Zellen is currently not in active development, since I do not own a Norns anymore. If anyone wants to take over, feel free to fork the repository and create a new thread for it in the lines library. If you do so, send me a message on lines and I will happily link your new repository here and in the old lines thread.

zellen

A sequencer for Monome norns based on Conway’s Game of Life.

Usage

• Grid: enter/modify cell pattern
• KEY2: play/pause current generation (semi-manual mode), advance sequence (manual mode), play/pause sequence (automatic mode)
• KEY3: advance generation
• hold KEY1 and press KEY3: erase the board
• ENC1: set speed (bpm)
• ENC2: set play mode (see below)
• ENC3: set play direction (see below)
• hold KEY3 + ENC3: time jog

Play Modes

Set the play mode with ENC2.

• reborn (default): Play a note for every cell that was born or reborn (= has exactly three neighbors), regardless of the previous state of the cell
• born: Play a note for every cell that was born (has exactly three neighbors and was not alive in the previous generation)
• ghost: Play a note for every cell that is dying(has less than two or more than three neighbors). Ghost notes can have a different pitch! (See the “ghost offset” setting in the parameters screen.)

Play Direction

Set the play direction with ENC3.

• up: Cells on grid are played from top left (lowest note) to bottom right (highest note).
• down: Cells on grid are played from bottom right (highest note) to top left (lowest note).
• random: Cells are played in random order. The randomized order will be stable for a generation and will be re-randomized for every new generation.
• drunken up: Like up, but decides for each step randomly if it goes up or down.
• drunken down: Like down, but decides for each step randomly if it goes up or down.

Sequencing modes

Set the sequencing mode in the parameters screen. Default is semi-automatic.

• manual: Press KEY2 to play the next step in the sequence for a single generation.
• semi-automatic: Plays the sequence for a single generation (and loops it if “loop seq in semi-auto mode” is enabled (default)).
• automatic: Like semi-automatic, but automatically calculates the next generation and plays it.

Crow support

Zellen supports CV out via Crow. Crow CV output can be configured in Norns’s parameters menu.

Crow configuration for Zellen:

• Input 1: Clock
• Input 2: CV offset
• Output 1: CV
• Output 2: Trigger
• Output 3: CV 2
• Output 4: Clock

CV offset (input 2) can be set to pre or post quantization in the parameters menu.

CV 2 is, just like the main sequence, a CV derived from the current play position on the board. The CV can be calculated with these methods (configurable in the parameters menu):

• x/y (default)
• x%y
• x+y (same as the main sequence)

Just Friends support (via ii)

Zellen supports playing notes on Mannequins Just Friends via Crow and a ii connection. The note value can be determined with the same methods as the CV 2 value for Crow (configurable in the parameters menu).

MIDI

Set the MIDI channel (default: 1), MIDI velocity (default: 100), and MIDI clock in the parameters screen.

More Parameters

There is lots more to discover in the parameters screen, like root note, scale, and ghost offset.