Ohmic Electronics has launched a crowdfunding project on Crowd Supply to fund production of PICO DSP, an open source, Arduino-compatible device which can be used for a number of different synthesis applications.
Developer Andy Wilson says that it’s perfect for people who are interested in designing their own smart instrument, and features both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, a MIDI adaptor and a user-programmable, multi-functional, Eurorack format expansion module.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
“PICO DSP is an open-source, Arduino-compatible ESP32 development board for audio and digital signal processing (DSP) applications. It offers an expansive audio-processing feature set on a small-format, breadboard-friendly device that provides audio inputs, audio outputs, a low-noise microphone array, an integrated test-speaker option, additional memory, battery-charge management, and ESD protection all on one tiny PCB.
PICO DSP can be used for a wide range of DSP applications, including but not limited to those in the fields of music, art, creative technology, and adaptive technology. Music-related examples include digital-music synthesis, mobile recording, Bluetooth speakers, wireless line-level directional microphones, and the design of smart musical instruments. Art-related examples include acoustic sensor networks, sound-art installations, and Internet-radio applications. Examples related to creative and adaptive technology include voice user interface (VUI) design and Web audio for the Internet of Sounds.”
There is a project Github repository with different example projects for Arduino and ESP-IDF, that is open to developers for collaboration.
Pricing and Availability
PICO DSP is available to project backers starting at $29 for a bare board and $129 for the Eurorack format version.
Note: Crowdfunding projects involve risk in exchange for the opportunity to get access to new products and/or get pre-release pricing. See the project for details.
I was thinking about building something like this myself, but maybe it would be smarter to get something made by a smarter person. I’ll have to check this out. In my research I did run across some rather disappointing floating-point perf from the ESP32 which kind of put me off the project, hopefully that’s been solved/improved.
Great name! Not confusing at all, considering there’s also a eurorack version!
So many of these ‘micro’ synths available now.
Axoloti
Bela.io
Patchblocks
Raspberry Pi based
… others etc.
The latest Teensy Arduino is quite powerful.
Try buying an axolotl or some patchblocks. It’s not so easy anymore!