5 ms·

ESP32 Drum Synth Machine

225 points by peteforde 2y ago

imbusy111 2y ago
The high-end version of this is Synthstrom Deluge. I love that piece of gear. Even the wood on the sides aesthetic is the same.
- helpfulContrib 2y ago
  [dead]
- joemi 2y ago
  Not sure if you meant the wood side panels are an intentional reference to the Deluge, but if so you may want to know that wood side panels are a common design touch for desktop synths, hearkening back to some of the first compact consumer synths (like the Roland SH-1000), which also had wood side panels.
  - tb303 2y ago
    yeah i even had walnut ones made for my 100m because i didn't like the fake veneer
  - ruined 2y ago
    and the akai timbre wolf, which comes with real simulated wood grain sides
- ben_ 2y ago
  The delly is in an incredible piece of kit, especially now with the community firmware!
aminmohsenikhah 2y ago
[dead]
bitwrangler 2y ago
This is a nice example of using ESP32 and Arduino. Thanks for sharing the details of your project!
stets 2y ago
that is very fucking cool. Well done! Any resources to learn about this stuff? Always been into synths so I'm interested in this
- peteforde 2y ago
  Not my project, but I agree! The good thing is that there's an overwhelming amount of learning material out there. One fellow who was a big help when I was getting started was Nerd Musician: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyqCwyBJ98fR-CPoyXUxY5w https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyqCwyBJ98fR-CPoyXUxY5w
- mreid 2y ago
  If you want to go a more analog route, this series of synth DIY videos by Moritz Klein is really great: https://www.youtube.com/@MoritzKlein0 https://www.youtube.com/@MoritzKlein0
  - boredemployee 2y ago
    omg. I wish we had a channel like that 10 years ago when I had free time.
    - tomcam 2y ago
      [flagged]
- plastkfantastik 2y ago
  Here is another cool youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@hagiwo https://www.youtube.com/@hagiwo
- chaosprint 2y ago
  you can start with Bela
- rabf 2y ago
  One of the best detailed sites on audio DSP that I've come across: https://www.earlevel.com/main/ https://www.earlevel.com/main/
bambax 2y ago
> DRUM_2004_V1 Shouldn't that title read DRUM_2024_V1 instead? Very cool project! Congrats!
bxguff 2y ago
Pocket operator-esque setup, very cool
- makmanalp 2y ago
  Just got a PO-33 and very psyched with it, though I've had some thoughts about whether you couldn't leverage the LCD a bit better to shift it from semi-serious to fully serious. E.g. right now in the sequencer it's impossible to know which specific instrument is playing. Anyway, it would have been really cool to have the OS be open and flashable and spend a little bit of time to make little papercuts like that better. I was looking into how hard it would be to put something like csound in a tiny board and make my own, but when I look at how minimal that single header file synth is, I'm left wondering if that's too much.
  - pierrec 2y ago
    I don't know about CSound, but Faust works well on microcontrollers, in fact that's one of its main use cases. Note that Faust focuses more on DSP, synthesis and effects, not so much on sequencing and higher-level music organization. I've found combining Faust (for low level) with any general-purpose language (for high level) works well for a lot of things. https://faustdoc.grame.fr/tutorials/esp32/ https://faustdoc.grame.fr/tutorials/esp32/
    - makmanalp 2y ago
      Hadn't heard of it before - the fact that it has multiple compilation targets is super interesting - thanks!
  - bxguff 2y ago
    Theres some in-depth breakdowns for the PO 12,14,16 here(http://hackingthepo.weebly.com/ http://hackingthepo.weebly.com/) if you're interested! I have no idea about the po33 and if the juice is worth the squeeze, but they're cheap enough to tear apart so go for it.
    - 2y ago
schwartzworld 2y ago
For a similar device (with a different UI) check out the Woovebox. I love mine as a portable groovebox and I'm experimenting with having it be the brain of my dawless setup. Would buy or build one of these in a heartbeat.
brotchie 2y ago
Great project, congrats, super cool.
tonyarkles 2y ago
Not sure if the author is around here or not but I might have something interesting for them in the next few weeks: an ESP32 implementation of AppleMIDI/rtp-midi for sending and receiving MIDI over Ethernet. I’ve put a reminder in my calendar to reach out once I’m ready to release it.
- helpfulContrib 2y ago
  You're aware that there are already a couple of these, right? First one that pops up in a platformio search: % pio pkg search rtpmidi Found 1 packages (page 1 of 1) lathoub/AppleMIDI Library • 3.3.0 • Published on Sat Aug 27 11:57:15 2022 AppleMIDI (aka rtpMIDI) MIDI I/Os for Arduino. AppleMIDI (aka rtpMIDI) is a protocol to transport MIDI messages within RTP (Real-time Protocol) packets over Ethernet and WiFi networks. This major rewrite is faster, more stable and uses less memory. Read the Wiki page when migrating .. is pretty stable and fast. I've used it in an ESP8266 project ..
  - swatcoder 2y ago
    Of course, the existence of some implementation is no reason not to write or share another one. In fact, it's good for the ecosystem to have different people/teams exploring the problem space and it's good for individual developers to hone their craft on delicate technical problems even when they're ostensibly already covered.
  - tonyarkles 2y ago
    Yes, I’m specifically targeting Zephyr. It’s actually less of an ESP32 thing and more of a Zephyr thing, I just happened to have an ESP32 LyraT Mini kicking around to do the project with. And in general the Arduino/Platformio ecosystem causes me to break out into hives…
    - boffinAudio 2y ago
      >And in general the Arduino/Platformio ecosystem causes me to break out into hives… Why so? All the disparate platforms being supported?
amelius 2y ago
Does it support touch-sensitivity and polyphony?
dmix 2y ago
> This is my DRUM SYNTH LOFI MACHINE. I’m curious what makes it lofi, is one of the chips 12 bit or something? Or just some digital resampling
- boffinAudio 2y ago
  20khz sampling rate.
chaosprint 2y ago
PCM5102A has 32 bits, why is it still synthesized by lofi? If you only need lofi, can you consider an esp32 dac? edit, it looks like sr is a bottleneck...
wdfx 2y ago
This is very cool. I'm very interested in using ESP32 for MIDI/Audio/Synth projects, I have one of my own on the go: https://doug.lon.dev/fourays https://doug.lon.dev/fourays ;) I hope to get confident in doing PCB layouts in KiCAD and manufacturing my own synth modules on a budget. I'm currently a bit stuck on how to get the front panels designed and manufactured, and coupling that with the correct "UI" hardware (pots, buttons, sockets) in order to make the thing assemble correctly.
- couchand 2y ago
  Lots of folks are doing front panels in PCB these days. They're precision and sturdy and you already have the workflow set up.
  - wdfx 2y ago
    That's good advice; I had thought of doing this, and it requires a little bit of project refactoring, but you are correct that I do seem to already have the tools. Adding a few more unpopulated PCBs to the order would be pretty cheap as well, I guess around $1 per panel.

