Critter & Guitari Organelle M User Manual Download

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Summary of Contents for Organelle M

Page 1: ...nit 2 1 Acquainting yourself with the box 2 2 A Few Configuration Ideas 3 Operating the Organelle by Itself 3 1 Main Menu Screen 3 2 Patch Screen 3 3 System Menu Items 3 4 Organelle s Default MIDI Setup 4 Managing Patches 4 1 Folder Structure 4 2 Using a USB Drive for Patches 4 3 Using internal microSD 5 Using WiFi with the Organelle 5 1 Using AP mode 5 2 Web Interface 5 3 Joining Existing WiFi Ne...

Page 2: ...ch Manager 5 5 Syncing Instruments 6 Editing and Creating Patches 6 1 Keyboards and Mice 6 2 Operating the Organelle as a Computer 7 Additional Info 7 1 Burning SD Card Disk Image 7 2 Editing Patches Remotely ...

Page 3: ...it is running a version earlier than v4 0 see Chapter 7 for information on updating your Organelle OS IMPORTANT NOTE The Organelle M has a powerful built in speaker It is possible for a patch to make some very loud and startling sounds Any patch that feeds audio from the input to the audio output such as an effect processor has the potential to feedback if the speaker is enabled and the internal m...

Page 4: ...nto the battery port housed on the bottom of the instrument When starting a patch for the first time it is a good idea to set the input to line in using the small switch on the back see Chapter 2 for more information Once the Organelle is connected to power move the Power switch to the On position The OLED Screen will be blank at first The LED will be steady pale green for a brief time and then bl...

Page 5: ...start 4 Play Play the keys adjust some parameters via the four knobs on the left and enjoy And if you want to try a different patch simply turn the Selector encoder and select another patch 5 When you have had enough fun for now shut down the Organelle This is achieved simply by moving the Power switch on the rear panel to the OFF position If the included power supply is powering the Organelle do ...

Page 6: ...u load into the Organelle are triggered by playing notes on the device There are patches that simply drone and or create evolving textures on their own over time The audio input might be used as a source As this definition is starting to become circular let s cut to the chase Organelle is whatever you want it to be In truth the Organelle is a vessel for your musical ideas connecting your own desir...

Page 7: ...Organelle s output ports So by analogy these patches are closer to both the synthesizer structure itself and all the settings and parameters that define its initial sound Some patches require various support files audio media other support patches that are being referenced external objects etc Any time we discuss a particular patch it is fair to assume that we are also referencing any necessary su...

Page 8: ...derstand A basic understanding of audio can only help And MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface is the protocol for triggering notes and sending control messages To use the Organelle as is basics are enough If you decide to create patches a little bit more will be required but we will get to all that in later chapters 1 2 How to Use This Manual Certain chapters such as this one are relevant to...

Page 9: ...ical universe its hardware 2 1 Acquainting yourself with the box In this age of software and virtual devices please do not neglect the hardware side of things While its microcomputer does indeed run everything that the Organelle does we endeavored to make the Organelle an un computer Configuring and then interacting with the physical interface is just as critical as anything you do on the software...

Page 10: ...er To hear the Organelle s current sounds with the speaker set this to the left sounding position To mute the speaker set this switch to the right non sounding position The sound of the Organelle will still be sent to the main outputs when the speaker is muted NOTE The speaker switch is a hardwired switch not software dependent so if something goes crazy you can quickly stop the speaker from sound...

Page 11: ...e Organelle uses the TRS To MIDI Type A spec The microSD card slot contains a card that acts as the internal microcomputer s root disk This means the Organelle s operating system lives here but the microSD card is also used to store patches The HDMI port delivers the video output of the Organelle s internal microcomputer Your Organelle matches whatever resolution your monitor tv uses up to 1080p I...

Page 12: ...our DAW It won t work and you may damage your Organelle computer or both NOTE Some MIDI controllers can be powered by their Host s USB port The Organelle s USB ports can only supply a maximum of 0 5A If your USB device requires more than the Organelle can provide communication and or performance issues may arise If you experience these please consult your USB device s manual about power requiremen...

Page 13: ... HOME in the bottom line of the Organelle s on board display This functionality can also be built into your own patches The Vol ume knob governs the potential audio output level of the Organelle The knob ranges from silence in audio terms at the far left to no attenuation unity gain at the far right Any adjustments to the Volume knob take effect immediately The small grille below Knobs 1 2 houses ...

