02-07-2019, 04:02 PM
No Darryl, you not being dense but i think I need to clarify where I’m coming from.
I know you say that the NDLR is not a sequencer but the motif section is as close as you might come to one but with greater flexibility which is why I referred to it as a sequencer. I’ve spent a lot of time searching for something that could keep several different parts in a selected key/mode. It was only really using Ableton and more recently keyboards like the NI Komplete and the Novation SL3 (which I now have) that can apply a scale/mode function to my bad keyboard skills. So the NDLR is a bit of a revelation with sequenced motifs and scaled pad/drone all tied together, my hats off to you for that.
I got the NDLR a few days back and I managed to get some time to play with it yesterday. As I was going through the settings, I saw the “KB Trans” and on a quick check in the manual I read it as transposing the NDLR with an external midi signal. This, I now know is not how it works but coming from a background of hardware and software sequencers that’s how I had in my mind at the time and that’s why I asked the original question in the forum.
Shortly after I concluded and that was confirmed with your first answer that it actually meant transposing the external keyboards output through the NDLR to keep any external noodling in key which is great. The position control can move the motifs around and the keys on the NDLR can move it around an octave, but I still think it’s missing something so what this is now is really a feature request and a slight rewrite to the manual.
So feature request first : Keep the “KB Trans” as it is but add an extra option to take a midi input from a different input and use that new input to change the root note of the motifs up or down in semitones, basically like a traditional transpose does on a normal sequencer but whist still keeping the motif in the key and mode selected on the NDLR.
This way you can still have the noodling ability as it is now and transpose the motifs on a second keyboard or from a sequencer for example.
This would allow you to quickly and easily move the motifs beyond the 1 octave limit of the NLDR panel keys or the current midi keyboard control and without having to use the position control which is not that easy to get a quick and accurate transposition compared to just hitting a key on a keyboard and without having to set up CC’s.
There would be no need for this input to change the Pad or drone as they are better controlled by the panel keys and it would add an extra layer of complication and change things that you would probably want to keep as a steadier background.
As for the manual I think it needs a bit of clarification as to what the existing “KB Trans” does. I’m sure that I’m not the only one that misread what it does because this kind of scalar transposition is a feature that I have not seen in any other device. The only thing I know which comes close is the 512 touch keyboard from Future Retro which I also have and that can transmutate an incoming midi signal to a scale/mode and transpose it.
So something along the lines of the following would make it much clearer as to the “KB Trans” function
“The KB trans takes an external midi signal and scalar transposes it so that it is in the key/mode with the output of the NDLR. This effectively allows you to “noodle” on an external keyboard adding extra notes to the NDLR output whist keeping them in key with the NDLR. It does not transpose the output of the NDLR to the incoming midi signal as a normal sequencer your used to might”.
Sorry for the rather long post but I needed to add the extra details so you could see where is was coming from and I think a lot of potential new owners might be as well and might jump to the wrong conclusions as I did ?.
I know you say that the NDLR is not a sequencer but the motif section is as close as you might come to one but with greater flexibility which is why I referred to it as a sequencer. I’ve spent a lot of time searching for something that could keep several different parts in a selected key/mode. It was only really using Ableton and more recently keyboards like the NI Komplete and the Novation SL3 (which I now have) that can apply a scale/mode function to my bad keyboard skills. So the NDLR is a bit of a revelation with sequenced motifs and scaled pad/drone all tied together, my hats off to you for that.
I got the NDLR a few days back and I managed to get some time to play with it yesterday. As I was going through the settings, I saw the “KB Trans” and on a quick check in the manual I read it as transposing the NDLR with an external midi signal. This, I now know is not how it works but coming from a background of hardware and software sequencers that’s how I had in my mind at the time and that’s why I asked the original question in the forum.
Shortly after I concluded and that was confirmed with your first answer that it actually meant transposing the external keyboards output through the NDLR to keep any external noodling in key which is great. The position control can move the motifs around and the keys on the NDLR can move it around an octave, but I still think it’s missing something so what this is now is really a feature request and a slight rewrite to the manual.
So feature request first : Keep the “KB Trans” as it is but add an extra option to take a midi input from a different input and use that new input to change the root note of the motifs up or down in semitones, basically like a traditional transpose does on a normal sequencer but whist still keeping the motif in the key and mode selected on the NDLR.
This way you can still have the noodling ability as it is now and transpose the motifs on a second keyboard or from a sequencer for example.
This would allow you to quickly and easily move the motifs beyond the 1 octave limit of the NLDR panel keys or the current midi keyboard control and without having to use the position control which is not that easy to get a quick and accurate transposition compared to just hitting a key on a keyboard and without having to set up CC’s.
There would be no need for this input to change the Pad or drone as they are better controlled by the panel keys and it would add an extra layer of complication and change things that you would probably want to keep as a steadier background.
As for the manual I think it needs a bit of clarification as to what the existing “KB Trans” does. I’m sure that I’m not the only one that misread what it does because this kind of scalar transposition is a feature that I have not seen in any other device. The only thing I know which comes close is the 512 touch keyboard from Future Retro which I also have and that can transmutate an incoming midi signal to a scale/mode and transpose it.
So something along the lines of the following would make it much clearer as to the “KB Trans” function
“The KB trans takes an external midi signal and scalar transposes it so that it is in the key/mode with the output of the NDLR. This effectively allows you to “noodle” on an external keyboard adding extra notes to the NDLR output whist keeping them in key with the NDLR. It does not transpose the output of the NDLR to the incoming midi signal as a normal sequencer your used to might”.
Sorry for the rather long post but I needed to add the extra details so you could see where is was coming from and I think a lot of potential new owners might be as well and might jump to the wrong conclusions as I did ?.