Moln

jah · April 4, 2019, 9:33pm

Moln

Polyphonic subtractive synthesizer

Moln is a script showcasing a rudimentary polyphonic synth built using the R engine.

Requirements

Norns with R engine installed in the ~/dust/code/r folder
MIDI device
Grid (64/128/256) (optional)
Arc (optional)

Documentation

moln

ENC1 adjusts main output level.
ENC2 changes filter cutoff.
ENC3 changes filter resonance.
KEY2 momentary toggles fine parameter control.
KEY3 triggers a random note.
MIDI device plays notes.
GRID plays notes too.
ARC changes filter cutoff (ENC1) and filter resonance (ENC2).

More parameters are available. Details in README

Note: Moln is built from general purpose R modules making it a performance intensive script. Polyphony has been lowered from 4 to 3 voices for v1.1.0 due to performance issues/CPU-spikyness. Initiatives have been taken to optimize the linux kernel used for norns. I expect to be able to raise polyphony again in the future (Polyphony is easily changed by editing a constant in the script).

Download

Moln v1.1.1
Github

tehn · April 4, 2019, 9:34pm

@jah i love your intense low-fi screen interfaces

jah · April 5, 2019, 3:14pm

R engine has been moved from we repo to: https://github.com/antonhornquist/r

I’ve updated the Moln script which now assumes R engine is installed in ~/dust/code/r folder

tehn · April 5, 2019, 4:09pm

this is a great sounding engine!

jonsimon · April 6, 2019, 7:07am

tried this tonight, and love it!
sounds really good, and its very playable.

Frogstar · April 6, 2019, 7:47pm

Sounds awesome!
How are pitches laid out on Grid? It’s different that EarthSea and we’ll tuned to itself but I can’t figure it out.

jah · April 6, 2019, 8:00pm

Thanks.

For 16 columns wide grids this is used:

github.com

antonhornquist/moln/blob/master/moln.lua#L404


    end
  end
end


local function init_grid()
  my_grid = grid.connect()
  my_grid.key = function(x, y, state)
    if engine_ready then
      local note
      if grid_width == 16 then
        note = x * 8 + y
      else
        note = (4+x) * 8 + y
      end
      if state == 1 then
        note_on(note, 5)
        my_grid:led(x, y, 15)
      else
        note_off(note)
        my_grid:led(x, y, 0)
      end

(this is from an addition by @ppqq to the old hello gong script)

For 8 columns wide:

github.com

antonhornquist/moln/blob/master/moln.lua#L406


end


local function init_grid()
  my_grid = grid.connect()
  my_grid.key = function(x, y, state)
    if engine_ready then
      local note
      if grid_width == 16 then
        note = x * 8 + y
      else
        note = (4+x) * 8 + y
      end
      if state == 1 then
        note_on(note, 5)
        my_grid:led(x, y, 15)
      else
        note_off(note)
        my_grid:led(x, y, 0)
      end
      my_grid:refresh()
      flash_event()

which is the same but padded 4 cols to right.

I’m mostly using an external MIDI device (the OP-1) to play this script, though.

lazzarello · April 8, 2019, 1:21am

I’m seeing ~ 15% CPU with a CM3+. I like the harmonics at high filter resonances.

jah · April 8, 2019, 7:04am

FYI. The CPU% reported in the norns UI is an average of all cores. Scsynth runs on one core and IIRC Moln used ~40% with 3 voice polyphony. The problematic bit, though, is CPU utilization spikes that cause xruns to happen, which is why I currently keep this script at a low default polyphony. These kinds of spikes occur due to various reasons. They have have in experimental tests been mitigated by @rick_monster ie. by changing linux cpu_governor to performance and lowering the priority for USB devices. These kinds of optimizations may end up in a future norns kernel, but it was too early to include them for norns 2.0.

vicimity · May 16, 2020, 8:54pm

hey, second day norns/grid owner. tried Moln but sadly it’s quiet as a mouse. i checked and r engine seems to be installed. any pointers?

log:

engine: an Engine_R

command entry: [ 0, new, ss ]

command entry: [ 1, delete, s ]

command entry: [ 2, connect, ss ]

command entry: [ 3, disconnect, ss ]

command entry: [ 4, set, sf ]

command entry: [ 5, bulkset, s ]

command entry: [ 6, newmacro, ss ]

command entry: [ 7, deletemacro, s ]

command entry: [ 8, macroset, sf ]

command entry: [ 9, polloutput, is ]

command entry: [ 10, pollvisual, is ]

command entry: [ 11, pollclear, i ]

command entry: [ 12, readsample, ss ]

command entry: [ 13, trace, i ]

cpu_peak

cpu_avg

amp_in_l

amp_in_r

amp_out_l

amp_out_r

pitch_in_l

pitch_in_r

poll1

poll2

poll3

poll4

poll5

poll6

poll7

poll8

poll9

poll10

ERROR: module input reference "SoundOut/Left" does not conform to module input syntax ([ModuleName]*[InputName])

