Just had an epiphany.. What if you change the weird dual-note voice to be a semitone up (not sure this is possible.. I think it starts at 2 semitones.. Maybe using Pitch settings at 50% in the App). Once you have that, combine with your whole tone scale. This should give 16 consecutive semitones without even tilting?!
You can control the 3 semitones up/down by editing the 32 value at index 23 (I believe)
...that's where the main board plugs into the touch sensor. (That's an excellent piece of design; not easy to calculate velocity, pressure and position from a capacitive-touch sensor. No wonder it needs its own separate processor and firmware. The only similar thing I've seen is the Snyderphonics Manta.)
That patch you posted is weird; it divides the pads down the middle with a three-semitone drop the first time you cross from one side to the other.
What kind of port is that at J1? It looks like you could plug-in and maybe get some debug info?
My understanding about finger position is that Radiate provides a value (up/down on Pad) and Vibrato provides a value (left/right on Pad). These two values could be mapped to two parameters making every movement on the Pad significant. There is also a Vibrato sound similar to Tilt Lead.. I think its natively in the Bass Presets or maybe I downloaded it. I intend to document what gets output in the future but I think Artiphon updated the User manual to already include this information.
> I think I can confirm that Spin Pitchbend will never work
You may be right. I'm interested in tilt/movement sensors and vaguely aware of ideas like 6DoF sensors (six degrees of freedom) that can measure linear and angular acceleration in three axes each.
https://industrial.panasonic.com/ww/products/pt/6dof-inertial-sensor
I guess the Orba probably has a 6DoF sensor, or separate 3DoF accelerometer/gyro or whatever. They seem to be square, blocky components. I haven't been able to identify any specific type on the PCB, though I'm wondering if they might be one of these...
I was aware that these things generally seem to measure velocity, so I didn't understand how they could measure static values like the "Tilt" metric evidently can. But apparently it's to do with gravity.
https://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/accelerometer-info
Sadly gravity doesn't help with rotation, so measuring static angle is more tricky. It can be done, but seems to require a different kind of sensor, which the Orba might or might not have.
If you've added some custom scales (e.g. Hang Drum + Whole Tone) can you share up the orba-scales.json file? I can merge it in later... I have a few scales I'd like to add but too interested in figuring out the gesture mapping. How does the SeekerData bind a gesture with a control? I'm thinking index 1 because its unique across all seekerData. Index 0 seems to be gestureType (0 or 1) but one (or more) of those values must link the gesture to the midi message or control #
Sure here's the patch. On another note, I think I can confirm that Spin Pitchbend will never work. I've been monitoring the midi output from the spin gesture. It sends spin velocity not spin position. I think that video was built before the product was done. You can tell the sound is overdubbed. I think they wanted it to work like that but the esp32 likely did have the "spin" they imagined. It would need a compass to be position, instead it outputs how fast its spinning. Still, it could be useful for changing key or something useful like effect levels.
Cool - could you post that preset up...? :-)
If you set the Orba to a whole-tone scale with a semitone pitchbend, you can play an extended chromatic scale.
(This preset needs to be set to Major with 100% pitchbend scaling.)
Perhaps your latest discovery relates to the sensor design...
...maybe the sensor can detect finger position on the individual peaks, or at least can return multiple discrete values around the edge.
@BJG145 Also I know how long and tedious this is (trial & error, copy/paste, reset device) So THANKS for the hard work. I spent a long time to figure out how the chords worked and if we are going to explore lots of Base64 strings, I might start thinking about a more generic daemon where you can specify the file and the string you want to modify.. In this way you could just make a change and DEPLOY like version 1.. I need to think that out before I commit but that would accelerate the pace of discovery
I'm enjoying your posts! I have found a few things as well, but have been too busy to document them. I found a really wacky behavior as well which I believe was index 24. What I found was that when you first press your finger down, you get the expected note but as soon as you move your finger left or right on the same pad (not up/down radiate) that it would change to a second note?! I could make the second note go up or down based on the offset value from the 32 value. I'm busy today but might get a chance to play with it more tonight.
As a simple example, here's "Tilt Lead Wider" with a value of 20 for a three-semitone bend when the App settings are at 100% scaling, and "Tilt Lead Snap" which lets you hear the result of -20.
Yay, I've finally obtained a useful new result from editing a Seeker...changing pitchbend range for "Tilt Lead" on the built-in sound. :-)
I've been using the "experimental fiddler" on the seekerData for the Tilt Lead ("pitchbend") entry, and found that the 23rd value in the decoded string changes the pitchbend range, although the way it changes it is slightly strange.
The usual value is 32, allowing you to bend up two semitones by tilting the Orba from horizontal to vertical in either direction when "Pitchbend scaling" is set to 100% in the App settings. At 50% this drops to a semitone; at 25% to something like a quarter-tone.
The widest range I've got is four semitones with a value of 0 instead of 32, with Pitchbend scaling set to 100%.
As you increase the value to a maximum of 127 the pitchbend range gradually reduces. The change in pitchbend range is continuous and non-linear. At 20 you get around three semitones; at 32 the standard two semitones, at 40 just under two semitones, and by 60 less than a semitone.
By using negative values you get a slightly odd "snap" effect. As you tilt the Orba you get a gradual pitch bend with a sudden jump to the starting note when you reach the furthest position.
I found this parameter by working along the lines described previously, by swapping a value in the seekerData string with an alternative from the set of values seen across the table shown above (in this case, changing the final 32 to a 0).
It's useful to have discovered that certain values in the seekerData string can change the effects of gestures, and the experimental chord fiddler has been invaluable here. I wish I could figure out the mapping, to get effects like the rotate-pitchbend shown in the promotional video posted earlier, if that's possible. But for now I'll carry on fiddling the seekerData strings. I haven't given up hope of tuning the Bump note.
At least I've become an expert in flashing dead Orbas. I just revived another £30 one to replace the one I pulled apart. I'm planning to try actually playing them at some point...;-)
Andrea Mannocci
This thread is intended to gather the feedback of Orba tinkerers.
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