Hey TechnoBear, thank you! Followed you along in Bo's forum ;) There is a lot to wrap my head around first but I will try it out. I have PatchboxOS installed already. Woo, and orac is now integrated as a module! So easy!
Made the mistake of not bringing my Pisound on vacation. Would have been a good time to try this. Ah, well… It’ll be easier once I go home to my controllers. If it works with the Eigenharp Pico, I’ll be a very happy camper!
Hello! You made an incredible work on either the Raspberry Pi and the Organelle! One question: is there a way to display a screen on the raspberry pi like it happens on the Organelle?
you can use the PD osc client, thats works... and you could modify it if you wanted. (this assumes you start X which is not something I'd recommend personally, but it'd be ok for an 'editing' session) Im not supporting a graphics screen at this time for a couple of reasons: a) HDMI - running X windows is too CPU intensive for audio applications on a rPI, and its pretty fiddly on a small hdmi screen which is the norm. (I dont think many will run this kind of application on a rPI connected to a large monitor... certainly I dont) b) I don't really want for this to be seen as a 'computer app' that you run on a computer, rather a standalone instrument , which you just use an 'editor' for to construct racks. c) GPIO LCD/OLED - this is more inline with Orac, and as you say would make it Organelle like - but there are a couple of issues with this. there is no 'standard' , everyone uses different displays depending on their needs... and then do you use touch, or encoders -again there is no real standard, so if I implemented, I could end up supporting a handful of users on different setups - which is a nightmare, not practical for me. also, I have ONE rule, I do not develop for hardware I don't have - simply because I cannot test, and Im not releasing untested software :) I'd guess something like the zynthian (zynthian.org) would be a good match, but as I don't have one its not something Im going to explore. (also, unfortunately it doesnt have audio input, and uses RCA for outputs, which is why I prefer the PiSound) all that said, theres is a full OSC protocol behind Orac, which is how things like Push work - and the whole of Orac and MEC is open source, so someone could create a client to run on a display if they want , and release it to the community - that would be cool. also of course, never say never ... who knows what happens next :)
@@TheTechnobear so I guess that creating ORAC patches in my computer, midi assign in my computer, and then uploading it to the raspberry pi is the way to go then? Also, I'm trying to google for "PD osc client" but I don't know what I'm looking for. Pure Data has a server mode? Can you expand a little bit about this? Thanks!
@@Alberaan while getting the link for the pd osc clients, I just realised someone did do something for android, you can find it here github.com/TheTechnobear/Orac/tree/master/OscClients
@@Alberaan pd has a -nogui flag which means a gui is not created , orac uses this since it does not provide a UI , as on the rPI its designed to be headless (i.e. you dont need to attach a monitor to the rPI) instead we use a UI provided over OSC, which is what you will find in OscClients (see other post). these GUI run on a different computer (from the rPI) , either your phone, or your desktop/laptop
@@TheTechnobear yeah, makes sense. Will need to read more about it to better understand, but I really appreciate your answers. It keeps me going and investigating!
Hi Mark. Thanks again for all your hard work. I love Orac on the Organelle M. You made that my favorite instrument. I got Orac running on my rPi 3 B and I hear them demo drums. I can play midi channel 1 with a keyboard. Everything is working great. I have a usb interface that’s working fine. I have a MEC running but it’s osckontrol and I obviously want to use my Push2. I got the Push working with the organelle but the screen doesn’t show any graphics. Not a big deal because there are graphics on the organelle. My problem besides the Push2 not being the default is that I can’t figure out how to get Pure Data on my pc. So is there a way to switch from osckontrol to Push2? I’m new to this so I apologize if that’s a dumb question Update. Got it working with pd client on the pi itself. I can edit and play midi. I still cant figure out how to switch on pushkontrol instead of osckontrol. The push 2 isn’t lighting up or playing anything. Other midi controllers are working fine. Is there a command or a text to edit to enable push2? I’m hoping to use pi with Orac as a standalone instrument like the organelle. No screen. Just push, pi and interface.
Wow! This is so cool! A quick question if I may - could I use a Focusrite 2i2 interface instead of the PiSound? (The PiSounds are out of stock at the moment.) And use a cheap USB to MIDI cable on the Pi? Cheers!
@@TheTechnobear Coolio! Thanks mate. That would be like a cheap, DIY Organelle! (Edit - Would a Raspberry Pi 3B have enough juice to run Patchbox OS and ORAC nicely? Would it be the interface that would introduce latency?)
Hey Marc, I’m excited to use this! I’m having a few issues though. I followed the instructions exactly on the video, but I can’t seem to access the Orac program. All that happens on restart is it goes back to the previous patch box desktop view. Plus I can’t find any executable orac files anywhere, just a folder under the media folder with an empty sub folder labeled user samples. Any idea what I’ve done wrong? Do I need to be in console view to access it?
