Gearnews has an article about use of Raspberry Pi microcomputers in digital signal processing (DSP) systems, observing that digital synthesizers are essentially computers in specialized housings. In addition to the complex software, there is a lot of work in making an enclosure with useful controls and displays. Increasingly manufacturers are building their synthesizers around the Raspberry Pi:
The biggest synthesizer manufacturer to make use of the Raspberry Pi is Korg. The Japanese synth company's Wavestate, Modwave and Opsix digital synths all make use of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module. (They're in the module versions too.)
In an article on the Raspberry Pi home page, Korg's Andy Leary sites price and manufacturing scale as the main reason Korg decided on these components. He also liked that it was ready to go as is, providing CPU, RAM and storage in a single package. "That part of the work is already done," he said in the article. "It's like any other component; we don't have to lay out the board, build it and test it."
The software for each instrument is, of course, custom. The Raspberry Pi, however, generates the sound. "Not everyone understands that Raspberry Pi is actually making the sound," said Korg's Dan Philips in the same piece. "We use the CM3 because it's very powerful, which makes it possible to create deep, compelling instruments."
These used to be designed with off-the-shelf parts from Motorola and Texas Instruments. However around 20 years ago, according to a Raspberry Pi link about Korg synthesizers, Linux entered synthesizer production scene.
Previously:
(2024) Berlin's Techno Scene Added to UNESCO Cultural Heritage List
(2021) The Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer's Clever Exponential Circuit, Reverse-Engineered
(2019) Moog Brings Back its Legendary Model 10 'Compact' Modular Synth
(2014) History of the Synthesizer - 50 Years
Related Stories
I found an interesting article on the background and history of the analog synthesizer. It helped me understand some of the basic premises on how it functions and was created. Just thought I would share it.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/50-years-of-moog-the-analog-synth-that-still-beats-1s-and-0s/
Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
Moog brings back its legendary Model 10 'compact' modular synth
Moog regularly releases new and exciting instruments like the Matriarch and Sirin. But it also has a rich history of iconic instruments that it's not afraid to tap into. For example, the Minimoog Model D. But its latest adventure into its archives is a bit of a different beast. Rather than bring back an iconic keyboard found on countless pop records, it's reviving the Model 10 -- a "compact" modular synth built around the 900-Series Oscillator that was the foundation of Wendy Carlos' immortal Switched-On Bach. ([engadget] Editor's Note: Why is this not on any streaming services!?)
[...] Inside its black tolex-covered wood cabinet are 11 different modules that can be connected in various ways create a whole world of rich synth tones. There are three 900-Series oscillators, as well as the legendary 907 Fixed Filter Bank, which is a large part of what gives vintage Moog synths their iconic sound.
All of these components are assembled and soldered by hand down in Asheville, NC. But the bad news: The Model 10 will only be available for a limited time and is being made to order. Those three things mean it does not come cheap. It's available through select Moog dealers starting at $9,950. So yeah, it's a hardcore enthusiasts only kind of purchase. But, that's probably a bargain compared to a vintage Model 10... if you can track one down that is.
https://www.righto.com/2021/11/reverse-engineering-yamaha-dx7_28.html
The Yamaha DX7 digital synthesizer was released in 1983 and became extremely popular, defining the sound of 1980s pop music. Because microprocessors weren't fast enough in the early 1980s, the DX7 used two custom digital chips: the EGS "envelope" chip generated frequency and envelope data, which it fed to the OPS "operator" chip that generated the sound waveforms. A key part of the OPS chip is an exponential circuit, which is used for frequency calculation and envelope application. In this blog post, I examine this circuit—implemented by a ROM, shifter, and other circuitry—in detail and extract the ROM's data.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which aims to promote world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences, and culture, has added Berlin's techno scene to its cultural heritage list.
According to UNESCO, intangible cultural heritage refers to mainly cultural forms of expression, which are directly linked to human creativity and traditions, and which people pass those on through generations and are constantly evolving.
This includes practices, rituals, knowledge, skills and performing arts such as music, dance and theater, which are meant to be preserved and kept alive.
