# Intro ## In This Review ### Disclaimer This video is not sponserd - So a while back I came across a device, one that I thought could be the centre piece of a generative music system. The Conductive Labs NDLR, so lets talk about it. - I paid for the NDLR myself - Conductive Labs doesn't know about this video being created. ### General Overview of the Video A quick look at the company and the creation of the NDLR - Look a generative Sequencing - The Basic and Advanced Functionality - Finally my conclusion on what I think of it ## The NDLR & Conductive Labs ### The Story of the NDLR - "We make musically intelligent hardware to make your synths come alive, while you twist the knobs and jam!" - Two mates who didn't really know a lot about music theory decided we could make a device to write the music for us. ## Generative Sequencing ### Why is it useful? - Creates musical phrases or whole pieces of music without the intervention of humans. - Allows an access into creating music for the less music theory minded of us. ### Types of Generative Sequencers Probabilistic/Stochastic - This is the most basic form of generative sequencing. It is chance or probability based as to whether or not a note is played. Named after Karlheinz Stockhausen. - Electron OctoTrack Euclidian - Named as such for mathematician Euclid, founder of geometry. Euclidian rhythms are often analogised to Polyrhythms due to their basic concept. Controls give the ability to specify a number of steps in a sequence, the number of notes distributed evenly across this length, and the rotation/offset allowing for a different start point. - QU-Bit Pulsar Cartesian - Cartesian rhythms sequence in 2 dimensions. An X and Y plane allow for each to be played individually or together. This means that you could play a sequence, up-down-left-right or even diagonally. It works off a matrix of note values and a matrix of movement values to signal what direction the play head will hit. - Make Noise - Rene ### 🤔 The NDLR doesn't fit into any of these predefined areas, so what is it? # Basic Functionality ## Connectivity ### I/O - 2x MIDI 5-Pin In and Out - 1x USB MIDI In and Out with 4x Separate Ports - 1x CV Clock In and Out ## Main Page ### Pad Controls Position - Sets the position on the scale to show where on the keyboard it is. - Good = Numbered Notes to show Top, Bottom & Middle. - Bad = Needs some note names in there too. Strum - 7 options for arped notes, played glissando. - Good = Acknowledgement that bottom two notes are often played together to create a bass. - Bad = Display is a little confusing as doesn't scale to number of notes. Range - Gives the number of notes in a chord. - Good = LARGE range, 29 notes at max I managed. Spread - Allows different spread on the keyboard. Could also be called density. - Good = Lots of options for different voicing. - Bad = UI is very confusing on this. 1. All notes next to each other 2. Octave & Chord 3. Just Chord 4. Random Notes inside the range 5. Maybe...3 Octave? 6. Maybe...3 Octave and 1. for chord? 7. Same as 5 but more... - Actual Explanation - If there are 4 or less notes being played they will always be stacked in thirds. 1. stacked by thirds 2. root only in bass octaves, open voicing in mid-low octaves, closed voicing in mid-high octaves, root only in high octaves 3. root only in bass octaves and closed voicing in 4th octave 4. 70% chance for any Pad note to be played 5. root only in bass octaves, root and 5ths above 6. root only in bass octaves, 3rds or 7ths above ### Drone Controls Position - What octave will be used. - Good = Acknowledgement that a drone isn't just used for basses but also for higher things. Notes - Root, 5th & Octave. - Might be nice to see poly chaining here too. Trigger - Both root and follow types allowing for uninterrupted drones. ### Motif Controls Position - Where on the piano the thing plays, - No indication on the middle of the screen as to what MIDI note it is starting on and the range of midi notes being played like the Drone. - Also Glitch with going from chromatic to scaled to chord patterns, caused me to brick my unit and require a firmware reinstall to get back what happened. _check videos for evidence_ Pattern Length - BIG TALKING POINT. The number of pattern steps it will go through, is reflected in the middle as well as the top of the screen. Why? This isn't needed, the middle makes sense, the top doesn't. As for a sequence that uses only a few notes at the bottom it will still show notes across the keyboard. It will be confusing as it should tell you the range of the sequence. And where the notes are on the keyboard. This is what it did for the PAD and the visual language you establish should remain constant. I understand it is also used for Patt Direction, but then just scale the geometry to the 'Range' (highest to lowest) of the pattern. - So I spoke a little about how the readout for the pattern length and range isn't clear, and instead of just complaining I'd like to suggest an edit to the UI. It is currently serving double duty showing the pattern direction and the pattern length, Change the length of that icon to be the range of the pattern. Pattern Direction - Forwards, Backwards, Pingpong, Pingpong + Edges, Every Other, Random. - Nothing bad to say, love it. - Maybe just an every other reverse? Pattern - Allows to change the pattern used. _see pattern editor section_ Clock Division - The rate at which notes get triggered. - Nice to see use of triplets and sextuplets there too. - Might be nice to see some more granularity with 5, 7, 9 tuplets. Rhythm Length - Allows the length of the rhythm to be selected. - Same as pattern length where it is reflected twice each with different results. The visual shows many different types and the bottom right number shows the number of notes played. Only that the Rhythm Length doesn't work on this premise, you can cut notes in half at the end or drop rests. - Forcing the 32 format is great but promotes usage of repetition or just having a lot of empty space such as pattern#10 and pattern#20. This