Orac runs in the background, there is no view of it on the desktop. when you installed it via the Patchbox config tool, it should autostart.. you should hear drums from the default preset ... if not then i guess install failed? you can restart it using systemctl restart orac it lives in /usr/local/orac
asus eee is not arm, so you'd need to re-build the mec software according to your architecture. its all open source, and already compiling on linux so that should not be too difficult , my repos have instructions - all fairly straightforward stuff. as long as you have setup PD to see your midi controller it will work... so yeah midi over USB works :)
Followed the instructions to the letter, but Orac doesn't start on boot. Any suggestions? Tried the two button press as well, but nothing. Correction. It works, but how do I access the GUI. The video jumps from setting up the Pi with ORAC, to MIDI learn without explaining how to access the GUI.
see the other getting started video... you need to download the remote clients (see description) , the either use lemur (iOS) or pure data client - the later is in the getting started video, but lemur is basically the same.
@@TheTechnobear Thanks for the reply. I have followed the appropriate links only to be confused by the Readme file in the Pure data client section "the PD client will need routeOSC install, this is part of 'mrpeach', which can be installed via deken (see find externals in PD menu)". Not sure what this means.
@@TheTechnobear Thanks again for the reply. Opened Pure Data, went to Help, Chose Find Externals, typed mrpeach in the search bar. Nothing came up. I think I might give up on this. But thanks for trying. The video showing the initial setup of the Pi was great by the way. I now have a Pi that boots up with your initial patch and my MIDI keyboard works fine to accompany it. But , unfortunately that's all.
This is exciting, but I am planning on updating from an original Pi B to a Pi 4 ... I get the impression I ought to wait for PatchboxOS, the usb-C issue and the like to be settled/ sorted first ...
not enough details to say, perhaps something has changed on the OS that is causing failure - you can check the logs using journalctl, or trying to run mec from the command line (so you can see the log on the console ) ... this should yield some insights into what is failing.
@@TheTechnobear Orac and mec now working and active BUT I've never seen the Orac controls on monitors (wired + keyboard on Pi4B 4GB). Is this supposed to come up automatically? I can see the controls in Orac Web Monitor but no response from them.
@@stuzog there is no UI on a monitor, it is designed to be 'headless' or with a controller. basically i wanted something that is more like an instrument... as we have enough 'synths' that use monitors ;)
@@TheTechnobear OK, but in your videos you show a control window. How do I get Orac to show that? At the moment I can see something with Orac Web Control, but nothing responds to my mouse. How do I get it to respond? I'm on a Pi4B 4GB RAM running latest Patchbox OS with a Pisound hat.
@@stuzog I don’t show web browser control. I show a pd patch running on a desktop machine that allows the patch to be controlled - the idea is you create presets this way, and then assign midi controls to parameters… save the preset and then orac with that preset can be used completely standalone.
Amazing work! I have a diy controller with a lot of buttons and some knobs. I will map some buttons to move around in the menu but is there any way i can map 12 of them to play an octave of the keyboard?
@@bugales9055 ? you don't have to use a mouse/keyboard... as I said, you can map CCs to next/prev. all you need to do is to map your buttons to send CCs for these functions, and to send notes when you want to play notes. Orac was designed to be headless, so Ive already done this with my own controllers ;)
blue name you can use the version I did for Bela Salt , basically the same except cv scaling. ( see orac eurorack video) Note: as mentioned on Bela forum the BBB is considerably less powerful than rPI, so you won’t be able to use as many cpu hungry orac modules at once.
actually @alberaan, just realised someone submit a pull request for andriod, so you can find here: github.com/TheTechnobear/Orac/tree/master/OscClients note: ive not used it, so cant help if there are any issues
This is great! Thanks for all the awesome and hard work. Having difficulty with the lemur target hostname bit. I guess there may be something in my setup that doesn’t like to do hostnames in that way. It will work using IP if I look it up in patchbox (ifconfig always seems to be wrong?) but as this changes every time for me I can’t run it without setting up a monitor/vnc to look up what the IP should be. Does anyone know how to set up lemur over usb to the pi instead?
TheTechnobear Thanks for the reply! I have tried with (and without) a full stop , yes. I’m 90% sure I’ve stopped and restarted lemur with these settings too but I’ll double check that I did that with hotspot and mec running too.
ssfnathotmail compiled for arm7 , I guess it’ll work on pizero but no idea on performance levels of piZ compared to 3 ... also as stated the built in DAC is dreadful - so you’ll want another sound card
Taavi Viikman sorry not sure I follow? rPI ( and patchbox) should work with any usb class compliant audio interface. other ‘pi-hats’ might require additional configuration, which should be covered in their documentation.