How to : Advanced Midi Setup (3.1)

Organelle
62

Alright, I got MIDI output via USB working! The problem, just in case anyone else has the same problem/misconceptions as I had, is two part:

  1. I saw someplace that setting MIDI out to 0 meant omni mode. Perhaps what I saw was for some other patch or module, but It actually means off. I had obviously tried it with the correct MIDI channel, but it still didn’t work because of the second part.

  2. Having an effect on the same chain needs to be before the MIDI sequencer, arp, chord roll, etc. If an effect comes after the MIDI event processor then it blocks the notes. I’m sure there’s a good reason for this, but the solution is to simply put the effect before the MIDI event processor.

Once I got around these issues I realized that Note Thru on the module slots doesn’t need to be on for the sequencer to pass notes to an external MIDI instrument. Is it safe to assume this is for passing along notes from one MIDI module to another (i.e. arpeggiating a sequence)?

Finally, is there any centralized documentation for Orac? I’ve seen the readme and videos on GitHub and read through most of the forum posts. If not, I’d be happy to help work on a manual or wiki of some sort. It’s the least I can do for the privilege of using Orac. Thanks!

63

note-thru
we only need to have note-thru when we want the note messages passed along the change to subsequent modules.

lets look at a solid example:

a1 seq2 → a2 brds mono → a3 basic mono → (chain midi output enabled)

without note thru, just a2 plays (brds mono) , not a3, and no midi is sent out

if i turn note-thru ON, on just a2, we get a2 and a3 play (so we could have a unison effect) but no midi is sent out.
if i turn note-thru ON, on a2 and a3, then we have a2 and a3 play (unison effect) and also midi is sent out as well.

note thru is **off(( by default, since it can create unusual side effects, imagine
seq2 → brds mono → clds
the thing here is clds will respond to note messages by changing its pitch, but this is kind of unexpected by many users… so if have to explain to lots of people to turn note-thru off :wink:

no not yet…
however, Ive just created one on the Orac GitHub that you could start populating :slight_smile:
Home · TheTechnobear/Orac Wiki · GitHub

you should just need to have a GitHub account (which is free) to edit it.

perhaps if you (or anyone that is interested) start creating its structure?
once its basic structure is in place, then this would encourage others to start filling in the gaps?!

I personally, don’t have a lot of time at the moment to do anything on this front, but I will keep an eye on it, and try to proof read or fill in gaps etc.
(e.g. if you somehow markup any open questions you have in the wiki, then I can fill in the ‘blanks’)

I have had a number of requests for documentation, so its definitely something there is an interest in.

I also believe that generally this kind of documentation tends to be better when done by the community, as the developer (me) tend to have a skewed view of what is ‘obvious’ and what is not :wink:
(though I freely admit ive been lax in not even starting it off !)

1 Like
64

Awesome! Thanks for creating the wiki. I have started putting in some pages that apply, and put most of the content from the readme into the ‘Home’ page as a placeholder. I won’t have a lot of time to work on this either, but I can imagine chipping away at it every now and then. Maybe once there’s a little more structure I’ll announce it in a new post and solicit involvement from other members of the community. Cheers!

1 Like
65

Does this work with 4.0 on the org M?
I can’t get midi thru to work with over usb. OP-1 and Keystep individually work. P
lacing the patch_loaded file in system folder doesn’t seem to establish a persistent configuration after reboot. I am using the web interface to edit the SD card if that is pertinent.

66

last time i tried it was working fine …
note: it will only form the connection after you launch a patch.
note2: usb and sdcard configurations are separate. so if present on SDcard will only work for patches launched off sdcard.

after patch is launched, if you log on, can you see the connections with aconnect?

67

Adding my experience (Organelle M OS 4.0):

  • Trying to connect a Midi Fighter Classic and Midi Fighter Twister to the organelle via powered USB hub
  • Putting patch_loaded.sh in the patch directory (in this case ORAC) seems to work, while putting it in the system directory doesn’t. Have to remember to enable the right MIDI channels in ORAC.
  • Oddly, booting up with both devices connected results in no audio for any patches. If I connect the second one after boot, seems to work fine. Haven’t tested with different pairs of devices. Where should I check for audio engine errors?

When it works, it’s pretty awesome.

1 Like
68

odd… you should just edit /sdcard/patch_loaded.sh

orac will save this with the preset.

odd, never see that…
I assume these are usb class compliant midi devices?
(the only reason id expect an issue, would be if these were acting as usb audio interfaces, then this might happen)

sounds like a hardware issue, perhaps making the organelle fail to initialize the internal codec, perhaps due to a power issue?

does it fail if you only use one, not both?

lots of ways to debug…
first connect monito/keyboard and bring up PD in a graphic mode… as you would if editing pd patches - you can then see the pd console, and see if it fails to init audio engine.
also you can then use the ‘test audio’ part of pd, to select audio interface and again test.

my suspicion is these will both fail, as codec is not initialized, perhaps ‘missing’
to debug that, you’d have to check the logs (dmesg) and see whats failing.
perhaps that will give you some clues.

if the codec really is failing to initialize, its probably going to need some more serious linux to track down why… and also to figure out a solution.
your ‘best hope’ is looking on the rPI forums and seeing if someone else has stumbled on this, as it can only really be solved by someone that the Midi Fighter Classic and Midi Fighter Twister (which i dont)

69

Tried a few other MIDI devices and did some more tinkering. Initially the issue was persisting with any two or three devices plugged in simultaneously. The audio issue was a switching of the default PD audio device to one of the devices (though none are audio devices), but it could be switched back to the proper “audioinjector-pi-soundcard” in the PD console. Not a codec issue.

However, overall it seemed to be a problem with those specific ports on the USB hub. Moved to different spots and it works fine. :man_shrugging:

Cheers! :musical_keyboard:

70

hi ladies and gentlemen,
does the midi fighter twister works with orac ?
plug and play style ?

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As far as I know it’s USB class compliant, so it should work. According to Thomann, at least:

72

thanks jaffasplaffa.
i’ll take one, and 'll keep you people in touch on how well it works.

2 Likes
73

hi !
works great.
awesome for performing and twiking.

shame that it somehow glitch when you change songs between presets.
i’ll try to find a sub that deals with it.

1 Like
75

Sorry if this has been answered already but can you use this method while using the two USB ports on the organelle or do you have to use a USB hub?

I’m currently hooking up a QuNexus and a Michigan Synth 16 Channel fader bank on the Organelle M using separate USB ports and a rewritten patch_loaded.sh file though it doesn’t seem to be working.

76

I’m having problems with connecting multiple midi devices, basically the patch_loaded.sh file doesn’t work in any location (root, system, patch).

However I was able to connect all devices through the terminal, so the problem appears to be organelle ignoring patch_loaded.sh…

I’m running latest firmware on Organelle S.

77

It turned out for some reason patch_loaded.sh was missing executable permissions.

Solved with a simple “chmod +x /sdcard/patch_loaded.sh”