"Kraftwerk and African-American DJs and producers like Underground Resistance from Detroit, made a significant contribution to the creation and spread of techno culture," said Leichsenring.
- – Berlin techno on Germany's intangible cultural heritage list, Deutsche Welle
And
Techno is a fundamental part of the city, according to Peter Kirn, a Berlin-based DJ and music producer. In 2021 he told the Observer: "In other cities, people wouldn't accept music that's really hard or weird and full of synthesisers and really brutal, distorted drum machines. You can't play that at peak hour in a club, let alone over lunch. And here it's totally acceptable to play that over lunch.
And
Over the course of the 1980s, the Berlin club scene developed into one of the world's leading centres of the beloved techno subculture of the time.
The electronic music genre in particular became a kind of soundtrack to the years following German reunification, symbolised by legendary clubs such as Tresor, which opened in 1991, and the annual Love Parade.
- – Berlin's techno scene added to UNESCO World Heritage list, The Local DE.
Previously:
(2020) Florian Schneider, Kraftwerk Co-Founder, Dies Aged 73
(2016) German Federal Constitutional Court: Artistic Freedom Sometimes Takes Precedence Over Copyright
These days most ISPs allow self-hosting to some extent. Programmer Mira Welner has published a 15-step tutorial to getting a working static web site up and running on a Raspberry Pi:
While tutorials abound in regards to getting a basic webserver set up, there is a difference between a functional server and a good usable website. I've been working on getting my personal site set up over the course of the past five years, spending an hour or so every month working on improving the Pi. I never intended for this personal project to become so lengthy or complex, but eventually I ended up with a fairly robust system for running, maintaining, and editing my website. This tutorial will describe what I've learned throughout the process of creating this site in 15 steps, so that you can use it to create and maintain your own sites.
This tutorial assumes that you already know how to use the command line, and that you have some understanding of HTML and CSS. That is about it.
Any always-on system is going to need to draw as little current as possible, and it is hard to beat a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W which uses under 150 mA. This tutorial stands out as better than most others because of the small details filled in necessary to go from "Hello, World" page to a working, public web site.
Previously:
(2025) AI Haters Build Tarpits to Trap and Trick AI Scrapers That Ignore Robots.Txt
(2025) A Better DIY Seismometer Can Detect Faraway Earthquakes
(2024) How the Raspberry Pi is Transforming Synthesizers
(2023) Free Raspberry Pi 4B in Abandoned Scooters
... and many more.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Friday April 26 2024, @11:50AM
This isn't that surprising. After all this has been a thing for old computers now for some time now that you can replace chips with a Pi (or similar device) and some things instead of trying to find unobtainium chips from long since abandoned machines.
Things such as the SID-kick to emulate one or many SID chips
https://github.com/frntc/SIDKick-pico [github.com]
Get a couple of those and you might be able to power a SID-station again.
https://www.vintagesynth.com/elektron/sidstation [vintagesynth.com]
Normally you only have on SID chip but eventually they started to build things where you had multiple SID chips, preferably one 6581 and one 8580, to create a sort of stereo effect. Dual SID. Then when that wasn't enough they built QUAD SID. I have not seen an OCTA SID yet but I'm sure someone out there made or is making one. Not sure about the benefit, but build it and they will come or something such.
https://csdb.dk/release/?id=159071 [csdb.dk]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Rich on Friday April 26 2024, @02:16PM (2 children)
That's digital synthesizers for you. Except at the very beginnings, when CPUs were not powerful enough (hello Ensoniq DOC5503!) they've only ever been computers. I knew that this Korg series had Raspis inside and always thought of them as soft-synths with a very nice dongle, yet still want to get my hands on a Wavestate or Modwave some day. They keep the tradition of the Prophet VS and the classic Wavestation series alive. (No opsix for me, I still have an original DX-7 from 1985).
In fact, any modern laptop has everything inside to do an immaculate production, not only as far as synths are concerned, but recording and processing, too. (Some golden ears still think historic compressors with tubes and LDRs inside are the best, and I'll be glad to sell them the retro-synth I develop so they can hear the inductance of the THT IC legs...)
