ORCA Sequencer Intro (Experimental Livecoding!)

[@narFsnw]

Found your video right after installing ORCA and realizing that "Omg, This is incomprehensible! I need a tutorial for this." Then a hour later, I was jamming. Thanks a lot for that!!

[@produccionesabuela8533]

That Dwarf Fortress background is sweet AF.

[@098765432qwertyuiop]

withdraws from society...

[@DevineLuLinvega]

Oh wow, wow. Thanks Allie for making this :)

[@alliewayaudio9108]

No, thank you for your amazing softwares! You are very generous releasing such cool creations to the world, and I am really happy you like the video - I plan on doing some more freeform jams in ORCA soon (with explanation of course), and maybe a more complete demonstration too once I learn stuff more xD Keep up the amazing work! ^^

[@DevineLuLinvega]

Between two games of Dwarf Fortress huh?

[@alliewayaudio9108]

@@DevineLuLinvega Of course, hehe! There should be a mod that lets you shoot giant E's and W's at your poor defenseless dwarfs, muahaha >:D Though, I suppose they'd have far more problems than that if their ascii world turned into an ORCA program - It'd probably make for some killer black midi though! :P

[@dorelx3541]

@@alliewayaudio9108 Or maybe dwarf fortress should have a MIDI Out...

[@daveknapik]

Thanks! Don't worry about it being informal, I liked it. It felt like I was hanging out with a friend and nerding out over cool shit together. :)

[@alliewayaudio9108]

I like that analogy, it's a nice vibe to go for :)

[@melancholerik]

Wow, in a couple of minutes you managed to make me finally understand how this works. I thought ORCA was cool from the first time I've seen videos of it, but I wasn't quite sure how to make stuff work up until now. Tried reading the documentation, but it felt as minimal as the app itself. I really needed to see this stuff explained on examples to get a proper grasp on it. Already tried to hook it up to VCV rack and I can't wait to play around with ti more over the weekend! This is great. You are great. Thank you!

[@melancholerik]

Oh and I forgot to mention - you have such a pleasant voice! I could listen to you talk about literally anything. So soothing!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

@@melancholerik Thank you so much for the very kind words / compliments! I am really happy to introduce people to the fun world of livecoding, and be sure to stay tuned for my further ORCA vids (I'm working on a series covering every single letter in ORCA!). I also plan to make some vids on TidalCycles, another experimental livecoding environment, which will be lotsa fun :) And I'm glad somebody likes my voice, I hate it, haha :P

[@jastaneim9252]

ORCA is a programming language-as esoteric one, used to produce sound. Don't ask me how it works, I have no idea.

[@dzanot]

don't take this down! it _is_ professional!

[@chromosundrift]

This is the best thing on the internet! Seeing the discovery and learning process is so disarming and delightful.

[@grunkgrunk]

This is an incredible introduction to Orca. 20 minutes and now I can jam out some fun sequencers. THANK YOU!

[@mattgrimaldi13]

Thanks for the nice video. For the information of those learning and otherwise did not notice; Since the date of this video, F has been updated with input left and right (whereas in this video both inputs are on the right).

[@ryanjacobs5362]

I don't normally comment on videos... but just wanted to leave my regards. This was super helpful in getting me started. This should be linked on their web page!

[@ezzong]

What the hell, your supposedly "informal" video turns me from being scared of Orca and didn't have any idea into jamming with for weeks. You didn't bore us with theories instead giving a direct musical example that is tempting to be tried also. Thank you and bless you

[@randomizer]

Thanks a lot for this great introduction! You make ORCA very graspable and simple to get started with. I like that you try things out and adjust as you go along - it somehow actives a more engaged learning process, which is really helpful.

[@richardseymour6091]

thanks for this! this environment is wild, but I wasn't sure what I was seeing in the demos until yours.

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Glad to help! Hoping I didn't spoil the mystique too much :P

[@AA-gl1dr]

This looks like it can make absolutely beautiful patterns. Thank you for sharing

[@imwaiting]

this is very helpful, it’s exactly the tutorial I needed, awesome job friend!

