Organelle M vs. 1, and ORAC 2: Review and tutorial

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If you have an Organelle 1 and want a good USB/MIDI interface, I recommend this one:

Mark's Orac 2 tutorials are on his channel:

C&G's Pure Data tutorials:

Other places I hang out:

My music:

TIMELINE:
0:00 Intro
1:00 Organelle M vs 1
3:30 Menu overview
4:30 Using patches
6:20 Multipage patch
6:50 Adding patches
7:50 Editing patches
8:05 ORAC 2
10:40 Patch chains
13:00 Other features
14:15 Pros & cons
16:40 A few patches...

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NOTE: Occasionally I’ll try out affiliate marketing and include affiliate links. This means that I may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via affiliate links. The content of this clip is entirely my opinion and was not paid for or dictated in any way by the company creating the gear. Without addressing the particulars of products shown here as they might be under NDA, gear shown on this channel may be either sent by the manufacturer, on loan for review or bought at a discount.

[modgrip]

You actually did a better job, for the lay user, at explaining how to actually USE orac than the technobear. Thanks 👍

[kmontzka]

While the instrument may not be for me, I appreciate yet another through overview on this. And you did a wonderful job of showcasing it’s charm 😊

[iosmusicman]

Can’t wait for mine to arrive tomorrow. Many thanks. Lee

[alanturingandthetapes]

Thanks! I've watched hours of your videos at this point. They're a great resource!

[MatheusLeston]

Great review! But I have to say, I think the Organelle is quite a strange instrument. Being a Max (and previously PD) programmer, I got extremely excited when it was launched, but now I'm feeling that it is quite contradictory. In one hand, the possibilities of PD are endless, you can do all sorts of amazing sound design and handy utilities and visuals and so on. And being able to do that in such a small device is absolutely brilliant. But, in the other hand, this doesn't seem to come across. I'm not sure if it is the design, the keyboard, the controls, the looks, but it seems to me that it is mostly used in a more traditional way, as a regular (although weird) synth, sampler, delay, whatever. I don't know, it seems that it actually missed the mark on what PD does best - which is the exact opposite of what Max for Live was able to do, bringing all the weirdness into a conventional daw.

[JeffCfreeradiorevolution]

Excellent job (as always). Very interesting device... like the improvements! Thanks!

[CaidicusProductions]

Awesome review, Loopop.

Thanks for sharing this, such a nice surprise to wake up to.

[tobyb]

I wasn't completely grabbed by the first iteration ... but while looking into a RPi4 I discovered Orac and am completely amazed and inspired by what Mark Harris @TheTechnobear has created on top of good hardware ... I am picking up an O-M on Wednesday ... and this review convinces me that that's a good decision ... I will probably get the RPi4 as a companion!

[TropicIslandMusic]

I dont know how durable the op-1 and opZ are but you definitely want to take care with your organelle. Mine fell off my coffee table (onto carpet) and damaged the usb drive which needed resoldering. I'd be wary about chucking it in a backpack with other gear on the move.

[SyncdAlien]

Awesome review, everything about which I was wondering! Thanks! 👍

[KorhanErel]

As a long time organelle user, I would put the speaker on the cons list as well. Makes the organelle much larger without adding anything useful. Anyone who must hear the organelle out of a bad speaker could easily use a small external speaker. I cannot really understand why gear manufacturers put speakers on their equipment. I know earlier C&G instruments had them but they were generally much more primitive instruments than an organelle. A less significant con is the stereo jack output. I really like the separate outputs on the older organelle, as they allow me to send two separate mono signals to different destinations. Sure, the stereo out can also do that but with a separate Y adapter cable. On stage, the more adapters you have, the more problems you may have. Bad decision, but not as bad as the speaker.

I would include the new midi in and out in the pros list as a very welcome addition, as well as the included wifi adapter.

[DivKid]

How hard did you try to not go full Alex F on it?

[adamjohnson]

I was just wondering today when this video would arrive...lo and behold here it is! Fantastic as always, thanks!

[LukeLine]

Great review LOOPop! This is on the xmas wishlist

[PocketUnv]

Such a great walkthrough, as always! Now for the agonizing process of selecting what to sell in order to get one of these...

[rjschrei]

Organelle M or Zoia? Can't decide.Recommendation?

[setphaser]

which patch sampled and split your sounds to then loop a drum track? i just got my organelle M. initially i was so upset when they released it as i had bought the organelle and a speaker and a better pack only months before... but now i’ve upgraded to the M which is what i always wanted the organelle to be. what i like is that i can explore and not think to much, and find, self playing patches that are these lost sounds i’ve always wanted to create, and they’re at my fingertips suddenly, it’s so creative and immediate.

[Darmstadtiensis]

How many voices polyphony? Extern microphone input? If you connect an extern controller - has it velocity?

[kostependrhs]

I was hoping i could play and create music but Its more an expensive toy for non-musicians. Hope it will evolve to a more serious instrument cause i like the size of it and the whole concept.

[tColorsinspacerecordings]

I bought it and wanted to love it but ended up sending it back.
Orac 2 is great but none of the cool scripts have been ported over so unless you’re good with PD you’re stuck with a couple cool, effects, synths and sequencers. None of the scripts worked when I tried using the Easter thing, so that is pretty much useless.
The speaker sounded really amazing and having it run off batteries was nice as well.
I would buy it again if Critter and Guitari made it so you run multiple apps at once like Orac but without having to port everything over.