Note Locks - Playable P-Locks
hi all, I will occasionally chime in with a request for note locks but haven’t been able to explain very well what I have in mind. Here’s a working hack of the sequencer module which gives you the ability lock any parameter setting to a midi note, allowing you to ‘play’ p locks. You could also change this rack a little and just use it as a bank of recallable and sequenceable presets. I’d love to see this get made into a module with some added functionality and less hackiness, but I’m having a lot of fun with it.
Comments
Nice idea!
Have you tried MIDI-mapping a note and use the "Range" function to set the desired on/off values?
This would also exclude the mapped notes from playable notes which simplifies using only one keyboard for sequencing and p-locking.
hmm, I rarely use a midi controller but I’ll have to try it. The purpose of this is for you to be able to make a bunch of different sounds as a kit and then play it via pads or midi - this idea IS basically midi mapping parameters to notes, but in my mind it’s quicker and more accurate than editing a bunch of midi mappings with ranges. And you can use it with no controller.
I like the idea of this!
a collection of samplers ready to go with note lock racks. More to come.
Hey, @bcrichards, really interested in this but I just get a high pitched feedback type whine when I click on the downloaded patch and load it in Drambo. Only starting a new project seems to fix this - removing all modules doesn’t do it. Also get a pop up about a missing Moon River sample!
Oh dang, I’ll fix. Edit: fixed! Thanks @Robin .
No problem, thanks for fixing. Cheers.
I added some videos. I have a nasty cough. I truly apologize if I missed any of those I tried to edit those out.
https://youtu.be/hdGcO-lpH_I?si=ty8PLHnGOB8Jxh8V
https://youtu.be/PgMNpW9rz9o?si=d56R69m60fLtRIXZ
https://youtu.be/fA9RPuHl5d0?si=N9A_uOPfyVpcSFy8
https://youtu.be/-iTyCMoDh84?si=oHzUsjda2Zb6neQo
I revisited the scratch track, rewatched, reread, played, and get it now. So satisfying to play with this Ben. I don’t know if it’s a placebo effect, but the sample rate, range, and degrade knob combo sound so good and different than just slapping the bit redux and decimator modules post-sampler. It sounds baked into the sample and also has a non-static quality to the effect.
I have this repeatable bug. Drambo crashes when i open any other project from your project session. At first i thought it was cause i opened your project from the downloads folder before moving it to Files. So i deleted everything, redownloaded, moved it to the relevant Drambo folder on my phone, but i still get the same behavior. Anyone else?
@Blipsford_Baubie the sample rate trick is rs2000’s trick. I’ve wondered too, done A/B testing. It’s subtle but I really I think there’s some magic there. it’s really acting at the sample level. try resampling something at a higher pitch and dropping it in, shifting it down - regarding the crashing, that’s very strange. I packaged them in a project just to have everything set up together - I’d save them as track presets or just rack presets (and add Note Locks). I just tested it, straight from patchstorage, but I’m not surprised I didn’t get a crash on my own device. My only thought is maybe it’s midi mappings baked into my project? I used a QWERTY keyboard mapping most of the time and that might be active.
Could be that you saved your project with your internal beta version, Ben. One single module with a later version than in the Appstore version is enough to either crash Drambo or block loading the project.
Drambo keeps a full history of module versions internally so that whatever Drambo version you've created your work with, will load fine in the latest version.
That’s the most likely case @rs2000 . I can package these as racks and distribute them that way as well.
That won't help if the rack contains one single module with a newer version number. I always keep one iPad with the Appstore version running to avoid that...
Hmm, I’ll have to go through and see what if any newer or updated modules it could be. It seems like the project itself loads fine and the racks work, its launching other projects after opening this one that caused a crash.
Correct.
So i saved each of the three tracks as track presets. Then i went through a process of saving the project with only one of those track presets just to see if i can get lucky and isolate the problem to one particular track. The results are still the same. Not surprising i guess since there’s probably a lot of overlap, but i was hoping to save you some tedious work.
Ben, I’ve had NoteLocks a while now. Are the Note Locks from your new videos still the same version? Or have they been updated?
ok, so to clarify, just using the racks or track presets and then opening a new project caused a crash?
Note locks wise - I only removed a delay module that turned out not be necessary. I’m pretty stumped, I don’t think there’s any beta specific modules here, in any three of the racks.
one other thought - remove the sequencer p-locks in the note locks sequencer, or look at any odd track routing?
like on track A, both sends are set to default out, but it still sends to B. No idea what that’s about.
i actually just updated it with track hopefully corrected. Give it a try if you get a chance.
@bcrichards It was just a wild guess from me, could be something completely different of course.
It's certainly worth sending the project to @giku.
Correct.
i managed to isolate the problem. It’s the sequencer module. Nothing at all to do with your patch. At first i thought it was your Note Locks rack, because Drambo finally stopped crashing once I deleted Note Locks and only left your sampler racks. But then i thought it was peculiar that the crash continued when i replaced your newer Note Locks with an older Note Locks rack to accompany your sample racks.
So i spent a considerable amount of time opening different projects of mine. Anytime Drambo crashed, i was trying to open any other project during a session that contained a sequencer module. I can even start a brand new project, add nothing other than a sequencer module, and Drambo crashes when starting a new project or opening a pre-existing one.
It’s not that I’ve never noticed Drambo crash before, I guess it’s just how i work that it wasn’t happening frequently. For example, i tend to spend a lot of time building on one project, such as Crunktilian Rex 1a, then Save As, Crunktilian Rex 1b, 1c, 2a, ect. in which case Save doesn’t crash it. More importantly, i don’t think I’ve ever had a crash under normal operations. So when it happens when just trying to open another project, it almost doesn’t seem like a crash.
Lol. I just noticed now there was an update in the App Store for this last week Working as expected now. Here i was thinking I’d be asked to join beta after this amazing discovery 🤪
Thanks for the update!
Reminded me of your years long requests, Ben.
Add me to the list of folks who think this would be not only fun and creative, but practical as well. (as an in-house module)
I saw this yesterday and felt pretty good about myself, lol :)
It’s so much more powerful in Drambo because of the unfixed architecture. I hope it comes to Drambo some day - that said my hacky solution has completely changed my workflow for the kind of music I do. Really just missing poly behavior. You can do with sample and holds, but it loses the immediacy.
Came here to comment this video link that @aleyas mentioned.
Really amazing work. Being ahead of even Aphex is dope.
I’ve been trying to recreate @rs2000 ’s sample rate trick from your Scratcher with Note Locks track, so that i may use it on my own Flexi-centric instrument racks or tracks. I’m struggling though when trying to dissect the signal flow, because I’m having a hard time distinguishing some of the module’s relevancy to sample rate and or the scratch related stuff. Some seem interwoven.
The gist is you take a control signal, and multiply it by a huge number. Add a scaling control, then quantize and divide by the same scale you multiplied by. Use that as the control signal for scratch.
What a great utility for resampling. Thank you for this. While trying to understanding your NL-Scratch track, i did have an inclination that there was no post-processing after FLexi, but i didn’t think that was possible. But looking at your lo-fi Sampler it’s evident. I’m amazed. Flexi has been my most used sampler, yet still never bothered with the scratch mode.
i spent a good hour resampling the lo-fi track at twice the speed with different sample durations and rates and degrade and slowing it back down then A/Bing the results.So awesome. I love how the high end seems to roll off with a little degrade.