shoal

Shoal v1.3.0 - every track can now have its own clock.

• Per-track clocks - each track has a new Clock input on its Routing page (first entry). Leave it on None and the track follows the master clock exactly as before. Assign a bus and that track steps on its own pulses, so one Shoal can sit in several time worlds at once: a track on a clock divider, another on a euclidean source, the rest on the master. Rate still applies against the track's own clock (x1 is one step per pulse), Run and Freeze hold it, and Reset restarts it on its next pulse. Clock out stays the master's clock.
• Clearer Clock source wording in the manual: External means a bus, which can be a physical input or another algorithm's output.
• Cleaner start-up - Shoal now clears all of its own memory when it loads.

Presets and patches from earlier versions load unchanged; every track's new Clock input starts at None. Shoal now uses all 241 parameters the NT allows.

Shoal uses disting NT plug-in API v13, introduced in firmware 1.15.0. Use firmware 1.15.0 or newer.

1. Download shoal-plugin.zip below.
2. Unzip it at the root of the disting NT SD card.
3. Restart the module or remount the card, then add Shoal.

The archive installs shoal.o at /programs/plug-ins/ormermodular/shoal.o. No compiler or development toolchain is required. Manual: ormermodular.github.io/shoal/nt.

Shoal v1.2.1 — a timing fix: divided rates now land on the downbeat.

• Divided rates on the beat — tracks at a divided Rate (/2, /4, /8 and the rest) used to step one clock early: a /4 track against an external 16th clock sat a 16th ahead of the kick, and after a reset it played a short pickup before settling off the beat. Divided rates now step on the first clock of each group, so /4 lands with the downbeat from the very first step and /2 sits on the beat rather than the off-beat. Fractional rates (×1.5, ×1.25 and friends) now put their double steps on the beat too. Average speeds are unchanged.

Presets and patches from v1.2.0 load unchanged.

Shoal uses disting NT plug-in API v13, introduced in firmware 1.15.0. Use firmware 1.15.0 or newer.

1. Download shoal-plugin.zip below.
2. Unzip it at the root of the disting NT SD card.
3. Restart the module or remount the card, then add Shoal.

The archive installs shoal.o at /programs/plug-ins/ormermodular/shoal.o. No compiler or development toolchain is required. Manual: ormermodular.github.io/shoal.

Shoal v1.2.0 — MIDI, a new CV output, end-of-sequence, and six new ways to walk a pattern.

• MIDI note out — each track can drive an external synth or DAW over MIDI, one note at a time, with its own channel. Velocity and destination (Breakout, Select bus, USB, Internal) are global settings shared by every track.
• MIDI clock in — lock Shoal to realtime MIDI clock instead of CV, with Start/Continue/Stop transport support, as an alternative clock source alongside the internal clock and external CV.
• Currents — a slow, smooth, seeded 0–10V drift CV per track, for filter cutoffs, VCA levels or send amounts. Repeats exactly with the seed, moves at the track's own rate, and a follower generates its own current rather than inheriting its source's.
• End-of-sequence — a 5V trigger per track, firing every time it completes a full Length cycle, for all 15 Direction modes including the ones with no fixed loop shape of their own.
• Six new Direction modes — Stride (Hopscotch), Gravity, Converge, Diverge, Skitter and Anchor, alongside the original nine.
• 29 Rate values — eight new non-integer ratios (/5.3, /2.6, /1.5, ×1.25, ×1.3, ×1.5, ×2.6, ×5.3), and the whole Rate dial reordered into true ascending order.

Presets and patches from v1.1.0 load unchanged, with one exception: because the Rate dial was reordered, an old preset's Rate parameter may land on a different speed at the same dial position — check each track after loading and reset Rate if something sounds off-tempo.

Shoal uses disting NT plug-in API v13, introduced in firmware 1.15.0. Use firmware 1.15.0 or newer.

1. Download shoal-plugin.zip below.
2. Unzip it at the root of the disting NT SD card.
3. Restart the module or remount the card, then add Shoal.

The archive installs shoal.o at /programs/plug-ins/ormermodular/shoal.o. No compiler or development toolchain is required. Manual: ormermodular.github.io/shoal.

Shoal v1.1.0 — four tester-driven additions. Presets and patches from v1.0.0 load unchanged.

• Reseed trigger input — a bus input where each rising edge reseeds everything, landing at each loop origin. Built for pulses (the Seed CV input wants held steps instead).
• Per-track output voltages — Gate volts (1–10V), Pitch scale (5–200%) and Pitch offset (−10…+10V) per track, for vintage-style gear, LZX-standard video synthesis, or non-1V/oct voices.
• Shift — rotate a track's whole pattern (notes, gates, timing) by up to ±63 steps, non-destructively. On a follower, this makes a true canon.
• Frozen clock out: Runs / Stops — choose whether Clock out keeps running during a Freeze (default, new) or stops with everything else (the old v1.0.0 behaviour).

Shoal uses disting NT plug-in API v13, introduced in firmware 1.15.0. Use firmware 1.15.0 or newer.

1. Download shoal-plugin.zip below.
2. Unzip it at the root of the disting NT SD card.
3. Restart the module or remount the card, then add Shoal.

The archive installs shoal.o at /programs/plug-ins/ormermodular/shoal.o. No compiler or development toolchain is required. Manual: ormermodular.github.io/shoal.

Shoal v1.0.0 — the first public release. An 8-track generative melody sequencer for the Expert Sleepers disting NT. Grown, not written: every melody derives from a seed, nothing is stored, nothing is destructive.

Shoal uses disting NT plug-in API v13, introduced in firmware 1.15.0. Use firmware 1.15.0 or newer.

1. Download shoal-plugin.zip below.
2. Unzip it at the root of the disting NT SD card.
3. Restart the module or remount the card, then add Shoal.

The archive installs shoal.o at /programs/plug-ins/ormermodular/shoal.o. No compiler or development toolchain is required. Manual: ormermodular.github.io/shoal.