225 points by peteforde 2y ago

The high-end version of this is Synthstrom Deluge. I love that piece of gear. Even the wood on the sides aesthetic is the same.

helpfulContrib 2y ago
[dead]
joemi 2y ago
Not sure if you meant the wood side panels are an intentional reference to the Deluge, but if so you may want to know that wood side panels are a common design touch for desktop synths, hearkening back to some of the first compact consumer synths (like the Roland SH-1000), which also had wood side panels.
- tb303 2y ago
  yeah i even had walnut ones made for my 100m because i didn't like the fake veneer
- ruined 2y ago
  and the akai timbre wolf, which comes with real simulated wood grain sides
ben_ 2y ago
The delly is in an incredible piece of kit, especially now with the community firmware!

aminmohsenikhah 2y ago

[dead]

bitwrangler 2y ago

This is a nice example of using ESP32 and Arduino. Thanks for sharing the details of your project!

stets 2y ago

that is very fucking cool. Well done! Any resources to learn about this stuff? Always been into synths so I'm interested in this

peteforde 2y ago
Not my project, but I agree! The good thing is that there's an overwhelming amount of learning material out there. One fellow who was a big help when I was getting started was Nerd Musician: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyqCwyBJ98fR-CPoyXUxY5w https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyqCwyBJ98fR-CPoyXUxY5w
mreid 2y ago
If you want to go a more analog route, this series of synth DIY videos by Moritz Klein is really great: https://www.youtube.com/@MoritzKlein0 https://www.youtube.com/@MoritzKlein0
- boredemployee 2y ago
  omg. I wish we had a channel like that 10 years ago when I had free time.
  - tomcam 2y ago
    [flagged]
plastkfantastik 2y ago
Here is another cool youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@hagiwo https://www.youtube.com/@hagiwo
chaosprint 2y ago
you can start with Bela
rabf 2y ago
One of the best detailed sites on audio DSP that I've come across: https://www.earlevel.com/main/ https://www.earlevel.com/main/

bambax 2y ago

> DRUM_2004_V1 Shouldn't that title read DRUM_2024_V1 instead? Very cool project! Congrats!

