Norand Mono MK2 Manual
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Norand Mono MK2 Manual

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10/20/23, 11:01 AM
Mono MK2 new features
Hardware
Connectors
Front
A
SEQ switches : The SEQ switches are a continuyous strip of
3D sensors, capable of detecting the "position" of the finger taps
via the pressure distribution applied on it.
B
PAGE switches : Similar to the seq switches
C
Mini-keyboard keys : 3D sensors chromatic keys for playing,
editing, recording notes
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Summary of Contents for Norand Mono MK2

  • Page 1 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Mono MK2 new features Hardware Connectors Front SEQ switches : The SEQ switches are a continuyous strip of 3D sensors, capable of detecting the “position” of the finger taps via the pressure distribution applied on it.
  • Page 2 On-Off switch Power Mono MK2 can be powered either via its dedicated power port, or via the USB device port. Note that it require at least 1A capable ports with broadcast capabilities. MK2 senses the power capabilities of the power source, there are 3 level of power.
  • Page 3 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Drive MK2 adds a soft overdrive circuit at the output, it is the only change in the signal path. The output DAC is software compensated so that driving the signal doesn’t make it louder, it will just add more and more overtones as you push it harder.
  • Page 4 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand to that parameter. Release the switch when you’re done with the assignment. Tuned parameter X behaviour By default the 2 oscillators and the filter have an offset of 1 semitone by MIDI note. The filter tracking can still be enabled/disabled with the follow switch.
  • Page 5 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Curve mode What’s good of an automation if you cant edit it ? Curve mode allow you to precisely edit a recorded automation. Go to curve mode by holding [FUNC] and pressing [UP]. The [SEQ] LED will show the recorded automation with a color map.

  • Page 6: Pattern Rotate

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand playhead will resume playing where it is supposed to, not ruining your time signature. Other changes from MK1 Pattern Rotate The shortcut for pattern rotate has been moved, now you need to hold [FUNC], and press [PAGE A] to rotate left, and [PAGE D] to rotate right.
  • Page 7 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Step : An element holding information to be sent to the synthesis engine to “play” sound. Synth parameter : A parameter directly controlling the internal CVs of the underlying analog synthesis engine, such as Wave, Freq, Cutoff … Even though the envelope is digital, envelope parameters are considered synth parameters as well.
  • Page 8 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Randomizer Hold [FUNC] + [TEMPO] and : Press a [PAGE] key : add between 1 and 4 random notes to the page, the added note are always in scale. Press a [SEQ] key : Randomize every parameter of said step...
  • Page 9 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand key LED are on. To edit one of the moded note, hold a mini-keyboard key and set its parameter. You can then add steps of the selected moded note, or play live and record it. Settings cheat sheet Length : Set pattern length with the [SEQ] and [PAGE] keys.
  • Page 10 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Chromatic (default) Major Melodic minor Harmonic minor Arabic Dorian Aeolian Phrygian Gypsy Mixolidian Romanian minor Gypsy minor japanese Spanish blues Transpose : Set transpose with [NOTE] keys for semi-tone transposition and [SEQ] key for octave transposition, [SEQ] key 8 is the default value.

  • Page 11: Synthesis Engine

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Internal MIDI Bend Rg : Sets pitch bend range from 1 to 16 semitones with [SEQ] key. The [PAGE] keys enable/disable the time quantization. Disable time quantization Enable time quantization Pot Mode : Sets potentiometer mode.
  • Page 12 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand East coast synthesis usually describe subtractive synthesis techniques, where the sound designers start with an oscillator rich in harmonics, and then shape the sound by removing (subtracting) harmonics with filters. West coast synthesis West Coast synthesis describes a different approach. It...
  • Page 13 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Mono offers 2 analog oscillators with continuously variable waveforms, thru-zero frequency modulation, and hard sync. For the electronic geeks among us, the oscillators are based around a unique discrete asymmetric integrator. In “layman” terms, it means that the triangle core waveform is not perfect, it is a bit “skewed”, which gives it and the sinus wave a slightly richer...
  • Page 14 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Just a simple example : use the X-Modulator at audio rate on the Freq parameter of both oscillators - you get a 4-operator hybrid FM synth (for normal people, this translates to: “You can do some pretty cool stuff with this synth”).