Page 14: ...ientation printed in the battery bed and replace the cover to shut the door NOTE The Organelle senses when a power source is connected If your Organelle has batteries and is also powered by a power supply it will get power from the power supply If you remove the power supply from the wall socket or switch power strip off etc the Organelle will detect the loss of power and automatically switch to b...

Page 15: ...ote that the Organelle is running on battery power The L R left and right audio Out put ports are sending a stereo signal to a mixer which assumably runs to studio monitors a recording interface a venue s PA system etc Instead of going straight to a mixer these ports could just as appropriately be connected to direct boxes DIs If there is a sound person controlling levels you may want to leave the...

Page 16: ... on the other end for the Organelle a standard XLR cable with a female XLR to 1 4 adapter attached etc As most microphones are monophonic most patches that use audio input are likely to either sum the left and right inputs together or only use the left input This is not problematic in and of itself but it could affect your setup choices and expectations A USB MIDI Controller and Audio Input from a...

Page 17: ...ass compliant any device supporting MIDI over USB would work whether it is an 88 key piano style controller or a DJ style controller etc Even MIDI only controllers will work when connected to the Organelle via a USB class compliant MIDI interface Note that this setup has a 9V DC power supply connected An External Monitor a USB Hub and Computer Peripherals This example uses the built in speaker for...

Page 18: ...ssumes that you want to operate the Organelle s microcomputer in a typical way and this implies the use of peripherals such as a mouse and keyboard You may also make use of a USB hub especially if you desire to use more than two USB devices at once MIDI Input MIDI Output and a USB MIDI Controller This example uses the Organelle as part of a larger MIDI setup ...

Page 19: ...ideas have shown the Organelle is a fully capable stand alone instrument To use the Organelle in this fashion requires understanding the workings of its internal operating system By learning the options provided by the Organelle s software along with the uses of the Selector encoder and the on board display you will be ready to travel and perform with the Organelle alone In this chapter we ll expl...

Page 20: ...through its boot sequence and then drops us into its main menu screen The menu screen itself comprises two sections the system section or system menu at top and the patches section or patches menu which we see in the above image The first line of the screen displays some information If no patch is currently playing it will say Select Patch On the far right is a power icon When running from batteri...

Page 21: ...lders You can always put them in your own folders see Chapter 4 for details Lets navigate to the Synthesizers folder If we scroll too far to the left we will navigate past the patches menu and up into the system menu In that case simply move back down to the patches menu Then we can choose a synthesizer patch After the patch is successfully loaded the Organelle s display shifts to show us the patc...

Page 22: ...M and it contains several sub menus shown below To enter one of these sub menus follow the same procedure as loading a patch select the desired option by turning the Selector and then pressing down on the top of the Selector Storage contains all options related to the microSD card or USB drive such as ...

Page 23: ...u can return to the menu screen by turning the Selector knob but after a few seconds of inactivity the Organelle will automatically return to the patch information screen Below is an example image and description of a typical patch screen The exact information displayed on the patch screen varies widely depending on the patch and since version 3 of the Organelle OS patches may utilize graphical el...

Page 24: ... controlling a parameter named Vibrato Rate that is currently set to 8 Hz The bottom line is prefaced with Aux as it tends to provide more information about the assignment and or current state of the Aux button In the example above this patch seems to toggle the waveform being used an oscillator with a Sine Wave currently in use NOTE As was mentioned in the previous chapter some factory patches us...

Page 25: ... have been set with the knobs Whenever this patch is reloaded all of your previous parameters will be recalled regardless of the current knob positions Once a knob is moved however its physical position will regain control Save New duplicates the current patch and all of its associated files into a new patch folder and then loads that patch The new patch also stores the parameter values of the kno...

Page 26: ...ch settings It also contains system information and Favourites MIDI Setup See section 3 2 The Organelle s Default MIDI Setup for more information on using MIDI WiFi Setup will list the networks defined in the wifi txt text Info displays the system information screen which presents information about the current hardware software situation Don t forget to use the Selector to scroll down to view more...

