDI and also serial communication at the same time). But I’m not sure if anyone has specifically asked about MIDI + Keyboard as an option. I’m asking about that over on the PJRC forums right now and I’ll report back.

QMK seems a bit bloated to me at a first glance - and is really geared at the specific needs of custom keyboards and customizable keyboard layouts.

[kveye]

Did anyone try latest Launchpad pro with norns as midi controller? Does it work?
I’m asking because I don’t see a separate power socket on it and am concerned about norns being able to power it.

[forestcaver]

@xcc

anyone tried a Mutable CV Pal with the Norns?

Yes - no issues at all