ERROR: module input reference "SoundOut/Right" does not conform to module input syntax ([ModuleName]*[InputName])

ERROR: module input reference "SoundOut/Left" does not conform to module input syntax ([ModuleName]*[InputName])

ERROR: module input reference "SoundOut/Right" does not conform to module input syntax ([ModuleName]*[InputName])

ERROR: module input reference "SoundOut/Left" does not conform to module input syntax ([ModuleName]*[InputName])

ERROR: module input reference "SoundOut/Right" does not conform to module input syntax ([ModuleName]*[InputName])

Justmat · May 16, 2020, 9:08pm

Maybe try updating R?

vicimity · May 16, 2020, 9:11pm

it’s up to date according to Maiden, did you see my edit with the log?

sorry, totally new to this.

Justmat · May 16, 2020, 10:02pm

I did see, but i think i misunderstood! It looks like Moln needs to be updated for new R syntax. This is likely a very easy fix, I’ll take a look at the Moln code now.

edit: @vicimity, if you look at the sc REPL in maiden, it shows that the delimiter for inputs changed from / to *. I am about to PR a fix, but if you just want to use moln now, it’s a simple change.

change the connect_modules function in moln.lua to…

local function connect_modules()
  R.engine.poly_connect("FreqGate/Frequency", "OscA*FM", POLYPHONY)
  R.engine.poly_connect("FreqGate/Frequency", "OscB*FM", POLYPHONY)
  R.engine.poly_connect("FreqGate/Gate", "Env*Gate", POLYPHONY)
  R.engine.poly_connect("LFO/Out", "OscA*PWM", POLYPHONY)
  R.engine.poly_connect("LFO/Out", "OscB*PWM", POLYPHONY)
  R.engine.poly_connect("Env/Out", "Amp*Lin", POLYPHONY)
  R.engine.poly_connect("Env/Out", "Filter*FM", POLYPHONY)
  R.engine.poly_connect("OscA/Out", "Filter*In", POLYPHONY)
  R.engine.poly_connect("OscB/Out", "Filter*In", POLYPHONY)
  R.engine.poly_connect("Filter/Out", "Amp*In", POLYPHONY)

  for voicenum=1, POLYPHONY do
    engine.connect("Amp"..voicenum.."/Out", "SoundOut*Left")
    engine.connect("Amp"..voicenum.."/Out", "SoundOut*Right")
  end
end

And restart your norns

vicimity · May 17, 2020, 7:02am

thank you. helped me out of the comfort zone and into the learning zone.

jah · May 17, 2020, 8:29am

Hi, sorry late response, did this resolve your issue?

I believe I made the / -> * fix backwards compatible so / would still work.

I’ll check it out and get back to you.
(I might’ve broken something else recently)

jah · May 17, 2020, 8:35am

By the way - if this doesn’t work check out the new https://github.com/antonhornquist/roar script collection where a moln version with a UI update resides.

I havent published this here on lines yet since there is a bug sometimes affecting the other scripts in the collection. but the moln version in there should work well.

vicimity · May 17, 2020, 9:59am

i did the replacement in the code manually and it seems to work just fine now.

jah · May 17, 2020, 3:41pm

Great!

Yeah, I apparently managed to break backwards compatibility in a recent large scale refactoring. I fixed that now in a new commit.

Anyhow, you might wanna look at the new roar version of moln - it has a bit refined UI (you can reach all params in script mode by paging back and forth).

carl · August 8, 2020, 5:39pm

The version of Moln availible on Maiden is giving me this error when I try to change certain parameters:

lua: 
/home/we/norns/lua/core/params/control.lua:75: attempt to perform arithmetic on a nil value (field 'quantum')
stack traceback:
	/home/we/norns/lua/core/params/control.lua:75: in function 'core/params/control.delta'
	/home/we/norns/lua/core/paramset.lua:266: in function 'core/paramset.delta'
	/home/we/norns/lua/core/menu/params.lua:291: in function 'core/menu/params.enc'
	/home/we/norns/lua/core/menu.lua:112: in function 'core/encoders.callback'
	/home/we/norns/lua/core/encoders.lua:60: in function 'core/encoders

I then tried using the code from Roar. A-RNG a B-RNG work along with E>FIL.

Otherwise, I get the same error:

/home/we/norns/lua/core/params/control.lua:75: attempt to perform arithmetic on a nil value (field 'quantum')
stack traceback:
	/home/we/norns/lua/core/params/control.lua:75: in function 'core/params/control.delta'
	/home/we/norns/lua/core/paramset.lua:266: in function 'core/paramset.delta'
	/home/we/dust/code/roar/lib/common.lua:345: in field 'enc'
	/home/we/dust/code/roar/moln.lua:194: in function 'core/encoders.callback'
	/home/we/norns/lua/core/encoders.lua:60: in function 'core/encode

I’m running norns v200712.

Edit: version.

jah · August 8, 2020, 5:59pm

Hmm, thanks. I will check this out when I’m back near my norns (monday…)