Spoke to iConnectivity today about the compatibility issue. Seems like the chap who had originally been handling those emails left the firm. They said they’ll try to get the ball rolling again on it.
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Well mine has arrived 
Finally.
Question: is only the din MIDI B receiving/sending clock?
Having a lot of fun here (1 month waiting for it to get there=lots of time to study YT videos and online tutorials 
)
Using it with Digitakt as master clock to TR-8 then to NDLR to Deepmind 12, MiniNova, MicroFreak and Toraiz AS-1. Have not yet tried with VSTi…
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It’s spelled out clearly in the manual, there are port limitations (intentionally so) regarding which ports accept clock inbound for the NDLR, along with similar limitations for passthrough and other routing.
Thanks
Quick question regarding the various options of each part: I have Deepmind12D, Novation MiniNova, Toraiz AS-1 and MicroFreak as main hardware synths. Which of these “should” be poly chained? Any advice?
Thank you
I haven’t poly-chained any synths with mine, but you could poly chain any of those, I think. Just experiment. Personally, I would set up the AS1 and Microfreak as Motif 1 and Motif2 or drone, the Deepmind as the pad and jam over it all with the mini nova keys.
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I’m looking through the manual.
Is there any support for user scales, or are you stuck with the 16 scales/modes shipped with the unit?
I’m guessing if the support is not there, it may not be added for a a long time. I asked the same question to the developer of the Piano Motifs app, and his reply was that for every scale type, he has to code his app to generate chord progressions that sound good. This makes sense in that if you try to apply the same rules that work for a major scale to, say, the altered scale (7th mode of melodic minor), you might get crap results.
The two aux scales are user specified.
I’m looking at the 1.7 manual. I’m not seeing those aux scales. What am I missing?
Mode
The Mode can be set to any of the 16 modes and scales. Rotating the encoder moves through
them in the following order: Major, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Minor (Aeolian),
Locrian, Gypsy Min, Harmonic Minor, Minor Pentatonic, Whole Tone, Tonic 2nds, Tonic 3rds,
Tonic 4ths, and Tonic 6ths. Holding the blue Shift button while rotating the encoder does not
change the actual Mode until the blue Shift button is released, even though the Mode is
displayed on the screen
Ah, sorry I totally crossed my wires there (that’s what i get for reading Cirklon forums alongside the NDLR). You’re right, there’s no (current) way to do that on the NDLR. You can’t even (though I could have sworn one of the beta firmwares had it) change what mode shape is on the Alts…
This thread discusses a few ways to sequence out-of-scale chords, but you’re still stuck with the 16 modes/scales they provide as choices, albeit in a different key: https://conductivelabs.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=981&highlight=alt1
No worries.
I have some music that I started creating based on Messaien Mode 3 (out of the Messaien Modes of Limited Transposition). While there are hundreds of resources on creating chord progressions off of the major scale in functional harmony, and a smaller but still sizeable selection of resources for non-functional (mostly modal) harmony off of modes, there’s practically nothing on creating harmonies off of Messaien modes. I devised one by stacking 4ths, but eventually ran out of inspiration. So on the surface NDLR looked promising to help with that.
I do not get a design with no chromatic mode.
Soo:
Are there longterm NDLR users in here?
Or do the NDLRs all get flipped past the honeymoonphase?
I’m looking for advice/warnings as I’m maybe thinking about getting a NDLR,
so far the only hardware synthy things I own are the Novation Circuit and (of sorts) the iPad. Plus possibly a Volca FM coming in.
If you could talk me in to/out of the NDLR
I’d be grateful for your input
I find it’s a fine little sequencer. I own few sequencers, they are all differents.
This one offer possibilty of long electronics ballads with your favorite synths (noodling theory).
The main point is to sequence at least 4 differents tracks and maintain all them in the same key and scale, without thinking or knowing music chord theory.
That’s not my favorite sequencer, cause i find it usefull for long ambiant sessions. But for other duties, i really go for other sequencers.
