ORCA Sequencer - Guided Tour №1 (Rhythm and Math!)

[@mrkdosmil2879]

If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have discovered Orca and it has changed my life, thank you very much.

[@alliewayaudio9108]

This makes me so happy to hear - you're very welcome :)

[@ChrisHahn]

This is SUPER helpful. I'm not a reader at all, and I learn best by watching and repeating what you're doing in another window, so the videos really help me. Plus I suck at math, so seeing examples of how certain functions work make alot more sense to me than randomly trying things. Thanks for putting in the work!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

I'm so glad this helps! I'm tend to be a visual learner also, so I like explaining things in a similar way - it can be frustrating when you're reading and then you try something and it doesn't work the way you expected, which is why I like breaking things into little building blocks visually and then building from there - it's the funnest way to learn, too! :)

[@GoldryBluszco]

This tutorial series has helped me immensely. I've been prototyping ideas quickly in ORCA than translating them into teletype scripts. extremely useful!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

I am really happy they are helping so much! Teletype seems like an incredible tool, I dream of being able to afford a setup with one someday, but this scratches that itch in the meantime, hehe :D Have you messed around with TidalCycles at all? It's another livecoding language I've been quite enamored with recently, I'm thinking of making some vids on it after this series is finished up - it's like a whole new way of seeing rhythm :)

[@DevineLuLinvega]

@@alliewayaudio9108 I'd watch that. Goldry, if you get around to it, I would love to see how you use the Teletype. Are you on lllllll? llllllll.co/t/orca-live-coding-tool/17689/17

[@globanusopp3046]

This might be my favourite new music thing and video series

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Haha, I'm happy you like it! Next one coming soon ^^

[@bcornels]

This one has helped me with a lot of the nuts and bolts problem solving stuff after a few days with orca. Thanks!

[@thefishermenandthepriestess]

Your Orca videos have been such an amazing learning experience! Thank you so much for them!

[@ammvision]

There videos are great and helped me immensely in getting started with Orca. I hope you continue the series!

[@2mbst1]

Thanks! Even though some of the commands have changed in how they're used this was still SUPER helpful.

[@chaotician23]

thanks for this, it's convinced me to try Orca, I'm just setting up with my modular :D

[@Nomo_Popo]

Woohoo! 🙌 'I FRY JAM' might look good on a t-shirt :)) Thx !

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Not sure fried jam is very good though! :P Glad you liked the vid :)

[@sardarian1876]

So. Ducking. Cool. Thanks for these!

[@greentoaster]

loving this orca series!!! thank you

[@DevineLuLinvega]

9:37 Jumper Funnel! github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca/blob/master/TUTORIAL.md#j-funnel

[@attizzoso]

the nerdyest app I've ever seen for making music, I love you

[@Achira]

I find it so odd yet amazing that im both interested in live coding music and dwarf fortress and i stumble upon this video hhahahaha awesome!!

[@michaellonchar6863]

Liked, subbed, and downloaded!! I'm excited for more videos, thank you so much for making these!!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

No problem! I have some really cool patch ideas ready for part 2, will be coming very soon :)

[@stephenmurphy8349]

Great introduction -Thanks so much!

[@kriskeogh7809]

Such a great tutorial. Thanks so much!

[@bebop7]

happy little dorfs in the background

[@alliewayaudio9108]

They're happy, at least until the booze runs out, since I didn't make them any farms/distilleries :P I got annoyed that migrants came and ruined the fun 4 minutes in, I wonder if there's a way to disable those sorts of popups / alerts...

[@jacobtolstrup4261]

@@alliewayaudio9108 I'm curious what is it in the background? A game? :)

[@c0smiq]

@@jacobtolstrup4261 It's dwarf fortress.. my absolute favorite game in 2020 :) google it.. it's awesome!

[@willmeier2785]

thank you very much for making these

[@TheGladScientist]

This is really good, looking forward to the next one in the series!

[@huntergallant8054]

So cool, thanks for making this!

[@davidgottlieb453]

Thanks for the great tutorial! Here is something I am puzzled by: how can I use MIDI note values as data (e.g. to add)? After the : MIDI operator, "C" is a C note and "c" is a C#. But elsewhere in a program, when letters are treated as data, there's no distinction between upper- and lower-cases. So e.g. when I add 1 to "C" I get "d." As a consequence, if I want to compute a value and then pass it to the note argument of the MIDI operator, I can only pass sharp notes. Obviously this limits the musical possibilities a bit....

[@DevineLuLinvega]

I have to do that quite often, I might figure out a way to implement this more simply, but this can be accomplished with a lookup table quite easily. Have you used the T operator before? So instead of adding to C, add to a numeric index that ouputs a cell in a T table.

[@DevineLuLinvega]

Like so: pastebin.com/hmBafRcR

[@davidgottlieb453]

@@DevineLuLinvega Awesome, thanks. Part of my motivation here was to see if I could avoid learning how to create a lookup table, but your explanation is very clear.

[@DevineLuLinvega]

@@davidgottlieb453 Glad to hear! If, further down in your experiments, you stumble on a clever way to implement case switching, let me know. A couple of things that Allieway suggested ended up as part of the specs, so you never know :)

[@alliewayaudio9108]

@@davidgottlieb453 Hey David - Great question! Devine already has covered most of my answers, but I understand where you're coming from on the capital-vs-lowercase thing - it's the reason why, in this video, I said we wouldn't get to melodies until later on - the "T" (track) function, along with the "L" (loop) function, are probably the most important functions in creating melodies using ORCA. I'll be exploring those more in depth, likely in part 3 of the series :) One fun thing to note, btw, is that, while technically the lowercase letters are "sharps", there is a "sharp" for every single note, so you do have a full 8-key diatonic scale to work with (e-sharp is a thing, for example!), basically a C# major scale. Just thought I'd mention :)

[@kindohm]

Thank you, excellent video!