may be intentional but being able to save the Pattern Length with the pattern means that you never run into that issue and still allows expandability. This goes for the pattern editor too. Accent - Rhythm Velocity, Humanise offset with Rhythm Velocity, Motif Velocity (set in settings), o...o... ..o...o. o.o.o.o. .o.o.o.o oo..o..o .o.oo.oo ....oooo - Good = This combined with the Rhythm Patterns makes for a lot of funcy music. Rhythm - Allows to change the rhythm used. _see rhythm editor section_ Offset - Changes the offset from 0-3 of what rhythm step to start on. ### Note Controls Tempo - Clocked Via USB is nice Key - Allows the root note to be set - Good = Uses the circle of 5ths in the change allowing for smoother transitions and more seamless movement. Mode - Chooses the mode to be used. - Good = Good selection of modes and some interesting ones such as Gypsy Min & Whole Tone. - Would like to see more options and possibly the ability to chose our own quantisation. ## Menu Dives ### Settings Page 1 - MIDI Chans: Good to have control from external gear, allows the ability for something like a faderfox ec4 to control the NDLR. Page 2 - Humanize is interesting, not gonna comment on using it with clock info and divisions since I really don't know what I'm talking about with modular. Page 3 - Global saves are really nice, to save a certain settings config, probably don't use it to save a session. - Poly chains are awesome allowing for multiple different monos to form a pad. - Pad Qnt is a bit buggy on using a DAW but I understand why it is there. - Nice option for Volca Velocity - Nice option for Chord Inversions LFO Config - Rate isn't in seconds until after 40.0s, then synced for 1 beat to 48 beats. - Wave S hapes are Sine, Saw, Ramp, SawTooth, Sqaure, Pulse(80/20), random, PATT(Pattern 1-40) - Really nice inclusion of using the Patterns basically allowing for infinite options and shapes. - Probability percent chance that the MOD Destination Value would be affected by the LFO. LFO3 is 100%. - Really good to use this with the Random setting. ## Mod Matrix ### Source 3 LFOs and 5 Preset modulations in addition to Velocity Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, and After Touch ### Destination - Global Key - Global Mode - Chord Degree - Chord Type - Pad - Position - Range - Velocity - On/Off - Drone - Position - Type - Trigger - On/Off - Motif1/Motif2 - Position - Pattern Length - Variant - Pattern - Clock Division - Accent - Rhythm - Velocity - On/Off - Motifs - Velocity Low - Humanize - MIDI CC Values ### Amount - Percentage - nothing to say ### Destination Value - Mod Range Display is very useful as you can see exactly what is happening # Advanced Functionality ## Pattern Editor - Saving 20 patterns should be enough and should be good. - Only the value of each step is saved oppose to other settings. ## Rhythm Editor - Circular editor style is nice but doesn't translate well into the rhythm bar on the main page. It also connotes the use of Euclidian rhythms which is not the case and the NDLR is not capable of. ## Chord Seq/Song Mode - This is a little finicky and tough to use but workable with the interface they've created. In place of the boxes would be good to have the scale degrees. ## MIDI CNTLR - Love this feature and have extensivley used this feature and can see how and why it was implamented. # 4. Problems & Improvements Pattern High Notes - Pattern 1 right off the bat, PATT-LEN set to 16 repeats notes on the high notes. This extends to other bits too. - The chord type of pattern seems to limit chords below 83 5d 40 for some reason but has no issue going into very low chords. - When chord type is all set to 20, the Motif POSITION does nothing except change one note very low down. Why 20 is the max? Is this the max usable steps for a chord. Pattern Saving Types - The save feature expects all 16 steps to be filled in the Pitch and all 32 in the Rhythm otherwise as in rhythm pattern#11 there are blank spaces when switching from a pattern with more filled in patches. This can be seen to be a problem even for the devs by the repetition of patterns 8 notes long that could have just been shortened. Rhythm RHY-LEN - Inconsistent use of the number eg 8:32 or 8:18. Using the RHY-LEN knob to change this with tied notes means you chop off part of a held note, this leads to an inconsistent feel in pattern use. Also the number on the main page eg 18 doesn't match to the one in the Rhythm Editor eg 32 for rhythm pattern#2. # Conclusion ## Updates Since I received my on the 05-12-2021 there hasn't been any updates or firmware upgrades. - The process of firmware upgrades - Really easy as it uses the Teensy loader and 1 hex file. ## Communications Contact with Conductive Labs are based on the forum through Jesse who is a Mod on the website. When I brought up the idea of saving pattern length with the pattern it took a little while to get across but she suggested a workaround which was kind of her. ## Who is this product for? Composers who are looking into the 'generative' space or even people who know electronics and would like to make soundtracks. In an interview which I will link below they mention that the name came from the want to 'noodle' on it like you would pick up your guitar and just play. However, I think it is a little more involved than that as it takes a little setup to really get your flow. ## How could it be used? Manual states different ways for it to be used and I use it with a DAW (video in the works for my setup). With the 2 midi outs and 2 in there is a lot of possibilities for access to more controls. Using something like the faderfox pc12 allowing 72 different parameters to be MIDI controlled. The link to the manual is in the description below. ## Alternatives OXI ONE Sequencer - Only just got put into production after the indiegogo campaign. 4 track TORSO T-1 - Available for preorders now, good for Euclidian stuff currently on Kickstarter. 16 track TheoryBoard - This is a real different one but does similar things in terms of quantisation.