Coding

The Lounge General Discussion
#124

ELK Audio is now offering their audio operating system open source. They are also selling a Raspberry Pi Hat high-performance audio hardware that will work along with their operating system. The code includes over 400 VST plugin examples, in source code ready to compile and run. Add to this all the other ways to generate VST code, and you should have lots of ways to create reasonable costing high performance digital hardware, with customized features. This is all set up to be used with JUCE.

It’s a little unfortunate though the Pi Hat is for RP 3. Why? Hopefully they’re working on the update.

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#125

Awesome

#126

The Daisy, from Electrosmith of San Diego, is an open source music development system now available through Kickstarter. It’s based on the STM32 ARM Cortex-M7 running at 480MHz and has 24-bit stereo audio hardware with up to 192kHz input and output, and DIN MIDI support, as well as USB OTG-support as both host and device. In addition to the board:
Daisy Board
there is also your choice of platforms to use this in, a breakout board, a guitar pedal, a Eurorack module, and a desktop synth with encoders and keys/pads, or of course you could embed it in your own custom HW application. There is a variety of language interfaces including PD, Max/MSP/Gen~, Python, FAUST, and C++.

Reference from Sonic State with video.

ADDED: Image of the four platform options:

image
image1540×850 353 KB

ADDED: I really like this, and i might back it, but it’s hard for me to decide between this and the ELK Audio system, that i put up two posts back. Anyone have a thought on this?

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Pointers for making a VST?
#127

this one looks interesting too and it’s nice they show some of the ways one could use it

#128

I could not find the OS itself at https://github.com/elk-audio, only the SDK and binaries. I believe the OS is still very much closed source.

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#129

Well i’m not entirely sure. I am not a Linux OS specialist.

I see what you are talking about with the ELK Audio OS Raspberry Pi binary images at the GitHub site you referenced. But i also see C++ source code for the Sushi and Sensei parts of the OS. If you look at the diagram of the “Software Components Inside an Elk Product” here, you will see that the Sushi and Sensei parts are “core Elk components”. There is a large portion of Elk that comes from other open sources for Embedded Linux created using the Yocto Project. (Read further down that same page.) Since Elk is using the latest of this Embedded Linux code, it should not be at the Elk GitHub site. (You see why right? There should be only one place for this.)

This all said i have only spent a few minutes to dig this far, so i am not totally sure on all this. And i certainly don’t fully understand the Dual licensing model. Perhaps someone else cam clear this up.

#130

The sources are available on the same github page as the binaries (see under Assets -> zip or tar.gz sources).

After all it’s just a modified linux I guess with realtime patches enabled …

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#131

Nope, the content of these archives is just a README, no source code in there. It’s a rather strange practice to display “source” archives right next to a binary release and have this source archive empty. My spider sense is tingling :stuck_out_tongue:

After all it’s just a modified linux I guess with realtime patches enabled …

Sounds like vaporware to me.

#132

Did you read what i wrote?

#133

Here’s another one. This allows development of open source plugins too. The MOD Dwarf from MOD Devices of Germany. Their Kickstarter page. Pretty sure it’s another Linux box.

image

This is a pedal with HORSEPOWER! It has a quad-core 64 bit ARM CPU running at 1.3GHz , with 8 gb storage, and 1 gb RAM. They seem to be focused on the guitar player market, but i don’t see why it can’t be opened up from there as a synth and effects product. It has both a class compliant USB MIDI interface, and TRS MIDI.

You can sort-of think of it like a Zoia pedal without all the buttons. But it does have a computer based graphical user interface for configuring. It comes with over 300 LV2 based plugins (LV2 is a Linux standard), plus you can create your own with the Max ~gen. You can also develop your own using the MOD Labs. And check out the price!

#134

Yes, sure I did. Wherever the different pieces are, something ties them together and builds binary images. Unless published somewhere, that something is missing as source.