Techno and xperimental music is better held with other sequencers.
take a look a this :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhKxsjaTJz4&feature=emb_title
I loved the idea of having a tool doing sequencing part but I didn’t like the implementation. I had to mess around a lot for arps on synths and wrote some special code for my self built MIDI Hub to get nearly where I wanted to. Read the manual, watch videos on YouTube. If what you see is exactly what you want, go for it, if not: I bet it cannot do what you might hope it does.
On top: I found syncing it to other sequencers a pain.
Sent it back after 2 Weeks of trial.
I think it’s better by itself. When you use it externally the All Button is used like a Arm Button (it’s waiting for the Master’s signal). But, then, if you Mute one Part, getting it in sync again is tedious.
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I agree with @elenacortes, it’s a fine little sequencer, but not without it’s gotchas.
Pros:
- Very quick to come up to a good jammable structure once you get past the slightly frustrating early learning curve - stick with it.
- Chord sequencer makes it fairly straightforward (although rather clunky) to slap a sequence down that you can more or less forget and jam to. I use this a lot to just get in the mood.
- You can, easily, sequence it from another sequencer using simple note data to change chords and modes, or using CCs to adjust most other parameters. There’s also a MaxForLive tool to automate this in your DAW, though it’s experimental last I checked.
Cons-ish:
- Imperfect USB implementation means it doesn’t work with iConnectivity devices or (reports are) other embedded hosts like Roland workstations, etc. except via DIN MIDI
- It has just barely enough MIDI clock integration to work with a drum machine or external sequencer, but it’s not an incredibly robust implementation.
- It’s expensive for what it is, but I don’t know of any other sequencer that just does this locked chord idea so well and immediately, even as plugins or Max devices unless you roll your own in some gnarly way.
- The developer support via their forum is ok (Jesse tries hard) but the developers themselves seem to have largely given up on it (they’re consumed with their MRCC next project and all feature requests/expansion to the NDLR is dismissed with a “we’re out of flash” excuse*)
- You can’t queue chord changes or part start/stop for the next bar, unless you’re sequencing them externally on a sequencer that permits that
- Slightly funky MIDI implementation and some issues with things like dropped notes on the pad part when in chord sequencer give me the impression that it’s not fully baked
Overall, its an expensive toy that generally does what it says it will do, but don’t expect the edge cases and advanced features to work perfectly or any further serious development effort on it. That said, there’s not really anything quite like it out there and for that it can be really enjoyable. It got me shredding on my keyboard and I haven’t shredded in decades, maybe! So, fun factor can be up there if you’re able and willing to work past the gotchas. It’s definitely not a main sequencer or anything though, it’s really what the name says: for noodling.
* I personally think that their use of Teensy/Teensyduino core librarie is a big part of this as those libs aren’t written for space or performance efficiency, but rather simpleminded ease of use and pedagogy.
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Cannot say I had it for a long time but really liking it.
Using it with a mix of hardware and VSTi. This way I can double/triple voices if need be
Poly chaining is a must.
For me sequencing it from DT is a breeze. You can add DT modulation (LFO) to it.
I am more and more going towards ambient/soundscape so for me this is a welcome addition to my current gear.
As @elenacortes stated above, it is good for this purpose. Not so much (as far as I have been able to experiment) for techno style. Though for this, I have an Elektron sequencer.
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You can pull an interesting trick to get it more "aggressive: use the drone into an arpeggiated synth that is clock synched, you can get repeated 8ths, 16th, whatever from the synth from the drone note or chord. Useful for some of the more aggressive styles for sure. If your arp has patterns or other tricks, even better!
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Hey thanks for that.
Had already tried it with both DeepMind and AS-1.
Some really interesting things came out of that.
There are some decent patches that work well with the drone part on NDLR
At first glance I went “meh” but in the end, this particular part is pretty cool
Thanks folks,
very useful info all around.
Since I was going to use it for evening noodling of soundscapey/ambienty manner,
it seems the NDLR might be up my alley, manual downloaded, found some more videos to watch
an informed decision will be made,
thank you
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