[@greyguy2]

thank you! i wouldn't have had so much fun playing around with orca if i hadn't seen your tutorials

[@AtlasMvm]

thanks for introducing me to this software! this is awesome. your channel is super underrated!!

[@jun0_]

your voice is so soothing

[@MaurizioDiBerardino]

Thank you for this tutorial Allie, just downloaded the software (and donated a tiny bit to support it) and this video is a really informative introduction! ORCA seems to be really interesting, looking forward to have some time free to make experiments...

[@Notester82]

Holy heck, thank you very much for creating this introductory video to ORCA, it's such a cool-looking program~ OUO

[@eriktrips]

Thanks for leaving this up. I downloaded ORCA, looked at the "complete guide" on the github page, scratched my head, and bookmarked the tutorial video links. How wonderfully nerdy a generative tool! Gonna hook it up to SunVox first, because the one thing SunVox is missing (so far..) is a way to create structured random events.

[@pfheoahfoej]

I'm so happy to have found this video! I've been seeing GIFs of this program on twitter and really, wanted to try it, thanks a bunch!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

No problem, happy it helped :)

[@pemungkah]

Great little tutorial. I bounced off it the first time, but this makes me want to go back and give it another shot. Thanks!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

No problem, keep at it, it's totally worth it :D

[@kriskeogh7809]

Thank you! You are so good at explaining complex stuff simply. thanks!

[@MarimbaMaurice]

This is so amazing! Thanks for making this video, definitely want to try it now!

[@erikjensen4183]

Thanks so much for this vid, it was the only one I could find that actually started with the basics, plus I really liked the way you explain things. Imma sub

[@bwah9481]

We're generating little easts... now that's something you don't hear everyday

[@raphaelforment7668]

My first comment on KZbin so far: I would love to see more introductory videos and tutorials if you feel like it. Thank you very much for this video! You made me reinstall Dwarf Fortress also..

[@alliewayaudio9108]

I am really happy you liked it! I want to make more videos on ORCA, maybe even a little video on each function/letter would be fun to do soon, stay tuned :) I'm just glad the video wasn't a total failure despite it's impromptuness - and if it made you reinstall Dwarf Fortress then it was a major success, haha :D

[@Nomo_Popo]

@@alliewayaudio9108 I would gladly be a patreon subscriber if you did a video on each function, but only if you have fun making them

[@alliewayaudio9108]

@@Nomo_Popo Oh wow! I'll need to think about that - not sure how I feel about Patreon, but I will mention in the description of future vids if it's something I end up trying. Either way I plan on making a video exploring each function because I think it will be fun to do, ehe :P

[@Nomo_Popo]

​@@alliewayaudio9108 Sweet :) Lookin forward to em! Thanks again 🤘

[@squim222]

Hey, I really appreciate these videos. Got me immediately interested in trying this software. I hope you decide to pick it up again! I'm ready for the advance course!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Glad you enjoy them! :) I'm going through a rough patch at the moment but hope to complete the alphabet series in the near future - stay tuned!

[@JAGxTERA]

Thanks for taking the time to show this off.

[@AsbjornOlling]

16:35 friendly correction: you say that "orca uses 36 bit" but what you actually mean is that "orca uses base 36". "base 36" means that you have 36 symbols for numbers (like our normal system is base 10) "36 bit" would typically mean that you have 36 bits to represent a number, which gets more complicated but generally means that you can represent numbers between 0 and 2^36 (in the case of unsigned integers). I think most viewers understood it correctly, but I just wanted to get the right terms out there :) thanks for the tutorial! it was super helpful

[@maxime22000b]

Thank you very much for your video ! It was very useful for me to understand how orca works !

[@GoldryBluszco]

would love to learn more about this! this software speaks to the pure data part of my brain, and the tracker part of my brain in the most satisfying way

[@DevineLuLinvega]

It was inspired by both-

[@alliewayaudio9108]

I know right - it's super satisfying and minimal, makes me happy - planning to do more in-depth vids on it in the future :)

[@sensemusicofficial]

orca is very very cool .. i really enjoy it

[@whynotanyting]

Crazy how simple it is to get some really complex beats and melodies.