  • Page 15: Filter Block

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand oscillating backward, and when it crosses zero hertz, it will reverse again back to “positive” frequencies. Note that I put negative and positive in quote, in the real world there is no such thing as negative frequency.
  • Page 16 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand outputs, you'll usually find band-pass in the middle, but I find that quite boring, so there's that. There are some very interesting timbres in between each output. For example, put the knob halfway between low-pass and high-pass, and you get a...

  • Page 17: Master Volume

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Drive MK2 adds a soft overdrive circuit at the output, it is the only change in the signal path. The output DAC is software compensated so that driving the signal doesn’t make it louder, it will just add more and more overtones as you push it harder.
  • Page 18 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand This is where all the fun begins … Remember your old synth where you get to play with one LFO that you can assign to a 2 or 3 parameters ? Those were great ! Then the digital era introduced the “Modulation Matrix”...
  • Page 19 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand X-Modulator The X-Modulators are simple oscillators, I didn't call them LFO because one of their best use cases is in audio rate mode. The [WAVE] key cycles between sinusoidal (orange), triangle (light blue), square (yellow), sawtooth (dark blue), and S&H (pur) waveforms.
  • Page 20 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand an LFO, the effect will evolve in time, leading to even nicer subtle changes. Open the filter Turn up both oscillator Set both oscillator frequency to the same pitch Select oscillator 1 detune Set X-Mod to LFO or Synced LFO...
  • Page 21 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Set X-Mod rate dead center (frequency will be the same as osc1) Turn X-Mod amount left or right to add FM Changing X-Mod wave gives a different FM “flavour” Sequencer Projects and basic pattern operation Projects Mono holds up to 64 projects in the SD card.

  • Page 22: Pattern Control

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand switch pattern, select a [PAGE] and hit a [SEQ] key to set the current pattern. For example, press C, then 5 to select the C05 pattern. To play a pattern temporarily, hold [FUNC] and press the pattern [SEQ] key, when releasing [FUNC] the previous pattern will resume playing.
  • Page 23 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Hold [TEMPO] and rotate the X-MOD [AMOUNT] potentiometer to speed up/slow down tempo by +/-16%, the pot center being 0. Similar to a turntable pitch fader. Play styles Play styles allow you to alter the order in which the sequencer plays the steps of a pattern.
  • Page 24 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Live mode Live mode allows musician to heavily edit the running pattern without affecting it in memory. When live mode is enabled, a snapshot of the active pattern is taken when it starts. You can edit everything (patch, pattern, automations …), but when you switch to another pattern or recall the same pattern, it will revert back to its saved state.
  • Page 25 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Patchless pattern When playing a song with normal patterns, the patch of the patterns will be called at each jump, so if you have the same patch on several patterns, it will be recalled as it was on each jump.