To be clear, it’s one thing to be technically “open source”, but another to be true to the spirit. Distributing fake source archives with 3 lines readme is a red flag for me (= “ok, this thing is interesting but I’ll take the open source statement with a grain of salt as it may not be a strong point”). But of course that doesn’t mean that this solution is not technically interesting or that someone can’t build great stuff with it, for fun and/or for profit. It just appears to me that its “open source karma” is pretty low, so anyone just be aware of this before diving in.

#135

btw, speaking of open source though probably not the best for beginners, some obvious links:

The incredibly influential work of Mutable Instruments, both hardware and software sources:

The excellent Surge synth. I want this as hardware one day…

Another great VST, for those who want to learn JUCE:

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#136

I think with WebAssembly Interface (WASI) one day you will be able to just go from your Max/Gen prototype to executable binary or interfaceable with C++,C, Rust and other languages.
I believe Ableton did do a lot of the synth parts in the https://learningsynths.ableton.com/ website and then compiled to webassembly and got it interacting with javascript on the browser allowing for cross-browser support.

#137

You are right. The source archives don’t contain the sources, BUT what’s about checking the docs?

https://elk-audio.github.io/elk-docs/html/documents/how_elk_works.html#standard-linux-components

They are clearly stating that they are using the Xenomai Cobalt Kernel and refer also to the other standard linux components used.

When you want to build everything from source (even the used kernel) it’s not uncommon in the Linux world that you’ll need to fetch sources from a multitude of other projects. Almost all projects don’t provide an all-in-one package, but just refer what you’ll need.

It’s not uncommon in the Linux world that you need to fetch multiple pieces from different projects when you want to compile everything from source (but its quite rare to really want to do that).

Why should it be vaporware when you can install and run it and there is even already a quite comprehensive documentation how to develop your own stuff for it?

All major components of their system are available as open source. Maybe there are some driver sources missing, but that’s also not really uncommon (for example due to 3rd party licenses).

This something depends heavily on what build environment (build server etc.pp.) they are using and wouldn’t help you even when they publish it. But why should you need that? If you want to hack their own components just modify their sources and re-install the component you have modified.

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#138

At least the MOD Duo X isn’t focussed on the guitar player market, because there is not a single stomp switch on it … :wink:

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#139

Yes, sure, “just do it yourself” is always an option, I was not arguing about that :wink:

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#140

The.TBD from Instruments of Things. Another Eurorack platform for developing or learning about DSP code. Setup for C++ and reasonably priced this makes another entry point for those interested in developing their own DSP algorithms.

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#141

I’ve found Ornament and Crime (particularly Hemisphere Suite) very quick and satisfying to modify. A fully functional and quite popular (easy to flip) modular that also is my own little Teensy-based playground. Radio Music/Chord organ is another to check if you want something pre-built but ready to hack.

#142

New product on Kickstarter-- WVR (said waver or weaver you pick) is an open source open hardware product. You can compare it to the Daisy product from Electrosmith (linked above), with the prominent addition of wireless (Bluetooth or WiFi) built in. They’re really pushing the sample playback (pick your format) features, and the diverse peripheral interface options. The other big feature is it is very inexpensive and small ! I won’t go into a lot of detail, there is a ton of that, this thing can do a lot, but here are a few simple facts.

  • Dual core 240 MHz processor
  • 16 MB RAM
  • 8 GB eMMC storage (that’s a ton of audio)
  • Playback up to 18 stereo wav files simultaneously, with ~1ms latency.
  • Opto isolator for serial MIDI input
  • Optional USB backpack for either USB host or device interface
  • Built in WiFi and Bluetooth radio.
  • Extensive and well feature development environment
  • Available hardware options from bare to filled out for purchase
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#143

I’m a superb noob at coding, I thought myself some c# to use with Unity and I’m loving it and I’m now learning Sonic Pi. It’s an odd experience to code a song, very close to an Elektron sequencer sometimes, but I love the logic/though process behind it and the idea of carefully planning a song Vs jamming.

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