Stjörnuíþrótt: Stargazer inspired drone

Frederickk · 2020-06-25T19:01:09.335Z

Stjörnuíþrótt¹

Drone synth for Norns/Fates heavily inspired by Moffeenzeef Stargazer. Much appreciation goes to Moffeenzeef for creating the Stargazer and kergener for their SCgazer Supercollider engine which serves as the backbone for this Norns version.

Stjörnuíþrótt UI

The hardware Stargazer has some impressive drone capabilities, which are emulated here:

dual wavetable oscillator with 90 arbitrary waveforms
sub-octave, detune, volume for second oscillator
2 resonant filters
sample rate reduction
bit rate reduction
3 wavetable LFOs
CMOS distortion with 100x gain

Demo

Here’s brief (albeit limited exposé of all the sonic possibilities available) demo highlighting how it can be used with and without an external controller.

Requirements

Norns or Fates or device. For Fates owners, the pitch value can be persistently controlled using the 4th encoder, for Norns owners it’s E2 the first page P0

Install/Update

Stjörnuíþrótt can be installed via Maiden’s project manager.

After install or update RESET or SLEEP is required, because Stjörnuíþrótt installs a new engine.

Params

The params for Stjörnuíþrótt are vast. As with the original Stargazer knob twiddling and experimentation are encouraged. However, here’s a table of all the controls and their values (also listed within the params menu).

Page	Controller	Description	Values
All	E1	Change page
All	K2	Toogle sub-octave 2nd oscillator	On or Off
All	K3	Randomize parameters
0	E2 or E4 Midi Note	Pitch	16.35 – 1046.5 Hz
0	E3	Detune parameter of the 2nd oscillator	0 – 100% (relative to pitch)
1	E2 Midi Velocity	Volume	0.0 - 1.0
1	E3	Gain stage for CMOS distortion	-1 is clean, 1 is dirty
2	E2	Waveform selector	0 – 89
2	E3	Mix for 2nd oscillator.	Only osc. 1, both osc., Only osc. 2
3	E2	Cutoff frequency for the 1st filter	1 – 1320 Hz
3	E3	Cutoff frequency for the 2nd filter	1 – 1320 Hz
4	E2	LFO of 1st filter	Sine, Tri(angle), Saw, Pulse
4	E3	Rate of 1st LFO	0.05 – 100.0
5	E2	LFO of 1st filter	Sine, Tri(angle), Saw, Pulse
5	E3	Res of 1st LFO	0.0 – 1.0
6	E2	LFO of 1st filter	Sine, Tri(angle), Saw, Pulse
6	E3	Depth of 1st LFO	1 none, 0 max
7	E2	LFO of 2nd filter	Sine, Tri(angle), Saw, Pulse
7	E3	Rate of 2nd LFO	0.05 – 100.0
8	E2	LFO of 2nd filter	Sine, Tri(angle), Saw, Pulse
8	E3	Res of 2nd LFO	0.0 – 1.0
9	E2	LFO of 2nd filter	Sine, Tri(angle), Saw, Pulse
9	E3	Depth of 2nd LFO	1 none, 0 max
10	E2	LFO of 3rd filter	Sine, Tri(angle), Saw, Pulse
10	E3	Rate of 3rd LFO	0.05 – 100.0
11	E2	LFO of 3rd filter	Sine, Tri(angle), Saw, Pulse
11	E3	Depth of 3rd LFO	1 none, 0 max
12	E2	Sample rate reduction	100 – 48000 Hz
12	E3	Bit rate reduction	0 – 24 bits

Midi

Bolded params above are controllable via the Midi commands listed. All other commands can be mapped to CC values within the Norns menu parameters > map > ...

Stjörnuíþrótt UI

Development

SSH into your Norns/Fates, then enter the following commands in terminal.

$ cd dust/code
$ git clone https://github.com/frederickk/stjoernuithrott.git

If you want to get the latest version run these commands:

$ cd dust/code/stjoernuithrott
$ git fetch origin
$ git checkout primary
$ git merge origin/primary

Changelog

v1.1.0
- Fixed sub-octave and wave selector bugs
- Fixed order of UI elements
- Added LFO res
- Added Midi passthrough
- Added parameter randomization
v1.0.0 Initial release

¹ Stjörnuíþrótt is a crazy name huh? It’s old Norse for Astronomy.

SPIKE · 2020-06-25T23:27:37.393Z

hey!
thank you for this awesome script!
(also from an owner of a Stargazer)

questions on a couple of things…

why is Page 1 control backwards?
Enc2 controls the right data input and Enc3 controls the left data input.
(all the other pages are Enc2 is left or upper and Enc3 is right/lower)

if i change the Waveform (W) to 90 it stops making noiz.
i have to reload the script to get noiz generating again.

what does Button 2 do?
i notice it turns off and on the dot on the screen but i am not hearing any changes.

oh…
and i vote for CC control please!

i wish i had all sorts of sonic control of a Stargazer!
that would be AMAZING!

zebra · 2020-06-25T23:53:01.804Z

nice!

it looks like all the parameters should already be midi-mappable from the norns menu as well.

Frederickk · 2020-06-26T01:36:38.166Z

why is Page 1 control backwards? Enc2 controls the right data input and Enc3 controls the left data input. (all the other pages are Enc2 is left or upper and Enc3 is right/lower)

Good catch, I’ll push an update in a couple of hours.

if i change the Waveform (W) to 90 it stops making noiz. i have to reload the script to get noiz generating again.

This is a known bug, I’m not sure why. I’m quite the n00b with Supercollider and assume the issue stems from the way the wave table array is generated. Stay tuned as I look for a solve.

what does Button 2 do? i notice it turns off and on the dot on the screen but i am not hearing any changes.

It toggles the sub-octave. I’ll take a deeper look and see if I can adjust the underlying Supercollider code if/as necessary

oh… and i vote for CC control please!

Me too, ha!

Thanks for downloading and please post any other bugs or feature requests.

Frederickk · 2020-06-26T21:06:17.271Z

@SPIKE and anyone else, I went on a bit of tear last night and addressed a number of bugs and added some features. The top post has been updated to reflect the changes and I’ll continue to update as bugs are fixed and features are added.

You can pull the latest version from Github (download zip) or Stjörnuíþrótt is also available in the Maiden project manager too .

Thanks to @zebra for the Midi mapping tip, I’ve added instructions and a screenshot on how to get started in the 1st post.

Cloud · 2020-06-26T22:00:23.730Z

Actually I cannot find it in the project manager. Does it have exactly the same name there?

SPIKE · 2020-06-26T22:08:52.689Z

@Frederickk
AWESOME!!!
THANK YOU!!!

i will download and update it asap!

@Cloud…you might have to load it old school by downloading it and Cyberduck into norns to add the script.

Frederickk · 2020-06-26T22:19:41.192Z

@Cloud you might have to refresh the list. Look for the “circle” arrows next to Community under the Available tab and scroll all the way to Stjörnuíþrótt

stjoernuithrott-maiden1680×1054 351 KB

SPIKE · 2020-06-27T09:49:52.415Z

@Frederickk the update is AMAZING!
thank you!

the Button 3 random thing caught me off guard!
super duper kewl!

tonight’s broadcast is flooded with three instances of Stjörnuíþrótt and a Plumbutter 2:

Cloud · 2020-06-27T10:07:34.717Z

@Frederickk it worked like a charm. Thank you!

sweetgreentea · 2020-06-29T19:42:46.903Z

Takk fyrir. Super cool

swhic · 2021-04-10T18:17:51.200Z

just found some time to explore this script. thank you, great stuff