Orba 2 Alternative

 I now know a bit more about chords on the Chorda. First - chord sets with 12 chords defined, one for each of the pads in the major and minor scales will not break the preset but the last four will be ignored and the definitions for pads 2 - 5 used instead, but shifted up an octave. (I really wanted to use them for 7th chords or chords with other added notes.) Second -  it is possible to create presets with six notes for each chord. However, the Chorda will ignore the extra note definitions. (I haven't tested this on the Orba - since it isn't going to handle it anyway it is a pointless exercise.) It might be nice to have this but I admit it's probably not of such a benefit - I wouldn't mind if the pads were playing only four note chords anyway. That's two opportunities missed by Artiphon. I would hope that 12 chord sets might eventually made possible, but I wouldn't expect it. Even less likely they would add six note chords, I would suggest. What seems to be cle...

 Now I have had a bit of time to check out some customised presets on the Chorda I have seen there are a few issues with some of them on the Chorda. Some just need a bit of tweaking for playability on the Chorda. Some of the samples show nasty low frequencies that aren't apparent on the Orba, and finally the Chorda handles chords differently to the Orba and this messes up some of those presets using some of my own chord sets. There may be other things. When I can ensure presets work properly on the Chorda I will post them as such. Until then I really wouldn't recommend loading any of them, just in case. (Some presets are fine, but I don't yet know for sure which ones are good and which ones are not.)

 I have now made a more complete version of this. It's still not as polished as I would like. It may be the last version of this. My experience with the Chorda affair has rather drained my will to do any more with it. And to be realistic very few people are going to be interested anyway! https://www.mediafire.com/file/jrg4276yzor7knr/Orba_Alternatives_V1-2.zip/file

 There is something interesting (and also potentially annoying) about the way the Chorda handles Chords. At this point in time I am guessing what is happening. To explain I need to go back to the Orba. The chord presets contain definitions of the notes to be sounded in  each chord in relation to the pad (according to it's place in a diatonic major or minor scale). You define four pitches and you get those four notes. It doesn't matter what order they are in. The Chorda, however, makes six notes from these four defined pitches. My guess is that the first two defined pitches are raised an octave to create the two extra notes. This may seem sensible and of no consequence. But it does make a big difference. (You can get a better idea of this by playing the individual notes in the arpeggiator bridge.) When you create a chord set you will want to pay attention to what the highest note in the chords are. It's important to how we hear a chord. On the Orba that's simple - the hi...

 Here are two Lead presets intended to give you some idea how gestures can be manipulated in your custom made presets. In the "ModdedWhistle" preset file the important parameters are "noiseMix" in the synthPatch section along with "modSource3_3Destination" and "modSource3_3Weight" which point the gesture to the noise effect. The "seekerEntry"s also needed to instigate getting data of tilt motion so it can be used - in this case it points to the midi code "74". In the BladeTest the "ringMod" parameter is used instead of "noiseMix" - but the same priciple is used. (There is a more generalised account of this in the reference document I have previously posted here.) Although they were only made to demonstrate using tilt to add a gesture effect you are welcome to make use of them in your own music if you wish, or you can play with the parameter values and see what happens. If not, you can easily delete them in ...

 I have noticed a couple of comments about some chords on the Chorda seem to play in a different octave than would be expected. The Orba 2 uses sets of chord voicing defined for each of the eight pads. These sets are also used for the twelve pads of the Chorda. The issue above is, I think, a result of using of these eight pad chord sets in presets and how the Chorda handles the extra pads. I still don't have a Chorda yet, so I can't test this, but I think it is possible to create modified presets with twelve chord sets which can solve this issue. Presets made like this should also work on the Orba 2, although the results may not be ideal for it, and the extra chords would not be accessible on the Orba 2, but with some thought they could be made good for both. Time may tell. Making chord sets for the Orba 2 takes some effort and twelve chord sets more so. Since those who have both an Orba 2 and a Chorda connecting to the same computer (or tablet) will have the same set of preset...

 I have been planning the things I want to test when I can finally get my hands on a Chorda (Heaven  knows when that might be!) So in the meantime someone might care to try out these two - on the condition you tell me if they work (or not). They can be tweaked and can easily be deleted if you don't want to keep them. Obviously, I haven't been able to test them myself yet. Zen-CCH-Test uses the Artiphon Rain Guitar samples, which should be on your Chorda already (but check first). It is diatonic and uses pitch bend to allow chromatics to be played on the pads - flat on a table the true notes are near you, semitones higher fall beyond the LED lights. OrbaChords-CCH-Test is synth based and has an extended set of chords - you should really notice this on pads 9 to 12. It also uses pitch bend. In this case it shifts chords up a fifth, which extends the number of chords available and I have found it useable and rather cool on the Orba 2. Both will need to have pitch bend set to 100%...

 Artiphon and the music press seem to have compared the Chorda to the Instrument 1 rather than the Orba 2. In my opinion the Chorda is much more a glorified version of the Orba 2 and less like the Instrument 1. As far as I can tell, apart from the arpeggiator bridge and the extra pads the Chorda functions pretty much the same as the Orba 2. I suspect most of what will work on the Orba 2 will work on the Chorda. Since the deliveries of Chordas has been bodged I don't have a Chorda to test things on one - I can only guess. (It now looks as if it may be as much as a month or more before I will be able to.) The published manual for the Chorda at this time looks to me incomplete. Some questions being raised in the forums, Discord etc. can be answered by looking at the Orba 2 manual and the Orba 2 hacking knowledge thread, and here. The document I have posted tries to put what was useful in the hacking thread and my own learning into one place. I have already identified things I need to ...

" ..... Blowing in the wind ......." I have now created a document that collects all the odd bits of knowledge about the internals of Orba 2 presets together. Sure, it's rough and ready, and it's not a How To Create and Modify Orba 2 Presets, but it can give you the information you need if you want to get more from your Orba than Artiphon is going to give you. It's here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/5ua02j7bv8bxl06/Orba_Alternatives_V1-1.zip/file (I  left space if you want to add your own notes. I'm not good at this stuff - might not work digitally, but of course, will work if you print it.)

I have been putting together a compendium of the knowledge relating to Orba 2 presets gained over 2023. A list of chord settings is also in the pipeline. When these will come to fruition is anyone's guess, but I don't expect it to be another whole year!

 Since the estimated delivery dates for Chordas given by UK retailers have been shifting almost daily, shifting away like desert sands in the wind, I think I may rename the Chorda "The Unicorn" - a mythical beast which has only reportedly seen in distant lands. My people don't believe it is real and will ever be seen here. I'm not really that pessimistic - but it feels like that.