[@mcmire]

Hey, this was really neat! I had no clue this existed so thanks for showing this off. It reminds me of Pure Data / Max but in a text editor form, which is maybe better? That north/south/east/west thing is absolute genius. The fact that this only spits out MIDI makes a ton of sense, too - seems like it would allow you to combine this with other software/hardware really easily, which is very smart as well. Anyways, really nice video (you have a very pleasant voice) and I would definitely love to see more experiments!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Glad you enjoyed it! It's a super clever software, and there have been some recent exciting additions too! More vids are coming very soon :)

[@jj53368]

Thank you for this! Superbly explained and I'm so excited to start playing with it

[@justinknox773]

please keep this video up, this is super helpful!!!

[@matiskeynell]

great video! looking forward to more of these

[@magoz__]

Thank you, I really enjoyed watching the video! It helped me understand ORCA.

[@alliewayaudio9108]

I am glad it was helpful and not confusing, hehe :)

[@davidneto1660]

Very nice run through. Thank you.

[@instasquid]

It may not be up to your standards, but it was very useful! I've had Orca sitting on my hdd waiting for me to get time to learn it and this has helped a lot. Thanks.

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Thanks a bunch - I wanna do more for sure now :)

[@ozhalljr]

Very soothing voice Allie! Thanks for the tutorial.

[@MilanJ]

The mic is fine, in my opinion.

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Thanks for the feedback, I was worried about audio quality but I'm just glad people can understand me, haha :P

[@michaellonchar6863]

I need to get this now, you could so much its crazy

[@eduardo_dito]

Thank you so much, this was very helpful for starting with ORCA

[@alliewayaudio9108]

No problem :)

[@beatsbykabuki]

Wonderful video! Thank you for introducing me to Orca

[@alliewayaudio9108]

You're very welcome :)

[@scottmetoyermusic8449]

This was a huge help - thank you!

[@els1f]

Wow, that was well explained! This definitely cemented that orca is not for me, but it seems like a cool thing for other people 😁 it's definitely interesting! Great video 👍

[@HJP202]

Thank you for this, it was extremely helpful and gave me a good starting point

[@disxiple_113]

This is so cool. I was just looking into tidal cycles but this seems easier. :)

[@alliewayaudio9108]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Tidal isn't too hard (the hardest part is installing!) - I plan on making a video on Tidal soon too! :D

[@torotumbo]

some ppl sends midi to Tidal with ORCA so you could do both

[@adam_sporka]

A sweet concept, thanks for showing it!

[@FemiFleming]

Incredibly helpful! would definately reccomend doing more tutorials!

[@dimensive_mk]

Thorough and clear, thank you!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Appreciate it :)

[@michaelkohlhaas4427]

*Hope you're doing fine. Keep us posted!*

[@TheCellCH]

This was very educative thanks. I wish you would have shown what you set up in your sound programm that takes the midi input

[@alliewayaudio9108]

This is a good point, thanks for the suggestions! The setup is honestly pretty boring for this vid though - just a simple plucky west coast patch with the synth Aalto on channel 1 (just a small modification of the default patch), and a sample pack of the TR-606 drum machine on channel 2. In future videos I'll go a lil more in depth on what is going on behind the scenes though :)

[@DevineLuLinvega]

Congrats on the 10K views allieway :)

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Thanks so much! I didn't expect this video to take off like it did, guess it means I should get off my butt and make more vids! Thanks for all your support/friendlyness, you guys are awesome :D

[@cnidariantide4207]

It sounds like you have a really good keyboard!

[@datashat]

Thanks for the concise info, I'm going to buy this immediately!

[@Nomo_Popo]

Thank you so much. Also, informal just like this may be better! Might not be as fun if you 'straightened up and made it professional'. This totally works.