[@PZMaTTy]

Dwarf Fortress too? nice

[@KILLSWITCH4030]

thank you.very helpful

[@Crunchyave]

Thanks for making these tutorials, they are super helpful! One question, the F operator no longer seems to make bangs that output every frame (or maybe I'm using it wrong). Is there a different operator (or group of them) that will output bangs every frame? I can't seem to get apparent 16th notes anything as you're doing at 3:25 with nothing in the operator inputs. Closest I can get is time reduction using the D operator, but that only provides apparent 8th notes.

[@LeonTrimble]

I think I love you. Please Make more...

[@cesarguevara5144]

Is that dwarf fortress in the background?

[@chrisben6492]

Great Tutorial!!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Thank you :)

[@SteeveBjornson]

is that Dwarf Fortress in the background?

[@GivenFailure]

Wow, things have changed

[@mykdubz128]

Hmm... I don't know because basically I only see an editor doing some stuff on a drum sound but to be honest, I was like "nothing's happening here". I only watched how text is being typed into an editor and then being deleted again paired with drum sound. I think I didn't get the point of it. All I think now is that I could do this way easier with another software, for instance Renoise which I use most or similar trackers.

[@masterchain3335]

Small correction: 3 is not triplets, it's just three frames (so if we're thinking of a frame as basically a 1/16 note, then 3 is 3/16, whereas a triplet is a *division* of a beat by 3). Otherwise great tutorial.

[@UsedEQuipmnt]

This base 36 thing confuses me a bit. So, with it the limit for orca numbers stops at 35? But what if I need number 96 to send some midi cc controller number to a synth?

[@robertboran6234]

Is there a way to save the state of your patches in ORCA ? I build some large patches and i would really like to save them, so i can experiment with different patches. I am also thinking if there is a way to locally load some subpatch into a bigger patch so you can mix different patches dynamically on the fly ?. I manage to make something like this using 2 different patches in different locations. One patch (constructor patch) can modify the second patch (action patch) but it is convoluted and it is prone to time synchronization issues. Thanks for the video.

[@alliewayaudio9108]

You can save you pattern at any time by simply pressing CTRL+S - it will save the state of the pattern (all the numbers are saved, along with all functions, as a simple text file). Bringing one patch into another is as easy as copying from one saved patch and pasting into the other, if I'm not mistaken - it's all done via plaintext. I'd recommend utilizing variables to connect two unrelated patches without getting things jumbled, I'll be covering that in a later video! And yes, patches with modify other patches are super interesting! I'm looking forward to covering some of the possibilities there, too ^^

[@robertboran6234]

​@@alliewayaudio9108 Thank you very much ! with W,E,S,N and Z you can activate different subpatches at different time and with different rules but the patch is the same. Using self-modifying properties i think it is possible to add very complex modulation to one existing patch that can morph in time so you can make evolving patches. This can generate complex generative music. Thanks again for your help and i am looking forward to see more videos about this awesome tool.

[@robertboran6234]

@@alliewayaudio9108 I just found out that he updated ORCA 9 hours ago. It has a build in menu for better UI navigation. hundredrabbits.itch.io/orca

[@alliewayaudio9108]

​@@robertboran6234 Yeah, they update almost daily (though their sailboat is on the way to japan for the next 3 weeks now). The new UI is super handy and helps in navigating a lot :) And I'd love to see some of those self modifying patches! I've had thought about similar things myself but it's hard to get it working right - are you using bangable(lowercase) functions to trigger the subpatches? Super clever either way ^^

[@robertboran6234]

@@alliewayaudio9108 I am using bangable functions to trigger the slave patch and i also modify the bangable functions based on rules made by the master patch. I also try to have 2 different master match (1 for modifying the bangable functions in the slave patch) and (1 for modifying the parameters of the slave patch). the two different master patches can have different rules. This can be deeply recursive so you can in fact use multiple layers of master patches modulating other master patches that modulate the slave patches.

[@nickysystem]

Thanks so much!

[@NH-gz2kh]

More vids please!!! :D

[@MrPuff1026]

loosing is fun!

[@bobfluencer]

[@wokaIek]

There is part 2

[@MilanJ]

Im working on recreating the double knot sequencer in Orca, check it out: pastebin.com/r3vVE5tk if you input a 1 on one of the tracks it will propagate it through the track as if it's a shift register. Not sure how I'd use it really but it's a fun puzzle.

[@AtlasMvm]

what's the best way to sync to ableton? i'm sure its possible somehow.

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Good question! As far as I am aware there is not a built-in way to sync ableton and ORCA, though I suppose you could figure out some shenanigans using a midi event in orca and a delay function (D in orca) to send a constant midi pulse to ableton and sync that way. Really, I feel like ORCA is made to work best on it's own, rather than with other things, but I'd look into that if you wanna try syncing them. Good luck!

[@destroyoid]

Is it just me, or did they change the way the operators work like instead of A.. now its .A.

[@destroyoid]

And 'I' can't go backwards 9I1 just outputs 0

[@alliewayaudio9108]

@@destroyoid Good catch! They have been changing quite a bit around! I'll be going over some of these changes in my next video :)