Wee Noise Makers PGB-1

Open-Source Mini-Groovebox

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Wee noise makers…

:thinking:

Somewhat along the same lines as ‘time tosser’ for us Brits. Perhaps we should offer a name vetting service.

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Funding campaign is now live. €250. Not bad. Has synths and sampling. Again, not bad (though I can’t seem to find the sampling rate anywhere - demo sounds a bit noisy).

I’m interested to see where this trend of small microprocessor based music devices is going to go.

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I’m backing it :slight_smile:

Seems fun to try at least.

this looks great. open source too, very nice. might have to trun me sponds their way :heart:

im interested by this too! i like the idea of a pocket organelle

Looks to be a great value for the money! More controls and a much better display than a Woovebox, at the same price point.

Their comparison chart, though, just reminded me how awesome the Dirtywave M8 I preordered is going to be once I get it in my hands.

so this synth, is it 16 tracks and 800usd about?

@less_wexners Do you mean the PGB-1? Or are you in the wrong thread?

The PGB-1 is $249, and 8 mono tracks. This is info you could have found by just clicking the link.

Open source … but written in Ada, which is … unusual.

I don’t write code, so I don’t know what this means, but the matrix synth article states " And it’s also a hackable and customizable device, with CircuitPython, C\C++, and Ada support for programming your own synthesizers, video games, or any audio based projects."

But that doesn’t clarify what is written in what languages.

Ada is a fairly obscure language.

Open source means the source is available so you can modify or add features, but this is only possible if you actually know the language.

CircuitPython, C and C++ are commonly known but Ada, the language this is written in, is not.

I took a quick look at the source code (which I can barely understand because I’m not familiar with Ada) and it seems like at least a lot of the fundamentals of the system are written in Ada.

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Thanks!

Ada has been having a bit of a resurgence lately, though. It’s currently #16 on the PyPL index of programming language popularity. And it’s a reasonable choice for the job, being designed for real-time systems with multiple simultaneous processes.

This isn’t the first open-source audio device I’ve seen recently that was coded largely in Ada, either. I’m trying to remember what the other one was, will update here if I can recall it. Anyway, I imagine there are some particular advantages to using Ada for audio device programming that are causing it to be chosen for these projects.

I’d be curious to see some documentation on how users can integrate their own code, apart from completely rewriting the firmware. The CrowdSupply page does include a short video showing it running a game written in CircuitPython, so that at least confirms you’re not stuck with Ada only.

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Sequencer demo

This is quite of a small beast, and at that price point. MIDI out, stereo audio in & out, mic, a touch strip (?), internal battery chargeable via USB-C, sample transfer, song mode, step conditions, randomization…

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It’s TINY !!! Wondering how my fat fingers would cope.

Dialling wand? :joy:

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Yeah, good point. There’s less surface area on the buttons on the Woovebox, so it’s harder to fat-finger, but these look a little concerning. Can’t wait to hear some previews

I just played a few minutes with it. It feels good between two hands, especially the metallic version due to its additional weight. By default you press the buttons with your thumbs, just like I’m writing this text from my mobile phone now. The profile of the buttons, their separation, and the pressure/click make easy to push the right buttons even before building any muscle memory. Way easier than typing correctly on a mobile phone.

Promising little device.

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