I’ve been curious about the Organelle for a few years. It’s clearly very powerful, but I never pulled the trigger. For some reason I just realized that it has MIDI out and find myself intrigued again - could it be used as a polyphonic generative/algorithmic/whatever MIDI sequencer/controller?
I didn’t immediately see any patches on patchstorage for similar purposes, but that didn’t really surprise me as I imagine most people use the Organelle for sound generation.
Perhaps some of this is more of a PD question, but I don’t really know how PD interacts with the MIDI jacks on Organelle.
If this is possible I’m fine building my own patches. While I’ve not used PD before, I’m confident that I can figure it based on my experience with modular synths and as a software engineer.
Basically what I would love to know is:
- Can I send multiple notes at the same time (or at different times, but overlapping) to a single MIDI channel on the Organelle MIDI out?
- Would it be possible to make polyphonic patches where it can tell if a particular note is currently on from another part of the patch, so it can choose a different note to play?
So there is something you’re looking for but it’s not a “standalone” patch. Its used in ORAC (orac is a patch that turns organelle into a multi patch system).
Anyway the patch is called notegen.
You can select the probability 0 - 100% of each notes chance to trigger C C# D D# E F G G# A A# B. You can choose between 1 2 or 3 octaves up or down.
It can be monophonic or polyphonic up to 4 voices if i recall correctly. Cant recall the rest of its options.
But with this being used in orac system gives you a lot of control.
Orac works by running in serial or parallel for what you want to do id run parallel.
Youre given 10 blocks to work with A1 → A2 → A3
B1 ->B2 → B3 → B4
C1 → C2 → C3
These 3 chains can be assigned their own midi, A = midi 1 / B = midi 5 / C = midi 9 for example.
You could do something like
A (midi channel 1 controlling external synth)
A1 (notegen) → A2 (empty) → A3 (empty)
B (midi channel 5 controlling orac synth/sampler module)
B1 (notegen) → B2 (synth/sampler patch) → B3 (delay patch) → B4 (empty)
C (Midi channel 9 controlling external bass or drums)
C1 (notegen) → C2 (empty) → C3 (empty)
The only limit would be the CPU (hence the empty slots) but i dont recall the notegen being an issue. Only if you run multiple process heavy synths, effects or utility patches
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Thanks! I’m vaguely familiar with ORAC (from googling around and reading things), and will look at it more. But I’m not really looking for an existing patch like notegen… while it looks interesting, I’d probably prefer to write my own.
So I’m still not sure… is sending multiple notes out on a single MIDI channel possible (or feasible) on Organelle via either PD or ORAC? Or would there be serious limitations?
I’d love, for instance, to create a sequencer (using randomization, logic modules, etc.) to control my 1010 lemondrop (4 voices on one MIDI channel) or other synths.
That is definitely possible. PD can output basically any stream of MIDI messages you could think of. Notes are created with a note on message and ended by a note off, so you can generate an arbitrary amount of polyphony on a single channel or across multiple channels (if your synthesizer supports it).
It is also possible to create a patch that is aware of what another part of the patch is outputting (though a bit less straightforward than with a traditional language like C or Python).
Just to add another yes. A midi note is a number so very easy to do maths things based on number, e.g. I have random note from a scale based on a root note being played (as scale notes are just number intervals), note priority is straightforward in PD as said above, can do euclid patterns and other rhythms or out a chance of their being no note etc.
Stuff with array and lists is nice. Such as putting continual list of last notes played in an array - so you can stop random and use this when you like something (i.e a bit like Marbles).
There’s some good youtube videos on some of this. Download PD on and have a play.
I have stuff can share that does some of all this. Problem is limiting it to something defined as so many options of how to do generative!
I would love it if you could share some of your generative patches! Thank you in advance!
On Patchstorage: Squares and Getting Randy. They’re generative (not polyphonic).