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Orba 2 Hacking Knowledge Base

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This forum is intended to share Orba 2 hacking tips amongst the Orba 2 community. NOTE: Please post facts that are well understood & useful. If you have theories to discuss, please start another forum and link to it here.


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Yes, I think I saw the 16383 value in a preset (perhaps one of yours). When I was experimenting I stopped at a value that gave me an octave up because I didn't see a use for going further. I didn't really explore going through lower values because beyond a whole tone it didn't seem to work on my first attempts and since again it didn't seem so useful.  I'm really just looking to expand what I can do for my own playing and sharing what I learn.

I know that Pitch Bend values are 14 bit values (require two bytes) and therefor are in the range 0-16383 with the value 8192 being in the middle (representing no Pitch Bend). The note that is produced is dependent on what the Pitch Bend range is set to. I'm not sure if its possible to change the range on Orba. 

Some observations:

When I was first playing with presets I got the understanding that pitch bend was limited to just a tone or two. Having seem numbers in some presets that suggested this was not the case I decided to experiment to see if I could find the limits for myself. What I discovered in that was that I could only pitch bend down in pitch a whole tone but bend up a whole octave - I stopped at that point because I'd reached what I wanted to be useful. (I think it might be possible to bend down further if the starting point is at a higher value, but I haven't tested yet. This enabled me to create presets that could play chromatic scales, or play over two octaves without having to resort to using A+key 8. I use the snap trick, as it was described in earlier posts on this forum, to make each key act as two splitting it across the Y axis. Tilt was tried for this sort of thing but I found it unsatisfactory to use

In the Grapefruit Lead preset there seemed to be an octave jump created by introducing harmonics into the sound as an effect. I managed to get something like a a two octave range by tilting and chromatics on the Y axis of the key. The octave effect wasn't as good as I would like - but I think it could be improved. Pitch bend is better for the octave change. The harmonics method can work with tilt better than pitch bend will though.

(It is possible to have two pitch bend seeker entries in a preset - but it didn't help, although it is a curious and interesting thing to do!)

The technical bit: the value 8192 seems to be the value for the note playing as it should to go down, set that to ouMax and subtract 171 for each semitone down you want to go down for the inMin value. To go up, set 8192 as the inMax and add 171 for each semitone you want to go up. (I'll let you do your own maths.) I was not convinced that 171 equated exactly to a semitone - but since it seems to give the right result over 12 semitones it seems it is.

It is important to mention that these methods may not translate when exporting to midi devices. I don't do this myself so I can't comment on that.

When attempting to implement an idea Rusty Perez had I came across something else I rather like. (That conversation is in the Preset repository thread - the wrong place for it really - I apologise for that!)

I was aware that I could jump pitch by any amount I wanted so I knew I could use 4ths or 5ths but I hadn't considered that particularly useful. However I played with 5ths on a chord preset which was made with a particular recording as inspiration. While using 5ths on chord preset can add extra chords - which is useful - on presets with complex chords (ie: not just the usually triads) it can not only increase the number of chords but act almost as it's own, rather pleasing effect, surprisingly pleasing to me.


There is a minor tweak I need to sort out - notes played on the inner part of the key are sometimes quieter than those on the outside. I think that's just a case of removing a seeker from the preset or perhaps adjusting it, or the modSource entry. It's just something left in the source preset I've used some of the time.


I think I have posted presets using these methods but I will make a point of posting the ones I think work best as examples for others to experiment with, or just borrow the methods.


 

 

 

I do not know if it was there before, but now I see Save logs button in Android app. Might help with debug, or something.

As above I'm attaching a preset for an oriental zither style sound. Some minor tweaks to what I said above, but basically the same as described above. It seems to make a convincing sort of sound. The "true" pitch is near the centre, bending to a tone up towards the rim. (Not sure whether that could be reversed, but in this case it seems to make sense to me.)


The preset is based on my sample based "Madaharp" preset. So if you happen to have loaded that on your Orba you should only need to copy the preset into your Artiphon folder.


At some point I hope to have a blues minded synth based preset to add, but I have a couple of drum experiments and other bits and pieces, so I may just do a new batch of presets in one go.

Perhaps it was this I was thinking of - though I'm not sure if offers much insight:


(Can't recall where I found it.)

song

I've been trying to make a sample based drum preset with only partial success (at last attempts I've found myself with one key not playing a sound. I know it's not the sample and I've exhausted any things I can think of doing with the code without success.)


What I did discover in the process was that synth patches will play along with the samples. Since there are parameters that will control the level of the synth element you can finese how much you want of each keys' patch, or indeed silence it. Pretty cool.

I did some quick experimenting with the HangDrum idea.


Somehow I didn't pay attention to something @Ignis32 did whilst discussing the issue with @Subskybox. He made a very nice drum mode preset using samples. Loved the scale he used (something that can't be done in a Lead preset). But one flaw it had was that when a finger is held down the note disappears abruptly, whereas a quick touch rings on. The Ohm presets do something like this but they are synth based - so I wondered whether this might be controlled in a sample based preset using the synth patch parameters.

The result was it can be done. First I had to try and use the samples in a Lead preset - easy enough and it worked better than I had hoped (using the synthPatch from Ohm, and Ignis32s samples). But then I had to see if I could make that abrupt stopping be smoothed over and I seem to have succeeded. Which demonstrates that the SynthPatch can to some degree affect a sample based preset.

