The Organelle M is the exact same price as the Sonicware ELZ_1… both with similar form factors, steel enclosures, and beefy built-in speakers… and interesting little keyboards… with multiple synthesis engines… would be very fun to see someone do a shootout video!
For my money I think the ELZ_1 is the cooler synth… maybe! The Organelle has the ability to do so much with PD, but great potential is just that, potential. I know that the C&G community is making lots of cool things. The sound engines of the ELZ_1 are dialed in, beautifully musical, and ready to rock.
Blue and Grey. Old Blue is different hardware (been beefed up, speaker added, as well as mini midi ports). Thinking of getting one again myself. Looks like some interesting stuff added since I last played around with one.
The grey is more like a cream, similar to old computer, both have a textured matte powder coat finish, the old Blue M has a shiny paint finish, the original Organelle is anodised blue with a satin finish.
Organelle M is based on Raspberry Pi3 Compute module, it is a fair bit more powerful than the original, has built in speaker, mic, and midi ports which the original does not.
Sold my Organelle a couple of years ago but starting to GAS for one again…battery portability on the M is a gamechanger. Becomes a chuck-in-the-weekend-bag option to the OP1. Anyone been playing with theirs recently? Is it still as good/bad as I remember?
Pluses
dinky wooden keys (for the feels)
USB midi hub goodness
ridiculously good library of user patches
straight out of the box pretty sophisticated generative sound possibilities from best of the patches out there
the user community online
the it-can-be-anything-ness - for a while my old Organelle was just a really cool shoe gaze-y guitar FX box for me
Minuses
fiddly knobs
terrible display
menu diving with terrible display
disappointment with self for never actually quite managing to get on top of Pure Data
quite a lot of cash to shell out for a Raspberry Pi with a keyboard attached (however dinky)
I think that’s exhaustive - any to add to either list?
Have started messing with mine after a long time of not use. Turned it on to get it ready to sell but really is quite nice (non-m version here). I thought that norns would replace the organelle but there really is a lot to like about the organelle.
Currently messing with CruelWave. One unintentional fun aspect of the user patches is that many times the documents don’t quite match up so it a bit of experimentation to find out exactly what does what.
The last few months have seen some nice new patches from C&G - Kaleidoloop emulator K-Loop, a nice Karplus Strong string synth KS Strings, a 4track looper/recorder Prairie Loops, a dual oscillator phazor synth Phazores, a multisynth with polyphonic sequencer Repeats the synth, and a sample beatmaker Repeats, and a bunch of others too.
I have not used mine for about a year, but look forward to trying the new patches out, I will probably get back into some patch creation too, lots of catching up to do.
Nice. I need to fire up Norns Mother, which can run many Organelle patches on Norns, again soon. Not everything runs, especially if the patch needs later OS versions, but it’s a handy way to try things out.
Nice. I sold my Organelle a few years back after getting frustrated with the growing challenge of managing the increasingly complex patches out there through the tiny tiny display. Its brilliant, has great hand-feel (those little wooden keys), a great user community (thanks to @thetechnobear in particular) and some great sounds. But eventually it all just became a bit too much. I miss it, as in lots of ways its as fun a box as the OP-1 when at its best as a box-of-magic-you-can-hold-in-one-hand…
It did prompt me to spend a few months trying to teach myself Pure Data, only for me to find that I am completely rubbish at that sort of structured thinking. hey ho. At least others were very good at it and I benefited from their endless creation of euclidean rhythmic noise patches and the like…
yeah, the UI is a bit ‘quirky’ … only 4 knobs , encoders and keys means you have to get ‘creative’ when making complex patches.
I think the key for the Organelle (for non-devs) is just finding the patches you gel with, you really only need a few for it to be a useful addition to your setup…
the ‘issue’ is alot of the patches are quite esoteric, which is not a bad thing, but means you have to do bit of hunting to find what works for you.
all that said,
C&G have really started to push the UI a lot further these days… I think the graphics they use really do help, and they have also been doing some really interesting patches lately…
(I think perhaps, so that ‘out of the box’ is immediately more useful to users)
a fun little box, thats really quite portable and versatile.
I had a lot of fun with my Organelle V1… I got it after loving the Pocket Piano and wanting a souped up version of that. The Organelle is a unique little box of fun, it’s great they removed the speaker and battery compartment with the latest model, cutting the price in the process. I always loved the feel of this thing and I found it drew me in more than say, an OP-1. It’s more immediately accessible and for those versed in Pure Data it’s more customisable. Not sure if I’ll get another one as I feel I’ve ‘outgrown’ the concept but I recommend them to anyone.
