ZRNA Akso

Spawning a standalone topic on this (from the new gear thread) as might be an interesting focus.

One possibility I am thinking of: "axol_OT_i"
Have toyed with the idea of implanting an axoloti into my Octatrack for a few years, as a very versatile option to bring optionally inline of Octatrack functionality, but never done it.

Now, with this independent new more powerful board, and having gotten somewhat better at creating my own patches, I might finally take that plunge.
Even smaller form factor than the original axoloti, and so even easier to fit into the empty Octatrack space and wire up internally to audio io/Midi as needed. Could be anything - beatbox, new FX (OT with MI Clouds built-in?), synths, midi brain and controlled from the Octatrack hardware on a dedicated channel etc. Can be ordered without the trs sockets attached. Finding somewhere on the OT surface to put an extra small oled gui would be great though.

Then again, just as easy to keep it in tiny enclosure of its own and not go meddling inside my beloved Octatrack! Just like the idea of the integration in one box


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Just ordered a couple of these

The Akso by Zrna.
An axoloti-inspired new version with more cpu heft (can run 50 MI Braids oscillators using 50% cpu, say the developer)

Smaller form factor, stackable (I think), usb c, mini jacks, aux in and dc coupled for cv. Each jack operates in one of three scale modes: line level, bipolar CV -5V/+5V or unipolar CV 0-10V. Eurorack height so could be very interesting. Usb-midi host.
Will use the existing axoloti patcher and library.

No DIN midi as default but can use gpio (or axoloti midi cutoff)

Love the axoloti as the heart of diy wooden box, knobs, buttons and little oled projects; so this is a nice upgrade.
At its most basic a fabulous midi, usb (and now cv) programmable hub.
Otherwise a very versatile sequencing, sampling, synthing, effecting modular in a box with loads of scope for novice soldering, wiring inventors who know what a potentiometer and momentary switch is.

Same pins as axoloti but more and different physical layout.

https://zrna.org/akso

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Looks good, curious to hear about the cv support and realworld experience with the axoloti tools etc when people give that side a workout. Bookmarked the thread and the link, tempting !

Here’s an example of my previous handiwork with axolotis inside, bit rough around the edges but fun to put together

image

2x axolotis in series inside a koma field kit box.

the ‘front’ axo is intended for synths, samplers, sequencers etc and has the lower oled, two big knobs, the joystick, the 5 thin pots and the 5 buttons.
the ‘back’ axo intended for loopers, effects etc has the upper oled, the four top pots on the right and neighbouring buttons.
in addition I have a teensy 3.6 inside, with another oled strip, as a controller that sends midi to both axolotis and is controlled by the two encoders and the 2x 4x4 button matrices. I intend to create some useful arduino apps for that as the matrix buttons are best used to trigger macros rather than as a playable musical keyboard

I also have a SAM2695 midi GM synth board inside so as I have a simple optional sound pallette to drive with midi.

just finished it yesterday and apart from my crude aluminium cutting skills, it works very nicely.

power comes in through a DC 9v - 12v plug with an on/off switch in the case and distributes to the axos and 5v to the teensy and the sam2695.

I don’t think i’ll fit anything else inside as it is a birds nest of wires already.

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And more recently in a bamboo glasses case

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Oh they’re finally out !

Time to get back into electronics ! :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the heads up @mokomo I just ordered one, two days after ordering a full size Axoloti :laughing: oh well I’ll find a use for it.

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Dang I was waiting for these to drop. Looks real hefty. Axoloti was so much fun but I got too carried away and always ended up maxing out the memory and having to strip back things, so this looks like a gamechanger.

I have no idea what these are, what they do, how they do it or how you all even know what to do… But my hat is off to you. Some beautiful objects here and I suspect they sound so unique.

Members’ creativity and hard/soft skills amaze me daily.

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Sorry my memory exaggerated… 40 Braids not 50, at 50% CPU

From the developer:

I’ll leave you with an interesting illustration of Akso’s DSP performance. It consists of one of each of the GPL Braids oscillators available on the system all running simultaneously and being mixed together. That’s 40 Braids oscillators. In the current build, this patch hovers at about 50% DSP usage. We can do even better with further optimization, but I think it’s an exciting starting point. Longer term I see being able to execute open source DSP code from various sources.

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Wow, so this seems pretty cool… Axoloti was on my list of things to check out at some point but this looks even more interesting. If I’m reading all this correct, and it I was happy to control everything via midi-over-USB you could effectively use one of these like you would a Micro-modular or a Patchblock?

And, forgive the really basic question but could you connect a DT/DN to control one of these using midi over USB?

I really should carve out some time to go do some reading.

Yes it has midi host so you can plug in midi slaves like any midi controller or synth that has usb midi

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Haha, I’ve just done the very same this week! :rofl:

@mokomo Really appreciate the mention here.

I’m the developer behind this project. Feel free to ping me if you have any questions. Boards for this first wave of orders just made it to me and will ship out soon. Stock will stabilize in the coming weeks as we ramp up, and we’ll generally have stock for next business day shipping.

There was some coverage over on Lines here: https://llllllll.co/t/axoloti-core/3591/60. I answered some questions over there directly.

MIDI DIN is very important to a lot of users but was left out of the base board to keep things compact. I’m planning to ship an official expansion, but it can be easily added with any standard MIDI DIN breakout board. The MIDI section of the original Axoloti Core can work. MIDI DIN IO is supported directly at test points near the center of the top of the board in the picture above.

There are some technical challenges in the way of supporting 3.5mm to MIDI directly through the normal audio jacks. It’s not impossible, but it requires some significant dev time. It’s much more practical to do it with a breakout or expansion.

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Thanks for the additional info - as much as it would be cool to do something with the product as-is I’ll probably wait for the official MIDI DIN expansion to become available. Not got a lot of time at present to dive into learning it.

This looks pretty sweet, what language do these things run again?

It’s an object patcher like Reaktor/PD/Max

For the more adventurous: Coding Axoloti
and

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Rats! More fun stuff I don’t have time for :confused:

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Had a skim over the website but I couldn’t see how many physical, digital and analog, ins and outs there are?

Hi @CompNutation. Are you asking about IO available at test points? There’s a test point pinout diagram at the bottom the reference documentation page.

By default, A0 - A7, B0, B1 and C0 - C4 are configured as ADC inputs, but each processor GPIO pin can be assigned one of many possible functions, including simple digital IO. The digital pin labels on the board correspond with H7 processor pin labels. The reference page explains this in more detail.

If it’s something else you’d like clarified, let me know.

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It was the GPIO pins I was looking for. Nice one cheers. This looks pretty awesome, thanks!