A drummer in a box for the norns sound computer.

Based on Mutable Instruments Grids by Émilie Gillet and Step by @jah and Playfair by @tehn

![Cyrene-landing 614x307,50%](https://github.com/21echoes/cyrene/raw/master/screenshots/landing.png)
![Cyrene-swing 614x307,50%](https://github.com/21echoes/cyrene/raw/master/screenshots/swing.png)
![Cyrene-pattern-and-density 614x307,50%](https://github.com/21echoes/cyrene/raw/master/screenshots/pattern-and-density.png)

While I love the sample sequencers for norns, I’m also sometimes lazy. I typically use them for drumming while I play another instrument, and I don’t want to write a new drum part from scratch to start jamming. Mutable Instruments Grids comes with around 65,025 preset kick, snare, and hi-hat patterns (derived from the interpolation of 25 patterns, with those patterns derived from analysis of a huge drum pattern data set). They are organized such that similar rhythms are positioned near each other in a two-dimentional grid, and the musician is able to select a position in that grid (and change that selection over time).

In Cyrene, these rhythms are then fed into a sample based, monome grid-enabled step sequencer using the Ack engine, based originally on the Step script. There is also a euclidean trigger generator available for each track, based on Playfair by tehn. If you have a grid, you can then edit the pattern coming from the Mutable Instruments Grids algorithm as you see fit, add additional tracks (MI Grids only supports kick, snare, hi-hat), and other fun stuffs.

And yes, this means that we now have Grids for grid :wink:

Oh and if you’re wondering about the name: I thought calling it “Grids” would get way too confusing what with the monome grid and all, so it’s named after Eratosthenes of Cyrene, the ancient greek polymath who is generally credited with inventing a grid-based system for mapping the world (what we now call latitude and longitude).

Requirements

Documentation

Landing page:

Swing page:

So what are the swing “types” and “feels”? The two swing types are “percentage-based” and “tuplet-based”.

Percentage-based swing is a common setting on most drum machines: the beat is divided evenly by default (in Cyrene, is called “0%”), and as you dial up the percentage, the beat is divided unevenly as per your percentage selection (in Cyrene, this is scaled to max out at 7/8ths of a beat at “100%”). This algorithm either runs as “8th note swing” (making 8th notes uneven but leaving quarter notes alone), or “16th note swing” (making 16th notes uneven but leaving 8th notes alone).

Tuplet-based swing in Cyrene is different. Rather than making two-note pairs at the 8th- or 16th-note level unevenly split, it re-divides the whole beat into N equal parts (a “tuplet”), then spreads out the triggers differently across those N equal parts according to different rules (called “feels”). For example, with a 7-tuplet “drunk” feel, each beat is subdivided as 2-2-2-1. With a 9-tuplet “clave” feel, every 2 beats is divided as 2-3-2-2 3-2-2-2 (or, more idiomatically for clave, 2-3-2 2-3-2 2-2). With 6 different tuples and 4 different feels, you have 24 different ways to spice up your rhythms in ways that you just can’t get with most drum machines.

Pattern & Density page:

More Densities page:

Euclidean page:

Euclidean Rhythms

Grid (optional)

Crow (optional)

Arc (optional)

Roadmap

Download

Latest version: v1.8.0 (252efb4) Install by visiting http://norns.local/maiden when your norns is on WiFi and typing

;install https://github.com/21echoes/cyrene.git

into the command entry box at the bottom of the screen.

Also available as a direct download. Unzip it, rename the folder to just “cyrene”, and put the whole folder onto your norns inside the /home/we/dust/code folder

github: https://github.com/21echoes/cyrene

discussion

For feature requests and bug reports, discuss over on lines