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Nice! Informal is fun and less stressful anyways, because I don't have to restart the video if I don't get it perfect in one take, hehe :)

[@FasaniCorp]

Allie is possible that you share somewhere your text examples from Orca ? I started with it and find your lessons very enjoyable. I was just wondering if it's possible to copy and paste from a text repository somewhere :) Thanks, keep this series on, they are very cool!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

That's a really good question! I don't have any copies of the patches I use in my videos sadly, but I'll consider doing that in the future - though I suppose it's better to learn by building the patch along with me, instead of copying and pasting it! Plus you can add your own twists that way :) By the way, if you download the "examples" file from the ORCA github, I created one of them, the shift register setup. Give it a try ^^

[@KathODonnell]

thank you, that was really useful. makes me want to try it out

[@alliewayaudio9108]

You're very welcome, and you should, it's tons of fun! :D

[@martinrowland67]

thanks for sharing. i have come in cold and this is a great place to launch from. cheers

[@AndrewJohnClive]

Thank,you so much for this, brilliant! I’m hooked!🐴

[@PFZ]

Excellent intro video! Thank you.

[@chrisben6492]

this is a pretty cool tutorial!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

I'm happy you think so, more where that came from ^_^

[@mntbighker]

Two things confusing to newbies seem to have changed since this video. It seems if you put a 1 in after the D operator it stops looping. And also A and B operators seem to have had clocks built in, but that has since been removed. So if you see old videos where the B operator seems to be mysteriously looping through a range with nothing above it, that behavior seems to have been removed.

[@zumomoli8013]

also U is now Euclidean sequencer not U-turn

[@Etowner]

Thanks alot! Very useful!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

No problem, glad it helped! ^_^

[@noisk8]

greetings from Colombia, first thank you for sharing the knowledge, and install orca and put it to run but I still can not get it to sound, I use linux (linuxmint) I must do some previous configuration to start the sound.

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Oh no, I'm sorry you're having issues making ORCA work! I'm not a linux user, but you might wanna try reaching out to hundred rabbits (the creators of this software) on twitter (@hundredrabbits), they are very responsive! Also, I assume you know this, but just to make sure, ORCA doesn't make any sounds on it's own, it only sends MIDI messages, so you need to make sure it's connecting correctly via midi to whatever program you want it to control! Not sure how this works on linux but I'd definitely talk with @hundredrabbits! Sorry, I wish I could be more helpful, but I'm really glad you liked my videos, and I hope you're able to get ORCA working!

[@undawn1]

Hi there. Very nice tutorials ... I hope there will come some more of this. I'm really interested in ORCA and maybe I will look like a total noob, but ... how does the BPM and the Frames relate to each other? I mean, how many frames are one beat ... or do I unterstand something fundamental totally wrong?

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Hey, glad you liked the tutorials! :D That's a great question, there are exactly 4 frames per "beat", though you can use various functions ("D", for example) to create all sorts of subdivisions of the frame rate, so you're not at all limited to "4/4" time divisions - the "bpm" unit is just for ease of use when adjusting the frame speed in a more musically familiar way. You can adjust BPM with the "" keys. Hope this helps!

[@undawn1]

Thanx ... that helped.

[@eerieear]

Is the briefly displayed function list available anywhere ? I could not find it in the ORCA page. Thanks for the video is very clear and very cool all the best !

[@alliewayaudio9108]

No problem! :) An up-to-date function list can always be found on the ORCA github page: github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca

[@eerieear]

@@alliewayaudio9108 Thank you ! I just saw it on the readme , pasted the contents here, such a cool video, Testing some stuff now. Thanks a lot !

[@DevineLuLinvega]

@@eerieear You can also do `ctrl/cmd+G` to display the list in orca itself if you have a somewhat recent build :)

[@eerieear]

@@DevineLuLinvega Thanks ! Yes I found that option , cheers !

[@reneanthony9342]

this is amazing! i am actually trying to get ORCA to work but for some reason i am getting no sound output. i have loopmidi installed and it is selected as my output but it isnt working. is there something i missed? running windows 10.

[@crnkmnky]

Did you ever find a solution?

[@h6tuoycinos]

Thank you for this very important tutorial. May I ask you what did you type around 13:07 when you said "make it clocked"? I struggle to find a way to make that lower case 'x' occur just like you did.