For the "dongle" side, there's an interesting approach: A company called "Third wave" make a clone of the old PPG Wave, and they have an analog filter bank on their "dongle", which allows them to set their price at about eight times that of the little Korgs. ;)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 26 2024, @02:30PM (1 child)
Me too! And same year even.
I have the original cartridges, a couple of rewritable cartridges, a book I bought some decades ago filled with all sorts of nifty sounds that can be keyed in and saved, including some special effects. I even have the manuals and audio cassette it came with.
I used to play it a lot, but not for maybe twenty years now.
Stop asking "How stupid can you be?" Some people apparently take it as a challenge.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 26 2024, @02:31PM
Sorry, off by a year. Mine's 1986.
Stop asking "How stupid can you be?" Some people apparently take it as a challenge.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 27 2024, @01:31AM (4 children)
I'm curious to the real advantages of using a Pi other than extra publicity+hype. They can't make their own cheaper designs?
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday April 27 2024, @11:12AM
You can offload a lot of audio processing work (and neural net inference) on the pi's GPU since videocore is closer to a DSP than most other similarly priced embedded GPUs on the market: http://www.aholme.co.uk/GPU_FFT/Main.htm [aholme.co.uk] https://d-nb.info/1215154372/34 [d-nb.info]
Tough CM3 will reach EOL in a couple of years so they'll need to reevaluate their stance soon anyhow.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rich on Saturday April 27 2024, @12:33PM (2 children)
Latency will likely be sub-millisecond, which is not difficult to achieve on a stripped down Linux system.
They don't widely advertise that they use the Pi, which might give off the image that they're just running a softsynth, but they neither hide or deny it and Dan Philips has surprising freedoms to talk about it for a Japanese company. (Korg seem to be somewhat special in that regard, and the coolest of the Japanese synth companies, which is why I'm a bit of a fanboy, other than having an MS-10 since the early 80s, and all the Monotrons just for honouring that they were released with schematics and the challenge to hack them)
Looking around, I see a CM3/4GB for 37,95€ incl. VAT. Such a package won't be cheaper if you make it yourself. Maybe it could be done if you negotiate special deals with all the suppliers and do penny pinching on the design, but at the quantities that Korg does, it won't be worth the man-hour effort. Also note that the cheap Chinese are not able to beat the Raspi prices at all, not even with a generation-behind RK3399.
Add the industrial grade long term avaliability and community-ironed-out bugs, and it's a no-brainer to use a Compute Module on a custom carrier.
I was asked by a customer for my opinions for a redesign of a device from an entirely different market, possibly the same quantities (few thousand to few ten-thousand), and there's nothing that comes close when balancing price, availability, development effort needed, and risk.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2024, @01:19AM (1 child)
Doesn't seem trivial to get below 1ms or even 3ms
https://www.reddit.com/r/DSP/comments/12rbsj6/unable_to_get_low_latency_audio_throughput_using/ [reddit.com]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35056094 [ycombinator.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rich on Sunday April 28 2024, @04:14AM
I don't know what's going on there, but with 100 ms latency on a 1 GHz+ machine, something's royally broken. The thread posters you quoted don't make an impression as if they know what they are doing. Compare that to this thread https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=308134 [raspberrypi.com] where the OP complains about 50 usec outliers.
Linux IS rather complex, so I explicitly mentioned a stripped down kernel, rather than something where systemd and a WiFi stack are involved. I maintain software for a device with rather complicated robotics communication that has a MIPS-like soft core CPU in an FPGA running at 50MHz and I've never seen latencies over single milliseconds, even without Preempt-RT. However, this is a custom kernel I built with everything unneeded stripped out, a buildroot-created busybox userland, the application, and nothing else.
But look yourself for how to do it, Korg actually uses Linux (and not some closed BSD) and you can look at the sources here: https://github.com/korginc/wavestate_OSS [github.com] (It does shock me a little to even see Python and Perl in the list of components...)