Two questions I’ve bundled as they are interrelated…
- Been using Motu m4, powered by my laptop, as a mic pre…
I know the m4 could be powered from a USB power bank which would be a somewhat portable option, but still would require multiple additional boxes. Trying to limit to a combined mic+pre of some sort.
wanted to do a little updated polling on what everyone is using
Are the zooms still the way to go here for a traveling mic?any usb options good, or is op-z the only real option at this point? Not so concerned about audio quality as much as portability.
- Is there a way to avoid hearing the audio input when recording a mono signal, while still allowing the audio to pass into whatever softcut-based app I might be using?
For example, when using compass (and I have set “left channel mono”), I get a proper recording to both audio channels, but I can still hear the left audio channel when overdubbing.
Thanks!!
coreyr
1004
If audio quality isn’t an issue, you could try throwing together a little battery powered preamp for an electret capsule or try something that already fits the bill. I have a Sony ecm 719 that runs off plug in power OR takes a button cell battery. You can find them used for fairly little. It’s not loud, but workable if you crank your norns input gain. I have one in my travel kit for recording quick vocal stuff straight in to my m8 without taking the zoom with me.
A little zoom h1 or similar entry level tascam/Sony pocket recorder work great if you just want a powered mic in the go.
1 Like
if i understand your question correctly: go to the main menu, then use E1 to scroll all the way to the right to reach “parameters”, use K3 to select “LEVELS >”, then use E2 to scroll to “monitor” and then E3 to reduce it to “-inf”.
if it’s just the “left channel only comes out the left when monitoring, and i want it to come out of both” that’s distracting, then: keep scrolling down in the LEVELS page, you’ll reach “monitor mode” and you can switch that from “STEREO” to “MONO” so that the left input is monitored in both left and right outputs.
3 Likes
@coreyr @21echoes thank you both for your help!
I have used both and both work with my iPad.
1 Like
Hadn’t seen Artiphon Orba mentioned here. Picked one last week for use as a portable midi controller and occasional sound source. Works well for the price. Confirmed it can play Molly The Polly and also use the internal looper in Orba to loop the MIDI. Also sent internal Orba sounds to Barcode for instant goodness.
11 Likes
How does the Orba “feel” to play / in your hand? I’ve been thinking about small battery & USB-powered controllers lately, and I’m kind of undecided whether I should try one of these, because it’s kind of hovering on the line between “a plastic toy I wouldn’t like” and “a plastic toy I would love” categories depending on how the touch is like…
1 Like
Well all the feel comes from haptic feedback as there’s no give when you play it. I think the hardware side is great. The software/internal sounds not so much but certainly usable for what I wanted. USB midi works great so far too.
For me it was an impulse purchase, like “hey this will fit right in my case with Norns and grid” and not something I had a use case for immediately.
I also like having musical toys in my office for the kids.
1 Like
Going to test this in the next couple of days.
It’s a 9v battery-powered electret mic preamp so I can get some live sound into Norns.
I made it small enough to fit on the side of the battery. Has a little toggle switch for the battery, too!
49 Likes
burr
1012
Build a quick first 8HP prototype, but the currently available OLEDs with a decent driver support are a bit of a blocker. Looks cute though! Will have a look at the 16 HP next and archive this one for the time being.
43 Likes
Utterly adorable! And suprisingly readable!
1 Like
A co-worker brought in an Orba last week for me to test out. I only played with it for about a half hour, but can confirm it feels quite nice in your hands considering its size. I didn’t test it as a MIDI controller, but that would probably be how I would want to use it as well.
Lovely! Are the audio I/O line or Euro level?
How are you going to connect the USB sockets? And the integrated MIDI interface on the larger version?
I was thinking about this for another project, and came to the conclusion that fitting sockets onto the shield board, and using very short USB cables between the RPi and control board would probably be the way to go, rather than hacking the RPi itself by attempting to solder to the USB socket pads on the bottom.
How’re you planning on handling MIDI I/O on the bigger board? Connecting the interface hardware to the RPi USB would allow MIDI without the need to modify the Norns firmware at all.
Incidentally, do you plan to publish the schematics of your shield boards? I’d love to do a remixed version that mimicked the Teletype design a bit more closely (screen and USB in the same place, sockets lining up) so they’d look nice next to each other.
Keep up the great work, anyway!
1 Like
burr
1016
The audio I/O lines are currently line level but plan to have jumpers on the rear PCB to change to Euro levels if required. Since the Cirrus 4270 does not fancy Euro levels, this will add a bit of circuitry to the board.
Display/audio jacks/usb sockets/encoders/led/switch are all on the same PCB behind the front panel, which either connects via 40 pin header to a stock RPi 3+ or 4, or (with the 16HP) directly integrates the RPI CM4 board on the outer side of the PCB (preferred).
The external USB ports require adding an USB hub controller chip on the PCB, but the one RPI is using is kind of undocumented and i need to find something with kernel support.
My first idea was to integrate MIDI with a small daughterboard inbetween RPI I2C or SPI and the MIDI connectors, so this part could be worked on individually from the main design, but integrating a small existing board from some of the ebay midi interfaces might also be an option.
For sure this will end up as an open hardware project to give back something to the community if i get some results with the prototypes and design.
7 Likes
I was just looking at a DIY USB MIDI interface project based on an Arduino Pro Micro (I think). The Arduino provides the USB interface, and the additional components required for I/O are minimal.
Oh, why’s that? Couldn’t you just connect to the RPi’s existing USB sockets using short cables. I’ve seen that done before. It’s not pretty round the back, but it’s simpler than adding additional circuitry to the shield PCB. As I suggested above, you could add sockets to the back of your shield board (and maybe even some slots or something to attach a cable tie for cable management), so you wouldn’t have to fiddle around hacking a USB cable.
Norns & HAPAX
I’m finally about to dive into Norns and have ordered one. Looking to add a Grid and Crow. What about Hapax as an alternative to Grid and Crow - could Norns ultimately have same the workflow functionality using Squarp Hapax? 16 x 8 grid and lots of cv in and out. For the money its not much more than grid and crow. Hoping it is so… any thoughts ? Cheers Jeff.
1 Like
glia
1019
i need to read more about the hapax but my understanding is that it could substitute for a grid (sequencing duty) far more easily than crow despite the similar cv i/o ports
i have no idea whether the midi output makes hapax a decently capable sample mangler when connected to norns
burr
1020
For the version with the 40 pin connector for adding an RPI 3+ or 4 as piggyback that would work nicely. My future plans are to directly integrate a RPI CM4 computing module on the PCB backside instead, and the CM4 has only one USB port in hardware due to the small size. So with this approach i would neeed to add a hub to the PCB.
2 Likes
burr
1022
RPI availability might still be an issue though, hope that gets normalized until end of this year.
"It’s very bad. We sold the same number of Raspberry Pis last year that we sold the year before, but we entered last year with about a half-million unit customer backlog, and we left last year with several million units of customer backlog. " (Eben Upton in a Verge Interview from yesterday)
