[8hp] That’s No Moon is a generative sequencer that provides a new sequence each day. Every user should get the same sequence to play with on the same date.
It is inspired by a hardware eurorack module by Jonah Senzel called Pet Rock. Whereas Pet Rock generates two rhythms each day based on the phases of the moon, this module uses a random number generator (SFMT) to produce a new sequence each day that has two rhythms, but also a Value and Mod CV signal (not related to the moon, hence the silly Star Wars name).
The components of the module are (top to bottom, left to right):
Seed Display - shows the date for the current generation, or the locked seed value, the background colour indicates the generation flavour
Sequence Length knob - controls how many steps of the generated sequence are played, from 1 to 64
Trig button & input - each button press or trigger input advances the sequence by 1 step
Reset button & input - A button press or trigger input will soft reset the module, which returns the sequence to the first step - note that this is different to a hard reset (the Initialize option in the context menu), which also clears any locked seed and sets the length to 16
Step Value output - This is the main value for each sequence step, typically the V/Oct component of a sequence
Step Mod output + attenuvertor & offset - This is an additional CV value for each step, it might be used as velocity or a filter cutoff for example. This value has dedicated attenuvertor and offset knobs to tune the values.
Rhythms A & B outputs - These outputs produce rhythmic triggers based on the current flavour, trigger A should always fire on the first beat, except in the rANdoM flavour
Last of Sequence output - This will fire a trigger on the last step of the sequence
Flavours
There are 5 possible flavours for a sequence. The flavour affects how the Step value is generated and the length of the Rhythms
Magenta - rANdoM - No discernible patterns
Yella - 3x - 3 beat rhythm - values should tend to ascend
Green - 4x - 4 beat rhythm - 3rd value may be wild
Orange - 5x - 5 beat rhythm - middle 3 values should tend to group
Red - 8x - 8 beat rhythm - values should tend to pair
Seeds
Although the module will generate a new sequence each day, and this is intended to breed creativity. There may be times when you want to keep something. Rather than altering your computers clock, there is a context menu option that will lock in the current seed value.
The seed value is what the RNG uses to produce the sequence. So when this is locked, a new sequence will not be generated the next day.
Once you have locked in a seed, it is then possible to edit the patch.json file and change the seed to your liking. Any integer value should work, you might find it fun to go treasure hunting.
Or, more conveniently, you can save a preset with the seed locked to be able to recall a generation from history.
…and I suppose you might edit the presets lockedseedvalue too…
I very much enjoy seeing the creations of others that use my modules, so as I did with the cowbell, if you find a particularly interesting seed, lock and save it in a preset. Share it here and I will add it as an official VCV Community discoverer in the next plugin release.
Thanks Dan for this great new sequencer. Nice to have another module in the library that offers surprises just by opening it up for the day.
Feature request #1
This module is ripe for having a new panel image load along with the new sequence each time a new seed is chosen. How you’d do that from a dev perspective, I’ll have to leave to you. But I have a few ideas of where the images might come from.
You use your own magic to create a library of No Moon images that come with the module at download.
Open it up to the community to provide you with images. If we all go crazy and flood you with gazillions of AI generated panels, then you choose your favorites for inclusion with the module.
Give users the ability to point to the directory of their choice for the module to choose a panel from.
Could the seed value be “quantized” to choose one image randomly from the total number of images available (e.g. valid image formats in the module directory and the user-chosen folder)? I assume that’d have to happen only once, at first load of an instance of the module, or if the seed were to change on the fly by other means (see second feature request below).
Feature request #2:
Add a jack that allows the user to input a value that gets added to the seed value so that the seed for the patch can be changed. If the jack takes -10.000v to 10.000v (seems like VCV standard is 3 decimal places), and you multiply that number by 1000 before adding it to the seed number, then the user can alter the seed up or down by 20000 points. That should be enough variation for anyone to find something they like. Perhaps that functionality only works when the seed is locked, but is ignored when the seed is coming from the daily value. Or maybe it’s just a -10v/10v knob, not a jack. I can imagine a challenge existing with this idea when people try to send in audio rate signals to change the seed/sequence/image and Rack goes belly up. I suppose it would need some mechanism to stabilize that case, or prevent it entirely.
Here’s my example, keeping with the theme, a green cheese moon!
I like both your feature suggestions, I’ll need to put some thought into them so I can’t promise they will come that soon, but I’ll definitely work on it.
Another possibility; a friend who uses hardware modular but not VCV asked if That’s No Moon has a time machine function, enter any date to get a seed for that day. Similar to auxmux’s suggestion of a date history archive, but slightly different because it could go back further than the module has existed, to some historical date.
One issue with offering any means of peering into future dates (seeds) with the module is that’d kind of spoil the surprise of what’s coming next day.
And an issue with peering far into the past using a date field, what’s the date format for 200000 years ago?
Either way, it’s a great module even without all these complications, so thanks again.
So while I was developing the module, I had context menu options to time travel forwards and backwards, mainly so that I could test the module.
But it does kinda contradict the whole point of the module.
So that’s why I changed it to seed locking instead.
For anyone that really wanted to be able to time travel, it wouldn’t that difficult to work backwards from the locked seed for todays date and figure out the equation. Then you could set any date manually by editing a preset.
The main usability issue with that would then be that when the seed is locked, the panel does not show the date or flavour. I could be persuaded to change that perhaps?
Thanks for that extra info. I hadn’t been keeping up on your dev thread. I see now I suggested things you’ve already been considering. Now that I’ve read about your previous thought process, it does seem paramount to always have a date and color on display. That tells the “story” of the sequence. Otherwise it’s more or less just a looped random sequence which we can get from countless other modules. With That’s No Moon we could have the day Moog released his first synth or the day humans set foot on the moon or whatever, theoretically. Kinda adds a bit of character to a sequence to think about it that way.
The red, yellow and green TNM were added to the patch, then I closed and reopened Rack and added the blue TNM, it has the same seed and params and they are all reset by the same trigger…
But, the blue one is generating a different set of values
Edit: Oh, silly me, the step count was different on the blue one
more testing required
2nd Edit: Definitely some strange inconsistency, its not massive, but its there if you have TNM added from a different instance of Rack. If you close and reopen Rack then they all align again, but this is an issue
While sifting through the On this Day website (moon - Search Results - On This Day), I came across a couple of days in history related to moons. I’m sure there are many more .
1945-03-27 Ella Fitzgerald and Delta Rhythm Boys record “It’s Only a Paper Moon”
1961-05-25 JFK announces US goal of putting a man on the Moon before the end of decade
1969-07-11 David Bowie releases the single “Space Oddity” 9 days before Apollo 11 lands on the moon
1969-07-20 Apollo 11 lunar module lands on the surface of the Moon
1973-03-01 Harvest (UK) and Capitol Records (US) release Pink Floyd’s 8th studio album “Dark Side of the Moon”
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