02-25-2019, 02:30 PM
(02-24-2019, 04:57 PM)mobith Wrote: Hey guys
I've had my NDLR for a couple of weeks now and have explored all the functions so I'm familiar with how it works.
I tried to make a track with it this week but have ended up losing a few days worth of studio time due to the number of problems I'm having with it, so I've given up for now which is quite disappointing.
Here are some of the problems I've had and features that either aren't working or IMO need to be implemented/refined to make this unit practical to use in the studio.
1. Motif1 MIDI out failure:
I built a track around the NDLR (with a drum machine and my modular synced to it) and then switched to external sync (USB1) to sync the NDLR to my DAW ready for recording. This appears to have completely killed MIDIA Ch1 which Motif1 was using. A couple of times I did get it back by doing various resets and loads, but now nothing I have tried will recover it and I have no MIDI output for Motif1 (even I use a different MIDI channel). (I've checked this with a midi monitor, Motif2 is still working).
2. General repeatability issues.
I'm finding the NDLR very difficult to set up for repeatable behaviour. I'm sure this is mentioned elsewhere on the forum, but it appears there is no way to reset patterns, rhythms, or even globally reset on MMC start and stop (essential for recording), which means that it's impossible to create synced grooves. I had to use external VCAs in the abandoned track to get any kind of predictable yet interesting rhythm going, perhaps I'm missing something?
Suggestion: Each motif should have a reset on note-on msg for either the pattern or the rhythm or both.
Suggestion 2: Other MIDI messages could trigger a global pattern/rhythm reset
3. MIDI input/transpose etc not working.
My unit doesn't respond to MIDI input from my arturia keyboard or any of my sequencers in any way that I can perceive - certainly nothing changes on-screen. It does receive MIDI clock from the keyboard/DAW though so there's something else amiss here - perhaps I'm missing something.
4. It doesn't behave like a normal arpeggiator - feature request.
Seems a bit weird to be requesting this but I would expect to be able to play a series of chords into the machine and these would trigger a series of arpeggios based on the chords notes. It would make sense to have the note-on messages reset either the pattern or rhythm (or both, or neither) of the arpeggio accordingly. This is an essential 'playability' feature of any arpeggiator as far as I can tell.
5. Unstable settings.
I find it way too easy to accidentally destroy the balance of a patch with a single touch of an encoder that happens to be pointing at the wrong parameter, even though the desired parameter is displayed on the screen (also the yellowness of a parameter is not accurately reflected but that's a minor bug). When this happens there is often no way back because the parameter settings are often graphical and unmemorable (especially if you're not looking at them), and this is very frustrating in practice.
It also means that touching any encoder requires an extra level of thought, which I find tiring and annoying, and this makes the unit feel less like a musical instrument and detracts from the musical process
My suggestion would be to only show the parameters that are currently editable. Have an immutable overview screen to see everything at once if needs be. By only displaying the mutable parameters the displayed parameters could be bigger and clearer, which would be a very big bonus and help the workflow.
6. There appears to be only 10 patch memories! Can this be increased to 127 and have them accessible via MIDI program change please? 10 isn't enough bearing in mind how easy it is to lose the balance of a patch.
7. Global settings and patch settings appear to have been merged but I'm not sure this is helpful in the studio. For example, it would be good to have a few global settings for different studio modes (e.g. DAW master, NDLR master, modular master etc), and these should be mutually exclusive from the patch (musical) settings. Otherwise, when you transition a studio mode (e.g. from jamming in NDLR master to recording in DAW master) all your presets become useless!
8. Rhythm step mutes. I couldn't find a way to mute steps of a rhythm without creating glides, is this deliberate or am I missing something?!
Suggestion rhythms should be a series of velocities but steps should also be able to be toggled on off otherwise you lose compatibility with MIDI->CV interfaces.
Please let me know if I've overlooked some features that have caused the problems above!
