Orca-Workshop

Installation

Orca

There are many implementations of Orca.
The ones that work for this workshop are:

• JS/electron: https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca
• ANSI-C: https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca-c

Easy setup

The quickest way to get started on any platform is to just use the 'fancy' electron framework version. I recommend doing that for the workshop, to avoid the "install-party" effect.

• Binary release: https://hundredrabbits.itch.io/orca

Advanced Setup

My favourite setup though, is running the ANSI-C version in Cool-Retro-Term
Orca AND Cool-Retro-Term are available in many package manager, have a look in yours. Maybe you are lucky...

Pilot

Orca cant make any sounds, it can only generate MIDI, OSC or UDP output. Pilot is a 'companion' program (from hundredrabbits as well) that is a fun little synthesizer and is very easy to use with orca over UDP.

• Github/Docs: https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Pilot
• Binary release: https://hundredrabbits.itch.io/pilot

Language Quick Overview

• Esoteric Programming Language
• 'Frame-Oriented' language
• 26 operators A-Z
• Uppercase operators execute on every frame
• Lowercase operators execute on a 'Bang'
• Data is just Base36 numbers '0-9' and 'a-z'
• I/O: no I just O. MIDI/OSC/UDP

Tutorials

Tutorial: Bangs and Sounds

1. Bangs

Operators you learn in this chapter:

• 'D' - Delay, bang periodically

2. Sounds

Operators you learn in this chapter:

• ; - UDP

for synthesizing the actual waves we are using 'Pilot', a soft-synth which we control with UDP packets. So, the commands we send using the UDP output operator are actually Pilot commands, not orca.

Pilot commands are 3-5 'bytes' long, where the first 3 are required.
The format is: CH OCT NOTE [VOL] [DECAY]

Where:

• CH - Channels 1-f exist, they all sound different (and they are monophonic)
• OCT - Around 8 octaves should definitely exist
• NOTE - Note names where Upper-case are white keys and Lower-case are Black-keys
• VOL - The Volume 0-z (even though the doc says 0-f, but hey we love clipping dont we?)
• DECAY - The 'length' of the note, 0-f (?)

Example:
;13C - Pilot plays note 'C' of octave 3 (default volume and length)

Putting It All Together

Tutorial: Flying East Scope

1. Arithmetic

Operators you learn in this chapter:

• C - Count (speed / modulo)
• I - Increment (increment / max)
• R - Random (min / max)
• A - Add (operand/operand)
• B - Subtract (operand/operand)
• M - Multiply (operand/operand)

2. Variables

Operators you learn in this chapter:

• V - Variable r/w single (Write: name / val | Read: - / name)
• K - Kontakt read multiple (Read: count / names)

3. Flying East

Operators you learn in this chapter:

• X - Write
• E - East

Putting It All Together