Page 27: ...unction If patches have been added as Favourites a press and release of the footswitch can jump to the next patch in that list To enable this function select the switch option in Pedal Setup and then save The Pedal Setup can also be used to define the beginning and end of your expression pedal s range Select Expr Min and Expr Max and scroll to the desired value Select Save when finished Show Favou...

Page 28: ...ers even if you are mainly pressing the unit s own maple keys to trigger note messages There are certain default MIDI assignments in the Organelle patches that you should know The most simple MIDI configuration is to use the 1 8 MIDI jacks to send or receive notes or MIDI clock with another instrument By default a patch running on the Organelle will send and receive MIDI on the 1 8 jacks It is als...

Page 29: ... rightmost key uses note number 83 B4 with all keys in between following this scheme When a key is pressed down a velocity of 100 is transmitted When a key is released a velocity of 0 zero is sent The Knobs Knobs 1 2 3 and 4 transmit control change messages using controller numbers 21 22 23 and 24 respectively The full range of controller values from 0 to 127 is utilized The Aux Button The Aux but...

Page 30: ...le This can be helpful for example if you want to record the movement of the Organelle s controls into a sequencer as automation data In other words the mappings are a bit of a mirror So let s take particular note of how incoming MIDI messages interact with and can sometimes override the Organelle s on board controls And similar to the outgoing messages incoming messages should be sent to the Orga...

Page 31: ...s are used to select the Organelle s current patch from the list of Favourites Patches are stored in the Favourites list in the order they are added Each patch is then dynamically assigned a program number based on its position Let s say the Organelle had three patches added to Favourites in this order Proton Patch Water Patch and Acid Patch Sending the Organelle program number 1 would call up Pro...

Page 32: ...Organelle 4 Managing Patches Bringing additional patches from your computer to Organelle One of the strengths of the Organelle is its depth Included on your Organelle s microSD card are numerous patches that use the instrument in a plethora of fashions These included factory patches represent what is possible with the Organelle but are by no means the only patches you can use As was mentioned in a...

Page 33: ...er them using a web browser interface 4 1 Folder Structure Whether the Organelle is loading patches from the microSD card or USB drive the patches have the same folder structure The patches live in a folder named Patches at the top level of either the microsD or USB drive Each patch is a folder itself and each patch s folder must contain a file named main pd A patch might require other files such ...

Page 34: ...e before it powers up or inserted while it is running If you insert a USB drive while running you must select Reload in the Storage menu to refresh the list of patches General Information An attached USB drive must be appropriately configured This USB disk should be formatted with a FAT32 file system often associated with MS DOS This is most often the default for small USB flash drives The ExFat f...

Page 35: ...re Revisited Earlier in this chapter we went over the required folder structure for a usable USB drive Now that the drive is connected to a computer let s see the same structure in a more familiar graphical view The top level of my USB drive whose disk name is ORGANELLE is shown above Inside of the top level Patches folder the folders for the first four patches are selected with blue coloration an...

Page 36: ... with files on your computer To add a patch to your Organelle s USB drive Patches you download are likely to be zip files or zop files Copy these compressed files directly into your Patches folder After reinserting drive in the Organelle and selecting Reload from Storage menu the Patches menu will display an option like Install Patch name zip or zop Once selected the Organelle will uncompress the ...

Page 37: ...sub folders of patches In order to access the microSD card and manage the patches we need to use the web browser based file manager This process is detailed in the next chapter 5 Using WiFi with the Organelle The Organelle has always been able to connect to WiFi networks and we have been building out its WiFi capabilities over time At this point the WiFi capabilites have grown to allow many powerf...

Page 38: ...rganelle connected to an existing network is to first start in AP mode Then you can join this newly created network with your computer and enter credentials for any other networks from the Organelle s web interface So we ll cover AP mode first 5 1 Using AP mode Starting the Organelle in AP mode allows you to connect to the Organelle with a computer and nothing else wireless router is required Once...

Page 39: ...been created Now we can join this network from another device On your computer open WiFi settings and look for the network named Organelle When you are prompted for a password type coolmusic We are now connected to the Organelle s own WiFi network ...

Page 40: ...join we use the Organelle s web interface The Organelle s web interface is disabled by default so first we need to turn it on In WiFi Setup select Start Web Server Now on your computer open a web browser and navigate to http organellem local This will bring you to the Organelle s simple home page ...