Basically I was playing with AmpEnv parameters.

(When I made my first test I could get three octaves in lead mode - but that became only two later - don't know why.)


In case anyone is interested I am posting the preset as it is now - it's rather overdone on the time notes sound for, and the major scale is not ideal for this sort of instrument. And it doesn't sound much like a real hangdrum - but I think there could be ways of doing something better.


If you guys don't mind I may add this to the repository thread at some stage but for now I think it's best here. 


Anyway, FWIW here it is.

zip

Ignore that last post!


It's now just playing a modified Ohm preset not the samples! Aargh! I'm having a spell of preset failures. I expect I'll get over it.

>>But one flaw it had was that when a finger is held down the note disappears abruptly, whereas a quick touch rings on


If you are speaking about my hang drum  (drum) preset, this behavior matches the one of of the real world handpans.  Actually that was the whole point, not a flaw, and I like it.


My real Rav Vast  worked exactly like that - if you do not remove your hand immediately after beating out the note,  note gets muted by hand. Same applies to steel tongue/tank drums.


When I was explaining my friends how to play it to get a bright and long lasting sound, I told them to imagine that the drum is a super hot frying pan, which you are beating  while trying not  to burn you hands.


This muting, as a playing technique.  can be an intentional musical expression.




@Ignis32


Oh dear, I really am having a bad day. These sorts of instruments don't interest me much although I do like the sounds and music but I really don't know anything about them, though I understand the desire for presets for these, and there's some element of challenge about it. But I've abandoned the idea for now anyway (and certainly today!).

My apologies for my stupid ignorance! Thanks for that preset though, I do like it - it'll get used on my Orba, and provoke some ideas.

These sorts of instruments don't interest me much

Handpans are pretty cool. The history is interesting. It started with this company called PanArt who made some beautiful, original, highly prized and expensive instruments called "Hang". Then everyone started copying them and they threw their toys out of the pram. These days the copies are called "Handpans" and PanArt are still doing their own exclusive thing.

I've followed attempts to create MIDI handpans with interest. The first was the "Ovalsound", a Kickstarter which went out of production - they can still be occasionally seen at inflated prices on sites like Reverb.

https://reverb.com/uk/item/56214803-oval-sound-digital-hand-pan-hangdrum-midi-black-2018

Then there was the "Lumen" - this project stalled for ages, I'm not sure if they're finally available or not.

https://lumenhandpan.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwkLCkBhA9EiwAka9QRupSF2ctYU88WqbIh03C6VTVWJDR7K8t4SBKYJRXmI9EGsbdQzWtohoChDAQAvD_BwE

More recently there's the "Neotone"...

https://digitalhandpan.com/

...then there's the German "Wavepan"...

https://www.wavepan.de/english/e-wavepan.html

I'm planning to build my own DIY device called the "Wheeldrum" from a hubcap and a bunch of Piezos. :-)

There's also a small device called the Phonicbloom Wing Drum which is very Orba-like...basically copied I'd say...with a bit of a handpan focus.

http://phonicbloom.com/drum/

It's a shame Artiphon haven't open-sourced it. Handpans typically have a central pad which can be played like the rest, as does the Wing Drum. It would be quite easy for Artiphon to implement this on the Orba; impossible for anyone else.

hubcap.jpg
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I had a moment of inspiration this morning!


Initially I found using Pitch Bend problematical - it left me playing out of tune a lot.


@Subskybox found a good trick to use pitch bend to give two notes on one key (little or no bending sound). I found the most successful way to use it was to have the true note playing on the outer area of a key and the bent note a semitone lower towards the inner area. This works pretty  welland my thanks to Subskybox for that - I have been able to create chromatic playing presets.

(I favour  using a semitone down because it seems more useable than a semitone up.)


This morning I thought perhaps it might be possible to have a "safe" area by the rim where the true note would play in tune and then bend approaching the centre. My first attempt worked well - but then I thought perhaps there could also be a "safe" area  at the inner area as well. Trying that out in also worked well.


As an experiment I tried this method on two presets - one using Teatro's Lyre samples  which I set to play the "true" note at the inner area and a tone above by the rim. The sound is not quite right for the oriental zither type sound I was thinking of, and it would probably better using a pentatonic scale, but the principal worked well.


The other one was a synth based EGuitar preset (which JAMIX VcZ posted for the Orba 1 - which I borrowed for an Orba 2 preset) and went with the semitone down setting. This allowed something more like blues note bends.


Since both of these use borrowed content I won't post them but instead try and get round to applying these to something  my own and post them.


For those who might want to try this for themselves these are the important parts of the Pitch Bend seeker for the bluesy version:  "inMin="-0.5" inMax="0.5" outMin="8021" outMax="8192", and this for the zither one: inMin="-0.5" inMax="0.5" outMin="8192" outMax="8534".


It would be simple to adjust the inMin and inMax parameters to suit your own preferences, and the numbers  for the out parameters should give you clues if you want to adjust the pitch values.

@BJG145

That thought had already occurred to me.

But at least I am getting some understanding of how to get control of gestures and effects - which has been something of a holy grail in my mind.

I hope it's insured. ;-)

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