wow.

it has been so long since i last posted. a lot has changed, a lot has stayed the same. in a lot of ways, i feel like i have just closed a chapter of my life and am just beginning a new one.

last week monday, i completed my finals for school. i ended up with an A in my bio lecture, B+ in bio lab, A in my anatomy I lab and a C in my anatomy I lecture. so i ended up with an A overall in bio and a B- in anatomy. not bad; i’ll take it. i’m not terribly stoked on my anatomy I lecture grade being so low. i have the same prof next semester for anatomy II and will have to work harder at finding an effective way to study for the course. until then, i’m glad as hell to be on break!

one of the more exciting things that has happened recently is that i put together a diy monome norns a couple months ago, which has had a profound impact on my creative process and has really expanded what i’m capable of doing with my current music set up. the norns is a really hard to describe digital musical instrument. at it’s core, it is a sound computer that is capable of generating sound and processing incoming audio. at any point in time, norns can be a looper, a sequencer, a sampler, a multi-fx processor, a digital four-track cassette recorder, and much more. it’s a machine that has confused and fascinated me since i first discovered it several years ago, but the $800 price tag was enough to keep me away.

enter one steven noreyko. steven is a musician, photographer, programmer, and an electronics tinkerer. in his spare time, steven created the fates dac board, which uses a raspberry pi as it’s core. the fates is essentially a monome norns that you can build yourself at home, which is exactly what i did! below are some pictures of the build process.

honestly powering this thing up for the first time and seeing the boot-up animation and hearing the startup sound was one of the most exciting and affirming moments. i got a huge grin on my face and immediately started menu diving, checking everything out. i lost a few hours fumbling through different scripts and trying to wrap my head around everything. frankly, i bounced off the thing pretty hard and realized i had no clue what the fuck i was doing.

i decided to approach it one script at a time. a script is a program that has a specific set of functions; think about it like an app, if that’s helpful. each script can do certain things, but you can only use one script at a time. their functions vary: loopers, delays, reverbs, drone synth, sequencers (including kinetic and euclidean!), poly synths, mono synths, melody generators…the list goes on. the raspberry pi 4 proves to be a capable audio processing workhorse in this particular application, and bugs are easy to squash.

deets for the freakz: norns can be thought of as a software ecosystem with a number of complete parts that function together. all audio is generated/processed by supercollider. supercollider is a music-focused coding language that can be used to do damn near anything related to music creation or audio processing. the supercollider scripts are controlled by lua scripts, which handles all the interfacing (encoders, buttons, display). audio routing is handled by crone, an engine created by monome. lua interpretation is handled by matron, again developed by monome. below is a screenshot of maiden, which is the browser based ui client.

getting the norns and implementing it into my setup has been pretty transformative for me from a creative standpoint. it’s been super inspirational and has helped me get back into the habit of playing music daily. i’ve been occasionally recording my little jams when i stumble upon something worth saving. i decided to throw them up onto soundcloud for fun and to share. it’s important to note that these are like really rough recordings and the performances are totally improvised, so don’t expect greatness.

this is all i have for now. i have lots more things to talk about, but it seems wise to spread it over a couple posts as opposed to doing one mega post.

we’re gonna finish the fiona dickinson record today. will report back how that ends up going!

i hope you all are well and have a beautiful holiday.