hey I just realized, this is different for old Norns Orca and the new Dev Orca (+1.4) and that may be why you’re not seeing it. I keep getting confused when I go to use the old ‘ operator. the top post of this thread should probably be changed to reflect this discrepancy as it’s now going to start getting confusing.

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ORCΛ is an esoteric programming language, so confusion and evocation of doubt is the name of the game innit :laughing:

................
...FORGET.WHAT..
.YOU.KNEW.ABOUT.
...PROGRAMMING..
................
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Finally installed dev orca last night, and I’m really excited to dive in more this week. It’s a truly outstanding environment.

Re. the timber engine — are the level and position args working for anyone else when using the | timber command? The first three work fine, but not the last two.

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they are not, and if you want to see something really crazy try and adjust the volume of a sample via the params menu. maybe I’m having an encoder problem, but it jumps around like crazy, then suddenly goes negative at some random interval. you can kind get it to stall at a audible positive value and even when it switches to negative it will hold that value.

gotta say though, I really gave that Esoteric Programming Language idea some thought after @xmacex ‘s post . I really do appreciate the warts, you have to make workarounds, but then some very inspiring things are born from them.

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A patch is in the works to address this issue and a few others. Should be ready for release in the next few days.

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Great! There’s still at least a lifetime’s worth to wade through in the meantime :exploding_head:

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Fyi, I’ve uploaded a utility Orca diatonic scales patch to patchstorage.

The patch calculates scale notes for a given tonic key index and scale mode sequence input.

Change input and you change the scale, e.g. C major (ttsttt), D# phrygian (stttst), etc.

Patch plays example notes from the generated scale. Tested on the standalone Orca electron app.

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I can hear Orca lagging slightly and going out of time when running it locally with a fairly moderately sized patch on a shield installation. This is the latest install from maiden but I don’t know if this is a known issue?

I started working with the @neauoire jamuary patch here and ended up with this. less musical than the original, I think it was maybe a little better before I randomized the D divisions and just worked them by hand. sorry about the levels, still working that out.

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hey all - i just set up a new norns shield and i’ve been testing things out with Orca. any known issue with the latest version of Orca hanging when attempting to load a project that uses a non-default synth engine?

@acampbellpayne Can you explain a bit more by what you mean by “non-default synth engine” and/or share the Orca routine you’re using?

Quick question; would a mac magic keyboard connected with lightning to usb work with Orca on Norns?

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sure! i’m getting a message that i can’t upload files as a new user, so lmk if there’s a better way to share the .pset file than just dumping a big ol’ blockquote in the thread.

short of being able to share the .pset file, the repro steps are pretty simple for me: if i create a new project, set the synth engine to anything besides Timber (e.g. FM7), and save, any subsequent attempt to load the project will result in the norns hanging and requiring a reboot. i’ve tried modifying the “engine_name_index” param manually in the .pset file to no avail, so it’s not immediately obvious to me what other param in the .pset might be causing trouble.

ah… there’s a known PSET bug that I’m working on tracking down. If you can DM me a screenshot of the error and/or file of the routine (or a Dropbox/Drive/etc. link to a file) that would be helpful.

hmm, DM’s seem like they might also be restricted until i am reputable in the eyes of the forum. here’s dropbox links for a screenshot of the last visible output from matron and the Test.pset it’s croaking on:
matron output
Test.pset

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*mac keyboard works :+1:t2:

Trying out Orca for the first time but not getting any sound from any of the engines? I’m up to date, installed the engines and tested with sleep and reset. Run through a few of the tutorials with no luck.
Any ideas?

@DuellingAnts is there any output in Maiden you can share? And you installed latest version v1.4.5?

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Just restarted again and did an update in maiden. Works now! Thanks :blush:

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I’m getting quite a bit of hanging MIDI notes. Is there some type of panic command that would send noteoffs? It also seems like successive MIDI notes in the same ’:’ operator get dropped, but maybe it’s my MIDI setup, will have to troubleshoot.

Thanks!

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Just a few more thoughts on Orca on Norns. I’ve spent a lot more time on Orca on a computer (on a Macbook), and had a few things that would be amazing to be consistent for Orca on Norns:

  • using the keyboard to select areas to edit. holding shift and pressing left or up arrow keys doesn’t allow expanding the selection box in those directions, only going right or down
  • when selecting beyond the visible screen, it would be great for the screen area to scroll with the furthest edge of the selection, I think, so you can see what additional rows or columns you’re selecting
  • pressing backspace or delete - would be great to be able to delete all characters within the selected box; for now, it just deletes the top left square of the selection box
  • for operator X, writing ‘E’, in the computer version, the E is only released when the write location is changed; on Norns, it seems to write an E every two frames or something like that?
  • the operator I, on Norns, starts from 1 to x, while on the computer, starts from 0 to x-1
  • ^ operator, for midi cc - I’m using this with a 16n faderbank, which sends 0-127, but when I get to 127, it’s maxing out at ‘i’ or ‘j’? EDIT: I see that the full throw of the fader sends 0-127, and on Orca on Norns, it goes through 1-z several times; so it’s a matter of setting 16n faders to send 0-36 rather than 0-127… or it would be great for Norns to spread 0-127 across 1-z by default?
  • latest J and Y “wires” implementation would be great too!
  • looking forward to the Timber operator ‘level’ and ‘position’ parameters working!
  • and finally… for Softcut, I’m still trying to figure out what is going on - the best instructions were its_your_bedtime’s post here: Orca - #88 by its_your_bedtime but I’m still not quite understanding what is happening behind the scenes - where might be the best documentation for understanding what this is doing? Particularly the range of playhead rate and playhead position, and what the base 36 numbers make these do in terms of moving in discrete steps…

I do love being the Norns version for having quick access to grid, midi note, cc numbers though…