Page 41: ...etup lets you add existing networks to join 5 3 Joining Existing WiFi Network It is perfectly reasonable to use the Organelle in AP mode to access all the WiFi capabilities but it is often more convenient to join an existing network in your home or studio There is an easy way to achieve this once you have started in AP mode Once you are connected to the Organelle in AP mode and have opened the web...

Page 42: ... WiFi Setup menu on the Organelle To join one navigate to WiFi Setup and click the network you want to join AP mode will be halted and the Organelle will attempt to join this network When this is successful the network will have a next to it in the list and it will say Connected at the top of the screen ...

Page 43: ...SD card It is also possible to copy patches between USB to microSD The two buttons on the top left select either microSD or USB drive storage Clicking on them will bring you to the top level of the storage device In other words if there is a USB drive inserted and you click USB Drive you will see exactly what you would see if you plugged the USB drive into your computer From here you can enter the...

Page 44: ... some common operations you can perform with the Patch Manager Uploading a New Patch The Patch Manager supports uploading one or more files at a time but you can t upload whole folders For this reason we want to upload patches in the zip or zop format This is convenient because patches are distributed in this format anyway To upload to the microSD card press the SD Card button and then click into ...

Page 45: ...folders by checking the Select box next to the desired folder Then press the Cut button Navigate to the folder you want to move the items into and press the Paste button Hit the Refresh Button to update the patch menu on the Organelle Renaming a Patch Select the the patch folder you wish to rename and hit the Rename button Downloading a Patch The Patch Manager supports downloading single files by ...

Page 46: ...patches The actual process of creating and editing patches is covered in a series of tutorial videos While we have continually mentioned the microcomputer within the Organelle we have also pointed out the un computer nature of this instrument But we also recognize that you might want to run the Organelle with a monitor keyboard and mouse some folks might find it particularly nice to edit patches i...

Page 47: ... any finding of incompatibility on our forum Finally we are talking about more and more USB devices being used with the Organelle Before you worry about running out of ports remember that a USB hub can be connected to the Organelle 6 2 Operating the Organelle as a Computer After you have connected an HDMI monitor and powered it on you will immediately see a semi cryptic terminal window for text en...

Page 48: ...ning your Patches folder The Read me First file contains some helpful notes from our technical team You should probably do as they say The dark icon at the bottom left of the screen represents a command line interface CLI If you click on this icon a terminal emulator instance is started The red octagonal icon at the bottom right of the screen represents a stop sign When you are done working in thi...

Page 49: ...lay has shifted to the patch information screen and audio can now be produced Within the computer interface we are now seeing the behind the scenes implications of loading a patch Our patch in this case Basic Poly has been loaded and its main pd file is taking up most of the screen But sitting atop the patch we expected is one we did not THE MOTHER PD HELPER PATCH mother pd exists at the root or t...

Page 50: ...d 2 If a patch is currently loaded it then prompts the Pure Data application to quit This effectively closes any and all open patches including the mother pd helper patch 3 The Pure Data application is relaunched and the patch we have requested is then opened specifically the file main pd in the patch s folder 4 The mother pd helper patch is loaded Once this sequence completes all assets needed fo...

Page 51: ...ou are done working in this graphical operation mode While you could simply unplug your HDMI monitor and resume working with the Organelle as usual this will leave some processing resources allocated for graphics that you are no longer using It is better to revert the Organelle to its normal CLI mode and keep the processor focused on audio tasks 7 Additional Info 7 1 Burning SD Card Disk Image In ...

Page 52: ...oSD card from your computer and reinsert it in Organelle Make sure that the SD card is going into the socket on the circuit board as it is easy to drop it into the device Holding the Organelle upside down helps the orient the SD card If you can wiggle it a lot it probably is not in socket Use the same pin paperclip to press it in until you hear feel a click 9 Restart the Organelle Check your OS ve...

Page 53: ...can connect using organelle local or using the IP address reported on the Info screen You might have to append the port number 5901 to the end So organellem local 5901 or using IP but replace with IP from the Info screen 192 168 80 86 5901 For login use the following username music password music And you should see the Organelle desktop appear Now when you start a patch on the Organelle it will ap...

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Critter & Guitari Organelle M, User Manual

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