[@tiamat9874]

can you elaborate, however, I believe you mean the Delay she placed 2 spaces above the lower case 'x' and the 2 which was on the right of the Delay (d)

[@eerieear]

------ Toggle Guide cmd/ctrl + G ------ A add(a b): Outputs sum of inputs. B bounce(rate mod): Outputs values between inputs. C clock(rate mod): Outputs modulo of frame. D delay(rate mod): Bangs on modulo of frame. E east: Moves eastward, or bangs. F if(a b): Bangs if inputs are equal. G generator(x y len): Writes operands with offset. H halt: Halts southward operand. I increment(step mod): Increments southward operand. J jumper(val): Outputs northward operand. K konkat(len): Reads multiple variables. L loop(step len val): Moves eastward operands. M multiply(a b): Outputs product of inputs. N north: Moves Northward, or bangs. O read(x y read): Reads operand with offset. P push(len key val): Writes eastward operand. Q query(x y len): Reads operands with offset. R random(min max): Outputs random value. S south: Moves southward, or bangs. T track(key len val): Reads eastward operand. U uclid(step max): Bangs on Euclidean rhythm. V variable(write read): Reads and writes variable. W west: Moves westward, or bangs. X write(x y val): Writes operand with offset. Y jymper(val): Outputs westward operand. Z lerp(rate target): Transitions operand to input. * bang: Bangs neighboring operands. # comment: Halts a line. part of the readme file @ github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca/blob/master/README.md

[@DevineLuLinvega]

Congrats on the.. 85K views!

[@solemngreyghost]

super informative, thank you!

[@goblinpiper]

This was really really helpful thanks!! :D

[@watergategaming5639]

Incredibly useful

[@Nicholicious89]

Thank you for the video, please do keep it posted. Nice overview of the program / language. Do I need to find a computer from 1982?

[@comoperderamigos]

Hey there, love the video. Do you mind if we use the sounds you make starting on 14:15 in an episode of our podcast?

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Of course! I'd appreciate if you credit me in the podcast, but other than that you are totally free to use it however you'd like! Makes me wish I spoke Spanish though :P

[@comoperderamigos]

​@@alliewayaudio9108 Thanks. I'll link to the video and your channel!

[@alliewayaudio9108]

@@comoperderamigos Awesome :D

[@workflowinmind]

Thanks!! I love your voice!

[@images-in-studios4610]

thanks for the discover ..... really good.

[@Veso266]

Thanks a lot for this video, now how do I setup ORCA to play any sound I installed loopMIDI port but still hear no sound I don't have real MIDI hardware but would realy like to use ORCA through the speakers (I can play MIDI or XM or MOD files fine with OpenMPT so I guess I have some virtual MIDI then, just don't know how to hook ORCA to it) Thanks

[@robertboran6234]

Hello. This is really nice stuff. How do you setup the midi. I use the terminal to add terminal.io.list() to see my midi and it is empty. I also have Pure Data installed. I would like to use Pure Data with Orca.

[@DevineLuLinvega]

Hi Robert. Are you on windows? If so, you need to install LoopMidi, if you're on OSX, you must go in Midi Device Setup, and activate the IAC Driver icon. You can send UDP and OSC to PureData, that's pretty simple :) github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca#udp

[@robertboran6234]

@@DevineLuLinvega Thank you very much ! i will setup LoopMidi. This is a brilliant piece of software. Thanks for sharing.

[@DevineLuLinvega]

@@robertboran6234 Enjoy!

[@larsdegaard4717]

Nice intro! Thank you :) BTW, to find a midi device ctrl + .

[@forevertraxx]

Great Tutorial! More please :)

[@TeaWithWarriorsChnnl]

Thanks for the intro tutorial! I'm a total newbie to live coding and I was able to follow along with your examples. ORCA seems really powerful for doing the kind of sequences I want. However, it seems like ORCA was not sending out MIDI note-off messages properly because I keep getting stuck notes on my synth. Any advice on what can be adjusted to fix this? Thanks

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Huh, that is really strange! I've never had problems with ORCA not sending note-off messages, so it could potentially be an issue with the way you're connecting them. What kind of interface are you using, and where are you sending the midi messages? Or are you sending the midi to another software synth? Honestly though I'd probly want to reach out the the devs (@hundredrabbits on twitter), they know the technical side of ORCA (midi guts and all), and should definitely be able to help :)

[@TeaWithWarriorsChnnl]

@@alliewayaudio9108 I'm sending MIDI out to my Arturia MatrixBrute via the USB connection to the synth. Now that I played with it a little more, I think what is happening is somehow another note is being sent out when the bang goes to the off state- the synth plays a new attack, like it's getting a new note with a new ON message.. It takes a few seconds of a sequence for it to happen. I will try ORCA with a software synth or other synth, and see if the same problem happens, to rule out an issue with the MatrixBrute.

