Answering myself on preset uneven volumes, it can be mitigated by the following function. Will take additional time, but at least possible:
Volume-per-part: You can mix the individual instrument parts of your songs
directly on Orba. To adjust the volume for Drum, Bass, Chord,
and Lead parts hold the A button + the instrument mode pad
you wish to adjust while simultaneously pressing Orba’s volume
controls up or down.
Hey Ignis32, thanks for this report. We really appreciate your feedback.
Yes, volume per part is a feature we implemented so you can fine tune your mix during or after you build your song. You can also adjust the volumes of each mode in the app. From the Play screen, you can access volume and effect controls by clicking on the sliders next to the record button.
As for some of the other issues, ensure you are using the latest app version, 1.0.146 for Android (1.0.144 for all other platforms). We're resolving UI issues for some devices where the touch was slightly off from the UI, so the app would appear frozen or laggy while you were trying to press the buttons.
The sampling issue is strange, since you are seeing input on the meter in the app setting. Make sure you have the input set as the built-in mic from the device. It also may be resolved by going into your Android app settings to ensure the Orba 2 app has all permissions enabled.
For the other issues, open up a support ticket and attach your log files. You can get those by clicking on the "Save log files" button on the app settings page towards the bottom. Thanks again!
I am noticing that volume of the tracks/instruments are sometimes changing randomly while playing.
Pretty sure that it is not because of A+Volume combination, as soon as the last times Orba2 was standing on the empty table, and I had no grip or any object around to accidentally push this combination.
Also Orba2 for no reason changes instrument to the next one when changing instrument volume anyway, so it is hard not to notice that instrument has changed.
There is some probability that it can be related to the Orba2 android app - at least currently I cannot yet reproduce this yet without app opened and connected.
And that's not me accidentally pushing volume control in the app - the last time I was in another menu (Edit Key menu), no volume control there as well.
Hi again.
I've recorded a short video with on-screen record of three bugs in Android Orba2 app that reproduce for me always.
Bug #1)
Interface just after starting the app is 95% unresponsive until you switch to task manager and back.
Bug #2)
Volume control / Reverb control behaves.. inconsistent. I do not believe that it is what was intended.
Bug #3)
New song creation leads to interface corruption.
I wanted to upload it as an attachment, but 24 megabytes are not allowed, so I had to upload it to youtube.
Access is only by the direct link only to avoid troubleshooting technicalities going into youtube recommendations accidentally. I hope stuff like that to be fixed, because such app flaws is something that does not allow me to recommend Orba 2 yet to the people who are fascinated with a cute little toy when they see it in action.
Thanks for reporting these issues. I'm happy to say we are already working on the fixes and hope to have some improvements to share with you soon.
Actually there is a 4th bug on the video, microphone is activated all the way along, while no recording is happening. Feels creepy.
Ignis32
After half a year of waiting, got my Orba2 from Thomann.
Here are my impressions, after using Android app and PC Windows app plus OrbaSynth.
Android App:
* crashes from time to time and is quite slow.
* I've spent a lot of time to be able to connect by bluetooth - Android app does not accept almost any UI input after launching, feels like it just frozen. SOME taps very rarely still happen, but never got further than "Step 02 Connect Device" page this way.
Found a strange workaround for this - switching to another app and back seems to fix this somehow and interface starts responding.
* USB connection failed on Android app for me all the time until I'd removed another app that could also open USB midi device (Midi Commander). Looks like Orba2 app does not handle situation when android asks you "which app to use to access connected USB device", and app hangs after this dialog completely.
* Scrolling presets in Android is pain, because app does not distinguish swipes from taps, and opens presets even when intent is clearly to scroll the preset list . It still does scroll, but opens the preset for no reason.
* Uploading presets seems to be unreliable. Have to do multiple attempts until preset is uploaded. Still cannot upload Bright Violin - it is showed as not being uploaded to Orba2 in the presets list, but inside preset - there is a "play" button instead of "send to orba". Tapping "play" does nothing for this particular preset.
* Could not record Sample via android app - while input test shows incoming volume on the System Default Input, clicking "preview" button leads to silent Orba2.
* Sometimes (mostly when trying to do something with a custom song), half of the screen gets covered with garbage copies of part of the interface. After that you have to restart the app.
PC app:
* Somehow is still laggy on a Ryzen 7 ( that can handle greedy Cyberpunk 2077 quite well)
* Crashes as well
* Has the same unreliability of uploading presets
Orbasynth:
* Everything you create there, does not appear in Orba2 app.
Seems like everything that is saved by OrbaSynth goes to personal folder
C:\Users\{USERNAME}\AppData\Roaming\Artiphon\Orba\Presets\ with orbapreset extension
C:\Users\Public\Documents\Artiphon\Common\Presets\, with
artipreset extension.
File format internals look similar on the first glance, so I've tried to do some stupid manual labor, and moved orbapreset file generated by OrbaSynth to the second location and changed the extension, and it seems to work. However, basically looks like OrbaSynth does not support Orba2 yet.
* OrbaSynth does not seem to be able to work with ASIO, therefore there is no way to try out presets without annoying lag. Not a big deal though.
General:
* Switching between PC app and Android app often causes a looong "sync" procedure.
* Different presets do no share the same volume, some presets are painfully louder than other.
* I could not find any menu that should enable bluetooth ble midi. I have M-wave dongle that works fine with other devices, but tlooks like there is no menu to force Orba2 to connect to it, nor it does it automatically. Using Orba2 as a wireless controller was my main point.
Enough of experience for today I guess. PC software looks like an very early Beta at most. Android app is about Alpha, OrbaSynth is okay, but does not support Orba 2.
Device itself as a hardware does feel good at this point (at least did not fail during the first day, did not hang or something, usb MIDI connection works fine, sensors are well too), but software around definitely needs a lot of improvement.
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