#1

now that orca is mostly done i’ve been sketching ideas for an alternative teletype firmware but wanted to try something quick before i get busy with that. the idea is to mod meadowphysics to allow triggers have variable width.

right now triggers use the clock pulse width, so it’s the same for all 8 triggers. it could be interesting to have it change based on some criteria. so kinda like having rules for trigger width.

hotkey:
the easiest is probably to have 2 buttons pressed in the first column as it won’t interfere with any existing functionality. this is if all trigger width settings can be set on one page. not sure what to do if the width rules are set per counter.

rules:
random, obviously, also increment and decrement. what else? also, should rules be set per trigger or per counter, so that the rule affects whatever triggers are assigned to that particular counter?

what other settings can be used for trigger width? definitely range, long/medium/short (what values to use for ranges? considering trigger outs could also be used for pinging filters - need to try this with 3 sisters!). anything else?

here is a quick demo using 4 differently pitched sounds. all 4 are shaped with 4 ASR envelopes (intellijel quadra), all 4 are set to 0 attack and the same decay. first ~30sec is the fixed trigger width, then i switch to a variable trigger width:

  • trigger 1: randomly selected between 100 and 300ms
  • trigger 2: randomly selected between 5 and 20ms
  • trigger 3: increase from 0 to 240ms in chunks of 12ms, then reset back to 0
  • trigger 4: decrease from 240ms to 0 in chunks of 12ms, then reset back to 240ms

another demo using it in a musical context with some machinedrum backing, again first ~40 sec the trigger width is fixed, then variable:

does this sound like an interesting mod? what do you think?

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WW / MP alt-firmware encouragment
#2

Oh yes, this is extremely interesting.
I find the results you’re getting very musical.
What’s even better is that this would pair extremely well with the Folktek Matter I just got, which triggers sounds on trigger on & off. Having control on MP over trigger length would be rad.

#3

Yeah, that would be super cool. Good idea!!

#4

ha, yeah, actually broke down and got the matter, and you can hear it in the 2nd demo. i actually remember recording it by itself and yeah, it does trigger on both edges, so it was interesting to hear pattern changing purely due to the trigger length (couldn’t find the recording this morning unfortunately - prob forgot to save).

#5

I wholeheartedly support!

#6

Not to derail, but how do you guys like matter? I’ve been thinking a lot about it, but haven’t pulled the trigger yet. How versatile do you find it? – From the very few demos that are out there, i’m finding that some of the sounds are very recognizable and the same (too hard to judge based on whats out now tho) --how is the depth of synthesis options?

#7

haven’t spent much time with it yet. some of the inputs didn’t seem to have any effect but i think it depends on the overall patch, feels like i need to approach it systematically and try each input with different kind of voltages. i managed to get clicky as well as some tonal sounds.

it does work well for the kind of music i do but donno yet if i can justify the price.

#8

Thanks man, do let us know how you feel about it as time goes on!

About the Mod, could the trigger length be set visually – sort of the way we currently set the speed for each rows count down?

#9

yeah, one of the rules could be for the width to be a fixed value with some way to choose the value. not sure if it would be a predetermined set of values to choose from, or perhaps they would be different divisions of the clock (so you could have triggers that are 1/2 of the cycle, 1/3 of the cycle and so on)

#10

great idea!

how about setting the length with the actual press duration, quantized to some fixed values maybe?

just thinking out loud

#11

i like this idea. doesnt have to be quantized either (it should be able to measure it with 1ms accuracy). in this case it will be completely fixed, unlike the fixed value that depends on the clock cycle which will get adjusted automatically when you change the clock rate.

#12

the new make noise tempi module made me think, how awesome it would it be able to set the time divisions by tapping a button (e.g. leftmost+free column)
I’m aware this would always be quantized to a subdivision of the master.

sorry, a bit off topic. but with your knowledge of the firmware, would this even be doable?

what do you personally think about it?

Tap Tempo with Monome Modules
#13

I only just have a meadow physics on the way but this mod sounds great.

Love the ideas for setting length too.

Inspired stuff!

#14

Yes, adding the duration, AND tap tempo would cover most of Tempi.
Plus a lot of features that MP already has.

One thing that seems interesting in Tempi (based on the couple of demo videos) is the swap/switch feature that allows two patterns to temporarily (gate control) switch outputs. This sounds like a good candidate for a new RULE for MP… :wink:

#15

tap tempo would be doable but seems like unless you have a really fast clock it would be faster to just use the standard way?

this would be cool if you could also run on multiplications, not just divisions, or, even better, be able to have free running tracks (but with the option to have them scaled as you change the main tempo…)

for track switching i am really tempted by http://www.olegtron.com/confusor.php
just wish it was smaller!

#16

Interesting: the switching module.
You are right though: too much HP for the functionality.

The most attractive part of it (switching) in the context of MP is that if it is a RULE, then it can be organically integrated in a very generative kind of way… so, much more complex/exciting than a single gate switching only two sources. Many musical possibilities open up with that as a rule.

#17

so when the rule is triggered it switches gate assignments between 2 tracks?

#18

yup.
used sparingly can lead to exciting possibilities.
but also has the potential of creating total havoc, if one was looking for that.

it could switch the interface itself: the 2 tracks move from one row to the other.
or just switch which actual outputs on the module are corresponding to which rows on the grid interface.

#19

it’s an interesting idea. you could also use these ‘meta’ rules to affect other things (change tempo etc) - i’m calling them meta because they affect track settings as opposed to regular rules which only affect counters. taking this idea even further you could have meta rules that would change rules…

the potential issue i see with this is losing the immediacy, it could be difficult to figure out why something is behaving in a certain way. one way to address that would be disabling meta rules while you are on the editing page.

renamed the thread since the topic expanded quite a bit!

#20

Moved to development, also a gentle bump to encourage some more WW / MP alt-firmwares!

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