Well I finally scraped up enough discretional dosh to spend on something. I decided that spending £70 on a Bela Cape for the Beaglebone Black I already own was the quickest way to start making interesting sounds with my Theremini, Open Theremin and even some of the phalanx of Midi controllers my son and I have amassed over the years.
It’s all down to time investment and available skill set. I can write software in languages like ScLang and C++, it was my job for many decades, and Bela promises to connect that software to the real world with ultra-low latency. Plus I already have the single-board computer which saves me a lot of money.
I plan to fit that Bela module behind a suitable faceplate and it will form part of a very versatile hybrid modular synth. But I think I need to concentrate on my strengths. SuperCollider is a fabulously powerful music programming language, and Bela offers all this and more.
The Bela project has already produced experimental Eurorack modules (Salt and Salt+) and a more DIY-friendly version called Pepper. All these modules place a powerful open source hardware single-board computer behind a modular synth panel with lots of programmable jacks and knobs. Why spend hundreds of pounds and lots of time building a module when I can design, program and test it in software?
Is anybody else choosing to plough the hybrid furrow, whether with Axoloti, the TT Eurorack module, or using external gear connected to a DAW?
For me and this is Me… I don’t like “emulation” as such…
I think, to a little degree, in my world it takes the fun out of the hardware.
I have a nice PC with cakewalk and a bunch of VST’s but I would rather try and use a real old bit of kit… MY DX21 or DX9, even a Wheezey Chord Organ, a vintage Drum Sequencer… and hopefully the Modular…
I nearly accidentally bought a Korg MS20IC until I realized what it actually was…
Perhaps part of it’s down to spending all day banging my head against brick walls trying to fathom out why we have Computer System problems that nobody else in the entire world has ever seen before… I just want to turn on a piece of audio equimpent and get sound…
Don’t get me wrong, I love dabbling with Arduinos , and maybe I will change my mind the more I learn…
I suppose the difference is that I don’t think of hybrid modular as mere emulation. But mainly this is a strategy driven by my considerable existing skills and limited budget.
How well does that work? Can your DAW react in real-time to triggers from your modular kit, or do you restrict the signal path to computer-to-module only, so as to avoid latency issues?
I may mess around with Axoloti if my funds permit it. It’s a little less expensive, though probably not as cost effective as the much more powerful Bela.
I’ve looked at Terminal Tedium, but I’m not sure how well it tackles latency.
I have a fc Power, and a LFO and VCO kit from Look Mum No Computer, all just boards waiting to be populated and tested. But if I want a project that requires six VCOs and a multi-stage mixer that’s just a few lines of SuperCollider.
I’ve got a behringer uphoria audio interface. It’s inexpensive, has 4 audio ins, and can output midi. It’s pretty real-time (not planck length, but human feeling sure thing), I don’t even have a proper midi to CV. I just route midi through my keystep and output CV pitch for example. Haven’t experimented with gate yet, my filter is currently not working.
I’m in about the same boat as Caustic it sounds like. I have the DAW If I want it and a butt-load of virtual instruments (Arturia, mostly) but my hardware synths, while most of them have MIDI, I just tend not to use with anything but Zoom recorders. That works well for the “patch performance” mindset I think, but I don’t have a hard-and-fast religious repulsion to the idea of crossover either. They’re different pursuits to me I think.
That’s my answer when someone mentions real-time application response times. At some point, you have to concede that its close enough.
I gave up most of my hardware to fund my DIY habit, so all i have in hardware is what i make. Thats why is pretty sparse atm. After i rebuild my VCF, i will have more to test with. At the moment though, my VCF self resonates at all times and wigs out (one or several shorts probably who knows). Rebuilding helped my VCO’s Pulse to not suck, so hopefully doing the same here will fix the VCF.
Ive got plenty of software instruments. Theres a lot of free emulations of synths that do the job, Diva is great, and Omnisphere is just fucking weird. I dont think there is much you cant do in software that you do in the physical world, emulations are getting amazing. There is no reason to get hardware aside from the fact you want hardware and a “feeling” sorta thing. Though, to be honest, “feeling” shouldnt be discounted, its kinda the whole point right?
I just like how easy everything is to interface together now. I can hook up the bits n bobs i made into a DAW and mix with other software, control everything from a central place, its great. Its especially great for someone like me that performs only to get the idea, but arranges to get it down solidly. Multiple passes of recordings can get me similar results from a mono synth that i would get from a poly, and if i need to lay things out in a poly synth first, i can get the midi down with a software poly first, then migrate that midi to play the diy, recording in passes.
