Converting patches to Orac. Reasonably doable for PD noob?

[Generationloss]

Orac v2 is looking amazing. Some patches I really want to be able to use inside it (apollotone, glass FM… Actually there are hundreds!)…

I have almost zero free time at the moment with family and work being all-consuming…Anyone able to give vague idea of difficulty and time it’ll take for me to learn how to convert patches? Is there a ‘for dummies’ guide?

Thanks

[thetechnobear]

Orac : module developers guide

This thread is for discussion about developing modules for Orac. When I created my first patches for the Organelle, I found I spent a frustrating amount of time patching the UI, and then still lacked featurs I thought end users would ‘expect’ , such as midi control, preset loading/saving. This really was the starting point for Orac… I wanted something I could create modules for quickly, without having to worry about the UI, just concentrate on the module functionality, and get things midi, …

the second video I show how to convert a module, its very slightly different (and easier) in 2.0 , but if you open up a 2.0 patch, you’ll see whats changed fairly clearly.

@Generationloss

Anyone able to give vague idea of difficulty and time it’ll take for me to learn how to convert patches?

the short answer to this is ‘it depends’

writing orac modules is actually easier than writing normal pd patches for the Organelle, since so much is already done for you.

the basic conversion to a module is fairly straightforward, just add parameters to a module.json and wire them in…

the difficulties are:
a) really you need to have a basic idea of how the patch your converting works - coding can never be done blindly… so you know where to feed parameters etc.
b) most organelle patches are not written to co-exist with others, which is what the majority of the video above deals we… its how to make it so that if 2 instances of the same patch exist, that each does not interfere with the other - or if 2 modules have a table called ‘sample waveform’, making sure they don’t mess up.

once you have done one or two modules, it actually becomes fairly quick, because you know exactly what you are looking for… and you can almost mechanically go thru and make the changes.

(“almost” is an important word here, because you need knowledge of the patch to do it , which is why it cannot happen ‘automatically’)

[Generationloss]

Thanks a lot for the links and insights. I’ll check the video out tonight and try to get my hands dirty ASAP. From what you’ve written it sounds like the first steps will be pretty intimidating (like I have zero idea what a module.json is atm!?) but hopefully things will click in the way you describe Cheers!

[Wannop]

Already converted glassfm, did you get my old orac module upload of that? think it’ll probably just about ‘work’ as is in 1.0 form even with 2.0
I’ll have a go at re-converting my previous orac conversions and collapser soon.

[Wannop]

@Generationloss just watch the conversion video, get stuck - then watch it again - then get stuck and watch it again - or ask fer help here

(This is my technique)

[Generationloss]

Ah I somehow missed that glassfm for Orac. Will grab it. Thanks for sharing it!

Thanks for the advice about getting started on Orac conversions, sounds good. No doubt I’ll be back to ask for help shortly
Cheers