Axoloti (was Re: Rpi zero w)

[Jay Vaughan]

> Yeah man, super curious. I think it’s a bit expensive looking at the hardware. At the same time, it looks like a nice integrated package. The R-Pi still doesn’t have a good (cheap) audio i/o shield for low latency audio/MIDI.

I think you might feel its expensive because you know too much about the CPU, but if you look at it as a completely integrated synth platform with working front-end patches, its a different story.  The whole thing is worth it.

The software architecture is quite good: you use a Java front-end to define the patches, with interconnections and so on, and then when you press the button, it generates C code, which is then compiled seamlessly and uploaded to the CPU to run, on ChibiOS (http://www.chibios.org/dokuwiki/doku.php).  

The impressive bit is that you don't have to know any of this - just design your virtual digital modular system, press the button, and off it goes.  Underneath, you're running optimal C-code: on top, you've got a GUI that looks quite a bit like the old Modular interface (albeit its open source and you can easily program your own modules using a meta-format).

I've got mine in a 3d-printed enclosure, and I'm just waiting for the parts to arrive to complete the setup.  I'm using the AxoStomp design:

http://frankpiesik.org/2016/08/02/axostomp/

.. because I think 8 sliders and 4 arcade buttons is a pretty great config for jamming, but .. as we're now using the Axoloti platform as  a development/research platform at work, I may do a case with a built-in LCD and micro-keys instead of the arcade buttons.

The other thing of course is that the Axoloti is so versatile that the idea has been proferred that, for 500bucks, one can get a stack of Axoloti, and an rPi+LCD-Touchscreen, and build a fascinating multi-timbral/technology digital synth workstation out of it .. but I'll let you know when that happens. ;)


> Got the Arturia KeyStep this Friday. Had quite a bit of fun playing with it. Hooked it up to the… Chameleon! Loaded up Australis (of course), Faze-1 (haha!!), and… Entity. Wow. Wish we had a bit more presets for that one. It sounds ***AMAZING!*** And so much fun together with a very playable sequencer.

Totally!   I love the Chameleon, I've been playing it a bit myself as well, although we're stuck in Entity .. and I concur, its a great synth, we should make more patches for it.  :)

Or, just port Entity/DFM-1 to the Axolti and leave the Chameleon for another era. :P



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Jay Vaughan
ibisum at gmail.com