  • Page 26: Editing A Pattern

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Editing a pattern There are three ways of adding notes and automations with Mono : by inputting it manually, by recording it live while the sequencer is running in record mode, or randomly. Each step contains information concerning the note, and all the automation are now recorded at a very high resolution (1024PPQN).
  • Page 27 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand When the pattern is not playing and [RECORD] is enabled, a step [SEQ] key LED pulses, indicating the active step. Playing a note with the [NOTE] key adds a note to the active step and advances by one step.
  • Page 28 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand your own accent parameters on the active pattern, start by setting default offsets to 0 by holdind [ACCENT] and set Cutoff and Volume to the middle. Keep holding accent and set pots to the desired value. The value stored in memory is an offset from the initial value to the last position of the potentiometer.
  • Page 29 [DOWN] and press [DELETE]. Parameter offsets or automations On the Mono Mk2, every automations is now recorded at a very high resolution (1024PPQN, or 256 per step). This allows for very smooth transitions between steps, and a lot of possibilities when it comes to sound design.
  • Page 30 (that's a lot of words - sorry about that). Curve Mode One of the big update on Mono Mk2 is the addition of Curve mode. Curve mode allows you to see the parameter offset curve on [SEQ] LEDs. To enable Curve mode, hold [FUNC] and press the [UP] key.
  • Page 31 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand is blinking. Now drag your finger left or right and up or down to edit the curve. The curve will update when you release your finger from the [SEQ] strip. Recording parameter offsets You can also record parameter offsets while in record mode. To enable the mode, press the [RECORD] key, and turn a parameter knob while the sequencer is playing.
  • Page 32 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand To create interesting effects in a pattern, it is possible to unlink the X-Envelope triggers from the note trigs. When doing so, the X- Envelope of the selected parameter will be replaced by the one entered on the [SEQ] keys.

  • Page 33: Pattern Settings

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand hold [DELETE] and press [RECORD]. The patch will be cleared to the default patch. Undo/Redo operations Every single action of the sequencer is undoable. If you are not quite happy with a recorded automation, you can undo it. Hate that change of pitch on the last 4 notes ? Undo it.
  • Page 34 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand To transpose a whole pattern hold [FUNC] and hit [TRANSPOSE], you can select the transposition level with the [NOTE] keys. Use the [SEQ] key to select the octave. Key 8 is the default value. Beat division To set up the pattern beat division, hold [FUNC] and hit [BEAT DIV].
  • Page 35 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand example, or to create weird patterns using different timbres. Go back to normal mode by pressing [MOD NOTE] again. Note that you can't edit the pattern's patch once in Mod Note, for that you will need to go back to "normal" player mode. You can check weither or not a note is a Mod Note by pressing [MODNOTE] key, if a note is purple, then it's a Mod Note.
  • Page 36 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Randomizer Mono features several randomizing features to assist the musician's creative process. They allow users to explore the depth of Mono's synthesis engine. There are different randomize options : randomize page, step, parameter, accent, slide, and Mod Note.
  • Page 37 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand To randomize pitch, hold [FUNC] + [TEMPO], and hit the [PATTERN] key. Step Dice Step dice will take all the trigs of a selected range and randomly reassign them to a new position. Just like the pitch randomizer it is contextual.
  • Page 38 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand other way, to the desired upper value. On releasing [FUNC], the parameter will be randomized. Randomize a step range To randomize a range of step, hold [TEMPO] + [FUNC], hold the [SEQ] starting the range, and then press the [SEQ] ending the range, release, and voila ! It will randomize all parameters of mixer, filter and envelope section.

  • Page 39: Project Settings

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Project settings First things first, let's be honest - editing settings on Mono is not the best user experience. There is no way to make the process easy without a display, so you either need a good memory, or you need to keep the manual close.
  • Page 40 10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand the cut-off parameter has an internal value range of 0 to 100 (chill out geeks, it is 16 bit internally). The physical position of the pot is at 80 and you load a program with a stored value of 20.

  • Page 41: Updating Firmware

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Update and calibration Updating firmware To update the software, simply put the "mono_mk2_update.bin" file in the root folder of the SD card, then press [PATTERN] + [RUN] when turning on the synth. The update will start, the [SEQ] LED strip will start to blink.

  • Page 42: Midi Implementation

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand normally and set the resonance at desired maximum level (best way is to turn down both osc levels, hold a note and increase resonance until you are happy with the self-oscillation level). When you're done, press [RUN], the resonance maximum will be saved.

  • Page 43: Program Change

    10/20/23, 11:01 AM Norand Release Filter Follow On/Off Filter Envelope Amount Active X-Mod Rate Oscillator 1 Freq Active X-Mod Amount Oscillator 1 Detune Active X-Env Attack Oscillator 1 Wave Active X-Env Decay Oscillator 1 Volume Active X-Env Amount FM Amount...

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