Synthstrom Audible has announced that – as of June 5th, 2023 – the Deluge firmware will be open source.

The Deluge is a grid-based instrument that’s a portable sequencer, synthesizer and sampler. It features 128 RGB pads, arranged in a 16 x 8 grid; a built-in synthesizer; up to 12 minutes of sample playback from SD card; and sequencing of up to thousands of notes.

Here’s what Synthstrom has to say about their plans to open source the Deluge firmware:

“At Synthstrom, we’re devoted to sustainability and want our Deluge to continue being the centre of our users’ musical excursions for many years to come. Late last year we started retrofitting older Deluge variations with the OLED screen featuring in our new units.

The next step we’re taking has been even longer in development – waiting until we knew we had a community full of talented coders who were as passionate about the Deluge as we are. We know now the time is right – it’s time to take software development into overdrive – we’re going open-source!

What is open-source? Open-source means we’re opening our software code to the community; our users who know how to write code can now develop their own Deluge features, make refinements to the existing code and contribute to a Community version for all users.”

They note that this decision isn’t because they’re working on a new version of the Deluge, they say that “there are currently no plans for that”. The decision was driven more by a desire to focus their energies into ramping up the manufacturing of new OLED Deluges, speeding up the retrofitting and refurbishing off older units, and getting the Deluge into “limited retail”.

Synthstrom will continue to maintain and update the main “Official” repository, including all official Deluge Firmware releases going forward. Alongside there will also be a “Community” repository (for both the OLED & non-OLED versions), forked from the Official repository, as a central place for community code contributions. Forks can be used by Deluge owners, if they like, and new features will be evaluated and may be added to the Official branch.

They note that installing Community or other firmware builds is 100% compatible with your Deluge’s hardware warranty, but they won’t provide support for non-official community builds.

Deluge Firmware will be released under the GPLv3 license. There are no restrictions on personal use and this license allows for code to also be used in commercial projects. However, if even one line of code from this is used in a commercial project, the entire piece of code for that project must also be made open-source under this same license.

The newly open source Deluge Firmware source code will live in GitHub and be available in June 2023. There are also plans for a Patreon to help support ‘Community’ development.

Key dates & details:

• Monday, June 5, 7pm EDT – Codebase made available, documentation released and Patreon launched.
• Wednesday, June 7, 7pm EDT – Open Group video Q&A session with Rohan. Will be recorded and made available on GitHub following.
• Saturday, June 10, 11am, CEST – Open Group Zoom session with Rohan. Will be recorded and made available on the GitHub following.