Hello, sorry you are experiencing that frustration. We made The NDLR for jamming, and not really focussed on composing for musicians. When trying to force The NDLR into very specific repeatable scenarios I can see where it could get tedious. Let me try to address your issues one by one, where I can.
1. Motif1 MIDI out failure:
There was a bug in the FW that would cause corruption to the motif parameters after doing a 'Factory Reset' from the boot menu. This is fixed in the latest beta (1.1.019). You will need to install that FW and do another factory reset. A workaround is to load Preset "0", edit it if desired, and save it into the other preset slots.
2. General repeatability issues
Please note, we fixed a problem with syncing motifs on "Start All" in an earlier FW release. The latest is posted on the Open Beta forum.
We have been looking at feedback on how people would like the parts to behave with Start/Stop/Continue messages. We currently do nothing with Start, as we wouldn't know which parts to start. The other thing we are looking as it Stop/reset vs Pause. Currently, the motifs pause when you press the play/pause button, so they start where you paused them, but rhythm always resets. If you press the "Play All" button to stop, the motifs will reset to the beginning of their patterns along with the rhythms.
Can you expand on this idea? "Suggestion: Each motif should have a reset on note-on msg for either the pattern or the rhythm or both." Are you trying to slave The NDLR to another sequencer, so you want it to re-set, re-trigger with incoming notes?
3. MIDI input/transpose etc not working.
Some users have noted that our idea of "transpose" is different than what you might expect having used typical sequencers. The NDLR transpose feature takes notes on a MIDI input, transposes them to the current key/mode then passes them though to your sound module. It does not change The NDLR key. The idea being, you can jam on a keyboard with The NDLR and not press any wrong notes.
If you want to change key, you can modulate the Key parameter which is the same behavior as a common sequencer taking note input to change key. Pressing the Shift key while changing the Tempo/Key/Mode knob will prevent it from changing until the Shift key is released.
4. It doesn't behave like a normal arpeggiator - feature request.
Yes, its definitely not a typical arpeggiator. An early design goal was to make something that you can't already get in many other devices. Having The NDLR act as a common arpeggiator was never on the feature list. However, we have considered some way to get an analogous feature while still maintaining the note constraints that keeps everything in key. The motifs play notes from a note pool based on The NDLR key, mode, chord, chord type and pattern type. One thought was to enable using a keyboard to enter patterns in real time. Currently, you can set patterns to use The NDLR's current "chord notes", "scale notes", or "chromatic". By mapping MIDI notes to pattern step values we could get real time arps based on your keyboard input. For those who play the keys, using "chromatic" mode will let you get out of the note pool box. We don't play the keyboard, which is why we created The NDLR
and we don't use chromatic mode because it would sound like hell 
5. Unstable settings
Agree some of the knobs are too sensitive. We have scaled them and put a "dead space" in to prevent accidental changes, but we plan to do more tweaking on the sensitivity.
We did pack a lot of info into the subscreens which changes from function to function. Originally we had a great big number in there, which is common on many devices, but we also found it to be meaningless.
Good suggestions.
6. Yes, limited patch memories is unfortunate. We planned to use leftover flash memory as parameter storage, but the platform we developed The NDLR on did not enable us to access that memory. We thought we could overcome it, but so far we have not. We might have a workaround in the future, but can't promise it.
7. Agree the combined global and patch setting could be cumbersome in the studio, but it is great for jamming or live performance where you want to real time change configuration and part parameters. For instance, you can switch synth modules (or timbers) at the same time as parts, modulations, etc. With more storage we would probably have a "global", "patch" and "performance" or song mode to tie them together.
8. Rhythm step mutes
When the step is red, it is a Rest, green is a Tie. The rest causes a note off to be sent. Unless the synth patch has a long decay the note will turn off. Is this what you wanted? The NDLR breaks down an arpeggiator into its core components. This makes for interesting variations not found on normal arpeggiators. However, it is a bit weird to disassociate the rhythm from the pattern. Its a choice we made to get more flexibility. Its not as easy to get reproducibility, but it can be fun which was the goal.