I have family duties that keep me from the kind of lengthy hackathons I used to favour in my youth. Nevertheless I’ve had a couple of hours playing with Bela. I even tried attaching a SoftPot and using it to control oscillator pitch. The results were mixed and I clearly need to filter transients from the incoming analogue signal and/or reduce my analogue sampling rate (currently at the ridiculous default rate of 22KHz; about 2KHz would probably suit my purposes.)
My Beaglebone Black, which hosts the Bela cape, is conveniently mounted on a baseboard alongside a mini breadboard, so experimentation is very easy.
My main issue so far is that the only mini-USB cable I could find is far too short and constrains the positioning of the board relative to the computer. As the mini-USB is used mainly for the web interface I’ll probably improve things by configuring the board to use one of the many tiny WiFi dongles I keep in my toolkit. It can then go through the house router enabling me to keep the board on a clear workbench away from the computer.
Sort of as an aside to the conversation, about inputs…
My son and I were looking at how to interface into QLC+ ( For stage lighting ) we both agree that QLC is fantastic but you need some tactile input for hitting queues and controlling certain fixtures on the fly…
I looked round and had a brief read of many Arduino Analog to MIDI projetcs including the one from Notes+Volts… (QLC is happy to use Midi “CC”, [5 months ago I had no clue how midi worked LOL…)
Big problem is that we wanted to scale out the inputs, 24 Faders & at least 12+ buttons… At which point your looking into multiplexing ADC’s and that was seemingly going to be a length build…
Roll in the AS6408 and associated UnoCore!! a 64Ch ADC, with a backpack Arduino…
We coupled this to an old Zero88 analog lighting desk and with NO aditional electronics we had a functional 24CH desk…
So if you need a lot of inputs, seek out that AS6408… It will happily work with any Arduino not just the backpack Core.
I’ve noticed a lot of manufacturers who were previously known for beautiful analog hardware starting to roll out digital components and synths. It reminds me of the mid-eighties when you stopped hearing Jupiter 8s in music and started hearing DX7s. It may be that it’s cyclical, and that analog will go out of fashion again. Our Rd-8s and 9s and Td-3s will go out all “okay boomer” and you won’t get $10 for them in a pawn shop, then in six years they’ll suddenly be $10000 collector’s items!
I’ve always said this very thing. To be fair the Gap is closing, and digital will be able to emulate most of analog sound close enough. We are already close enough for a lot of things after all.
Things like the dx7 relied on a completely different form of synthesis, so being fair, I was really talking about analog vs analog modeled digital synths. Fm synths shouldn’t be compared directly since it’s just another tool, another sound. At that point it’s preference and more objective etc.
That’s true-there’s nothing wrong with digital. I don’t think there’s anyone who’s drawn a hard “no” line between playing either or. The aesthetic is completely subjective. If it matters to you when you’re playing an instrument then it’s exactly that real and if it doesn’t and you still make brilliant stuff (and lets admit it that it really doesn’t make a huge difference once it gets to the listener) it’s no big.
I’ve been wanting to use Pure Data inside my modular system for some time now. Using Pure Data is what got me into programming and modular synths. I not very confident in my soldering ability, so I’ve ordered the Bela Salt module instead of the Pepper PCB. Hopefully it arrives soon. I’ll let you know how it goes.
To me a modular synthesis setup can and should use everything from analogue electronics to the kitchen sink reverb.
Mounting an old android phone running a pure data oscillation or effect to a panel of a synth is just cool!
Adding a raspberry pi with pure data or sunvox is just cool!
Attaching a string and tin can to an ears module is just cool!
Hybrid Shmybrid! Its all cool!
(Remind me not to post just after taking my meds. Enjoy)
I’ve been using the Salt module for the past couple of days. It’s great! My main criteria for integrating components into my synth is that it needs to be possible to pass data from the synth to the component. For example, sending midi data from my computer to the synth doesn’t meet this criteria - it’s too static. With the Bela/Beaglebone I’m sending a CV clock and a couple of LFOs to a Pure Data patch. It feels completely integrated into the rest of the system. It’s nice that the Salt module fits into my eurorack case, but I would be happy with a standalone Bela/Beaglebone component sitting beside the synth.
I’m currently researching esp32 audio with a view to building synth modules. I just discovered that somebody at the German University Fachhochschule Kiel has kicad files for a eurorack design based on esp32, and the schematic is in PDF so I get to reverse engineer the CV and gate hardware and apply it to my own designs.