[@DevineLuLinvega]

@@TeaWithWarriorsChnnl Let me know how that goes, I'm curious to know. Maybe I can fix this.

[@eabhafrancis]

hmm how do you get the 'U' operand to do that? Mine bangs on a euclidian rhythm

[@blotter-water]

I think this just broke my brain.

[@Zemnmez]

this is really cool but I can't make the program play any sound? I don't really get the whole interaction with MIDI... feel very dumb

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Hey! You're not dumb - it's a little confusing at first. ORCA doesn't make any sound at all, instead it produces MIDI messages. MIDI messages are like instructions which tell a something which does make sounds (like a vst or synthesizer) what notes to play. So, ORCA will send messages to your favorite VST saying "ok, now play a C note at the 4th octave on midi channel 1", and the VST on channel 1 will receive that message and play the C note! So, to make ORCA create sounds, you need to connect it with MIDI to another sound producing program like Ableton, and then start sending messages using the ":" function like I do in the video. Sorry, I know this is all a lil overwhelming but I hope it helps clear things up a little! Please let me know if you need more help! :)

[@Zemnmez]

@@alliewayaudio9108 ah! got it thanks :) i'll look into ableton

[@alliewayaudio9108]

@@Zemnmez Good luck, lemmee know if you have any issues! :D

[@oktopusskills]

help there is no sound coming from the program there is sound in other programs os: Mac

[@kantallive]

Hey, how to connect any sound to ORCA? I can't play any music. What do I need additionally? How to connect Loop Midi or something else?

[@Baukereg]

* Download loopMIDI * Create a new port in loopMIDI * In Orca set the port you just created as the output in the Midi menu * Set the port as input in the software of your choice (Ableton, VCV Rack etc)

[@kantallive]

@@Baukereg so I dont have Ableton... Than how to use this vcv?

[@alliewayaudio9108]

@@kantallive I don't use VCVrack regularly but I think you need to add a "MIDI" module from the core set. The rest of the instructions Baukereg gave should be the same :) If you're having trouble, make you're starting things in this order: LoopMIDI > Orca > VCV. Good luck!

[@ydalir]

Thank you for uploading this! I am eager to try playing around with it myself! I am trying to follow along, but I notice that only ";" seems to give me any sound. Do you have any idea why the other IOs like ":", "%", etc. are failing to produce any noise for me?

[@zumomoli8013]

; is to send udp messages so i guess you use pilot together with orca to use : u need a synthesizer connected (and chosen as output in orca) to receive midi messages oder a midi looper program to send midi to e.g. ableton

[@dosentaste4929]

hey I would like to use Orca together with Abelton, but i dont know hoh that is possible. i have installed loopMIDI but i have know idea what it is for. So i would like to know how it all works. if you know a Video or a text that explains me that, i would be very gratefull.

[@dianaweber2213]

Kinda late to the party but thank you a lot for this video!

[@alsauter]

Is there an alphabet/object list somewhere?

[@alliewayaudio9108]

Yes there is! You can find it on the ORCA Github, github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca :)

[@jobaria7605]

this is so cool

[@taaviviikman53]

Can the notes be represented as midi numbers instead of letters? Can I do math with this?

[@mt.borracho911]

Are you triggering ableton midi for the sound/ voice?

[@selcukyusufergen]

Great tutorial! But i can't understand how you made the U-turn command. U is for euclidian rhthym.

[@DevineLuLinvega]

The U operator got removed, but you can create a U turn using the X operator.

[@selcukyusufergen]

@@DevineLuLinvega Thanks, great sequencer btw.