Percussa SSP

[Moonwax]

@thetechnobear

Ok, I’ll continue here, but most of my questions about Percussa XMX were answered in the video or the comments

Just to confirm: your own firmware and firmware by Percussa for XMX are both a new creations and both solve the obvious graphical limits of the new module (but in different way)?
The original Percussa is probably the only eurorack module with such a big screen and it’s definitely taking advantage of it…

Another obvious question: how different this module performance-wise (for instance, counting in a number of simultaneous blocks in the patch)?

Thanks!

Superbooth 2024 (May 16 - 18)

Im happy to answer questions… a new topic, or perhaps @moderators , could re-title this topic to Percussa SSP/XMX… (ping me if you do… then I can add to it the xmx details etc) as there is quite a lot of overlap, between the two… so might be best in one place. but if not, sure, we can create a new topic. for the ‘micro ssp’? yeah, amusingly this is how my percussa journey started… I too was interesting in micro-ssp(?) but then when it didnt happen, I kept an eye out for a full fat SSP……

[thetechnobear]

So …
My ‘firmware’ is indeed totally new and will be an alternative to what Percussa will offer.

Percussa’s is a port of the existing SSP but with a new UI to reflect the changes in screen etc.

Processing power is not quite as powerful as the SSP…

XMX - quad core ARM Cortex A35 CPU @ 1.3GHz (64bit)
SSP - quad-core ARM cortex A17 @ 1.8GHz

however, the biggest difference is RAM,
256mb on the XMX, vs 2gb + another 16gb flash on the SSP. - the impact on this, does however, depend on application. e.g. you cannot load large samples into ram on the xmx

ok, so thats ‘on paper’, in practice, over and above the summary (its not quite as powerful). its a bit early for me to say… as Ive not run head to head - partly because Ive some ideas on how to get a bit better core usage out of the XMX, and partly as I need to finish getting Trax to run on the SSP.

but I have managed to get Trax running quite a few complex modules, so its performing well in my eyes.

how many modules you’ll be able to run depends very much on the module you use and their cpu usage e.g. a sequencer or sampler tends to use much less cpu that (e.g.) a complex oscillator.

overall, as I mentioned in my video… the SSP remains the powerhouse…
but thats no surprise, the XMX is 1/4 of the price… ($2000 vs $499)

I think at $499 its really well priced…
you get some good DSP processing power,
and also its a multi channel usb audio interfaces and usb midi.

also its smaller form factor, (28hp vs 60hp) whilst creates limitations, also enables other possiibilies. (e.g. the SSP is too big, power hungry for one of my mini cases)

so theres quite a lot of applications for it.

important note:
Im just an independent developer, developing open source music tech…whilst I was provided a unit for development purposes, Im not paid for this development, or getting commission or anything else.

so Im not here to ‘sell’ it… makes no difference to me

rather, I like it (and the SSP) as a development platform, and for what it brings me…
Ive previously detailed, what I like about the SSP, in the video above, and I suspect many of usages/factors hold true for the XMX. esp due to the usb audio functionality.

edit:
percussa.com - now has the specs for both the SSP and the XMX.

[Moonwax]

Thanks so much for so many details