bxguff 2y ago

Pocket operator-esque setup, very cool

makmanalp 2y ago
Just got a PO-33 and very psyched with it, though I've had some thoughts about whether you couldn't leverage the LCD a bit better to shift it from semi-serious to fully serious. E.g. right now in the sequencer it's impossible to know which specific instrument is playing. Anyway, it would have been really cool to have the OS be open and flashable and spend a little bit of time to make little papercuts like that better. I was looking into how hard it would be to put something like csound in a tiny board and make my own, but when I look at how minimal that single header file synth is, I'm left wondering if that's too much.
- pierrec 2y ago
  I don't know about CSound, but Faust works well on microcontrollers, in fact that's one of its main use cases. Note that Faust focuses more on DSP, synthesis and effects, not so much on sequencing and higher-level music organization. I've found combining Faust (for low level) with any general-purpose language (for high level) works well for a lot of things. https://faustdoc.grame.fr/tutorials/esp32/ https://faustdoc.grame.fr/tutorials/esp32/
  - makmanalp 2y ago
    Hadn't heard of it before - the fact that it has multiple compilation targets is super interesting - thanks!
- bxguff 2y ago
  Theres some in-depth breakdowns for the PO 12,14,16 here(http://hackingthepo.weebly.com/ http://hackingthepo.weebly.com/) if you're interested! I have no idea about the po33 and if the juice is worth the squeeze, but they're cheap enough to tear apart so go for it.
  - 2y ago

schwartzworld 2y ago

For a similar device (with a different UI) check out the Woovebox. I love mine as a portable groovebox and I'm experimenting with having it be the brain of my dawless setup. Would buy or build one of these in a heartbeat.

brotchie 2y ago

Great project, congrats, super cool.

tonyarkles 2y ago

Not sure if the author is around here or not but I might have something interesting for them in the next few weeks: an ESP32 implementation of AppleMIDI/rtp-midi for sending and receiving MIDI over Ethernet. I’ve put a reminder in my calendar to reach out once I’m ready to release it.

helpfulContrib 2y ago
You're aware that there are already a couple of these, right? First one that pops up in a platformio search: % pio pkg search rtpmidi Found 1 packages (page 1 of 1) lathoub/AppleMIDI Library • 3.3.0 • Published on Sat Aug 27 11:57:15 2022 AppleMIDI (aka rtpMIDI) MIDI I/Os for Arduino. AppleMIDI (aka rtpMIDI) is a protocol to transport MIDI messages within RTP (Real-time Protocol) packets over Ethernet and WiFi networks. This major rewrite is faster, more stable and uses less memory. Read the Wiki page when migrating .. is pretty stable and fast. I've used it in an ESP8266 project ..
- swatcoder 2y ago
  Of course, the existence of some implementation is no reason not to write or share another one. In fact, it's good for the ecosystem to have different people/teams exploring the problem space and it's good for individual developers to hone their craft on delicate technical problems even when they're ostensibly already covered.
- tonyarkles 2y ago
  Yes, I’m specifically targeting Zephyr. It’s actually less of an ESP32 thing and more of a Zephyr thing, I just happened to have an ESP32 LyraT Mini kicking around to do the project with. And in general the Arduino/Platformio ecosystem causes me to break out into hives…
  - boffinAudio 2y ago
    >And in general the Arduino/Platformio ecosystem causes me to break out into hives… Why so? All the disparate platforms being supported?

amelius 2y ago

Does it support touch-sensitivity and polyphony?

dmix 2y ago

> This is my DRUM SYNTH LOFI MACHINE. I’m curious what makes it lofi, is one of the chips 12 bit or something? Or just some digital resampling

boffinAudio 2y ago
20khz sampling rate.

chaosprint 2y ago

PCM5102A has 32 bits, why is it still synthesized by lofi? If you only need lofi, can you consider an esp32 dac? edit, it looks like sr is a bottleneck...

wdfx 2y ago

This is very cool. I'm very interested in using ESP32 for MIDI/Audio/Synth projects, I have one of my own on the go: https://doug.lon.dev/fourays https://doug.lon.dev/fourays ;) I hope to get confident in doing PCB layouts in KiCAD and manufacturing my own synth modules on a budget. I'm currently a bit stuck on how to get the front panels designed and manufactured, and coupling that with the correct "UI" hardware (pots, buttons, sockets) in order to make the thing assemble correctly.

couchand 2y ago
Lots of folks are doing front panels in PCB these days. They're precision and sturdy and you already have the workflow set up.
- wdfx 2y ago
  That's good advice; I had thought of doing this, and it requires a little bit of project refactoring, but you are correct that I do seem to already have the tools. Adding a few more unpopulated PCBs to the order would be pretty cheap as well, I guess around $1 per panel.