acrostic

sample and layer chords.

acrostic lets you stack monophonic sound sources into chords with subtle melodies. basically, it is a sequencer that sends out one note at a time from chords to use the loops to record the entire chord phrase. I’ve used just this script (+tapedeck) to record my entire album “generations”.

this script originated as an addition to the norns oooooo script but I’ve broken it out into its own script with “acrostic”. the major benefits in this script are:

up to 8 chords can be added
each chord has six notes that can be rearranged / modified
each chord can be set to 0-16 beats long
everything is accessible through the UI
additional controls for gating/adding notes
grid sequencer

I recorded a tutorial that includes a demo, a quick start and a in-depth overview:

https://vimeo.com/663443176

here are a few more demo performances:

https://vimeo.com/663740623

https://vimeo.com/663740704

https://vimeo.com/663740652

I want to express a huge thanks to Takahiro for implementing the eyes in their wonderful three-eyes norns script and thanks to Ezra for helping me integrate some softcut code to record single loops. also big thanks to Jonathan who was a big inspiration for the demo video (I literaly took a page out his book displaying video text on a physical notebook).

Requirements

norns
external midi or cv synth (optional)
grid/midigrid (optional)
crow (optional, requires v3)

Documentation

quick start

plug in a midi device or cv pitch to crow 1.
start script, wait for the ghost’s eyes to open.
press K1+K3.

theory

the idea behind “acrostic” is to take several chords and then rearrange the notes in the chords to create a semblance of melody (sometimes called “voice leading”). for example: first suppose you chose four chords: Am, F, C, G. acrostic will first determine the notes for each chord in a separate column:

Am  F   C   G  
---------------
A   F   C   G
C   A   E   B
E   C   G   D

then acrostic will rearrange the notes of each chord in each column.

Am  F   C   G  
---------------
A   A   G   G
C   C   C   D
E   F   E   B

the nature of the re-arrangement can help to induce natural melodies. acrostic re-arranges in many ways - trying to keep similar notes grouped together or minimizing distances (as in example above), etc.

pages

use K1+E1 to change pages.

there are four pages in acrostic:

the matrix
the planets
the bars
the phantom

the matrix does the sequencing and sampling and lets you modulate both. the planets lets you modulate the lfos for the volume and pan of the samples. the bars lets you gate and add interstitial notes. the phantom is a voice that you can use if you have no other voice.

page 1) the matrix

matrix

use E1 to change “context” within this page. in the matrix there are four contexts:

chords
notes
phrase
sampling

the chords lets you pick the chords and allocate the beats. the notes context lets you rotate and change octave of notes in a chord. the phrase context lets you rotate notes and change octave in a phrase. the sampling context is where you initiate recording and can do some leveling.

chord context

you are in the “chord context” when the bar around the roman numerals is highlighted.

E2 or K1+E2 select chord position
E3 change chord
K1+K3 change beats of chord
K2 transpose chords
K3 start/stop

note/phrase context

note context

phrase context

you are in the “note context” when the columns are highlighted and you are in the “phrase context” when a row is highlighted. both of these contexts have the same controls/share controls.

E2 select notes in chord
E3 select phrase
K1+E2 rotate notes in chord
K1+E3 rotate phrase
K2/K3 lower/raise octave of currently selected
K1+K3 reset octaves of currently selected

sampling context

you are in the “sampling context” when the sample area is highlighted.

E2 select sample
K3 queues recording
K3 dequeues recording
K1+K2 erase recording
K1+K3 queue unrecorded samples
E3 change level
K1+E2 changes pre
K1+E3 chagnes rec

when you queue a recording (K3) it will begin recording at the next loop. you can queue multiple samples, even while one is recorindg.

page 2) the planets

planets

adjust parameters in PARAMS > loop X or from the phantom UI:

K3 switches between loops
E1 adjusts volume
E2 adjust volume lfo amplitude
E3 adjusts volume lfo period
K2+E1 adjusts pan
K2+E2 adjusts pan lfo amplitude
K2+E3 adjusts pan lfo period

page 3) the bars

bars

adjust parameters in PARAMS > notes or from the phantom UI:

E2 adjusts interstitial note probability
E3 adjusts gate probabilty

page 4) the phantom

thephantom

adjust parameters in PARAMS > phantom or from the phantom UI:

E1 adjusts LPF lfo frequency
E2 adjusts LPF minimum cutoff
E3 adjusts LPF maximum cutoff
K1+E2 adjusts volume (by default its 0!, turn it up)
K1+E3 adjusts feedback

crow

the crow outputs are used for expression with CV instruments:

crow output 1 is pitch
crow output 2 is envelope
crow output 3 is clock
crow output 4 is oscillator (I like to use as a sub-oscillator / tuner)

grid

the grid is meant as a performative sequencer. in the parameters you can set whether the sequence resets every chord or not (PARAMS > grid > reset every chord). using the grid will “takeover” the crow outputs. when the grid stops playing, the crow will output as normal. tip: if you sequence a single note you and just change notes and use it as a simple keyboard.

rows 1-6 controls pitch. you can use two finger gestures to draw shapes. the note shapes are applied the note matrix. the rows 1-3 notes that are always the same. the rows 4-6 are notes that change with every chord. pressing a note again will transpose it, alternating up/down.

row 7 controls duration. pressing a step twice will cause that note to hold. pressing two steps will reset their duration to the default (1/16th note).

row 8 controls gates. pressing two gates will invert all gates in between.

other

dev only</summary> I created a patch for softcut that simplifies the recording and lets the pre function work as it should.

requires latest softcut and a unreleased norns build.

first rebuild norns:

sudo systemctl stop norns-jack.service; sudo systemctl stop norns-matron.service; sudo systemctl stop norns-crone.service && \
cd ~; ~/norns/stop.sh; rm -rf ~/norns; \
git clone https://github.com/schollz/norns && \
cd ~/norns && git checkout id && \
git submodule update --init --recursive && \
cd ~/norns/crone/ && rm -rf softcut && \
git clone https://github.com/schollz/softcut-lib softcut && \
cd softcut && git checkout id && \
cd ~/norns/crone/softcut/softcut-lib && \
./waf configure && \
./waf && \
cd ~/norns && \
./waf configure --enable-ableton-link && \
./waf build && \
sudo systemctl restart norns-jack.service; sudo systemctl restart norns-matron.service; sudo systemctl restart norns-crone.service

then install acrostic:

rm -rf ~/dust/code/acrostic && \
git clone https://github.com/schollz/acrostic ~/dust/code/acrostic

then restart norns:

sudo systemctl restart norns-jack.service; \
sudo systemctl restart norns-matron.service; \
sudo systemctl restart norns-crone.service

don’t do this unless you know what you are doing. </details>

Install

install with

;install https://github.com/schollz/acrostic