Grendy: a drone synth for Norns

Library
1

grendy

a simple drone synth, grendel drone commander inspired…

IMG_9052
IMG_90523890×2918 2.46 MB

Requirements

  • Norns/Fates
  • MIDI keyboard (optional, allows round-robin tuning OSC1 and OSC2)

Download

Important: After downloading and installing, you must run RESET or SLEEP before running.

Install from community packages section of Maiden, or manually install…

Download the latest release and copy files to ~/dust/code/grendy.

Tutorial

KEY2: randomize OSC/MIXER
KEY3: randomize FILTER/LFO

ENC1: FILTER freq
ENC2: OSC1 freq
ENC3: OSC2 freq

KEY1+ENC1: FILTER res
KEY1+ENC2: LFO freq
KEY1+ENC3: LFO depth

Tweak even more parameters via [PARAMS] > [EDIT] page

MIDI input round-robin sets OSC1 and OSC2 freq

Synth Architecture

  • OSC: two oscillators, each crossfaded between square and triangle shapes
  • MIXER: balance control between OSC1 and OSC2
  • FILTER: Moog-modeled filter with cutoff and resonance control
  • LFO: saw and click shapes, crossfaded, affecting filter cutoff with depth control
    • SAW: frequency control
    • CLICK: rate control (N times SAW frequency), pulse width control
  • AMP: final volume control

Developing

54 Likes
2

I was fortunate enough to “beta test” Grendy this afternoon, it’s great fun, especially with the random functions. Look forward to seeing what the future holds for it :slight_smile:

Love seeing weird little synth experiments like this and Benjolis coming out for the norns.

Thanks to the authors, as always <3

5 Likes
3

The demo sounds great. Thanks for this!

2 Likes
4

Demo sounds interesting, I’ll give it a spin.

1 Like
5

Looks like a great engine to study for supercollider dev as well! Nice work!

1 Like
6

Thanks y’all! Looking forward to any feedback UX and/or code wise :slight_smile: This is my first Norns and SC scripting experience so I have much to learn!

FWIW: my favorite recipe right now is to run Grendy and Cranes tapes into Uhf to make an ambient “mixtape” of previous recordings. Very inspiring!

5 Likes
7

Great work! The ability to slow the lfo beyond 0.1hz would be great.

1 Like
8

Cool! Still regret selling my drone commander a few years ago

1 Like
9

Really great little instrument, nice work! makes a great partner with Benjolis!

3 Likes
10

this is a super nice track!

2 Likes
11

thanks and thanks again for Benjolis!

2 Likes
12

Just pushed grendy v2 to Maiden, a complete rewrite!

There’s a completely new UI and new sound engine, as demoed here:

grendy

Changes:

  • New paged UI, showing all parameters
  • Rewritten sound engine
  • Oscillator slop control
  • Smoother oscillator frequency control
  • Updated oscillator wave options (square/saw)
  • New (better) LFO behavior
  • Addition of autopanner at end of chain

~~

For the new LFO, 1 rate controls the rate of a saw wave LFO. 2 rate controls the clock multiplication rate of a second pulse wave LFO. These two LFOs are added together - the saw always exists as part of the sum, but 2 level allows you to include variable amounts of the pulse wave. Finally, * depth controls the depth of this summed LFO as applied to filter cutoff.

For the new autopanner, there is control over complex rate and amount.

~~

Please note that grendy v1 PSETs are not compatible with v2!

17 Likes
13

I had oodles of fun with this, which made me wonder: has anyone connected an actual Drone Commander to a norns and, if so, how did that work for you?

It would be fun to write a piece using Grendy and a DC-2. I’m trying really hard not to buy the latter.

1 Like
15

glad you like it! i’ve never played with a real one, would love to one day!

2 Likes
16

Which way around - I assume you mean sending cv/gate to the DC-2 from Norns in some manner ? I haven’t actually done so as yet, but now you mention it, it sounds like there could be some fun to be had.