[HN Gopher] Korg makes music with Raspberry Pi
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Korg makes music with Raspberry Pi
Author : sohkamyung
Score : 60 points
Date : 2022-12-07 08:29 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.raspberrypi.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.raspberrypi.com)
| TonyTrapp wrote:
| Korg always seem to have been a bit pragmatic with using ready-
| made hardware where other manufacturers go at great lengths to
| come up with their own solution.
|
| Look at the inside of this Korg M3: https://www.personal-
| view.com/talks/uploads/FileUpload/37/98...
|
| It seems like the operating system comes on an SD card (makes
| upgrades easy, I guess), and the power supply looks like a
| standard laptop power supply.
| FeistySkink wrote:
| Some details about the insides would be useful. This is barely a
| marketing blurb.
|
| Edit: the success story is also thin on details.
| mikko-apo wrote:
| I disagree, the success story has details that reveal lots on
| what's going on.
|
| > The team uses software to prototype their instruments before
| implementing hardware designs. With the basic software platform
| already functional, developing the wavestate using Compute
| Module 3 took a fairly modest year
|
| From that I would assume that software is developed on regular
| PCs and it took a year for them to get the software running on
| CM3 and hook up the CM3 to the two circuit boards and various
| systems. Which is super fast.
|
| > The setup has two circuit boards. The main panel board
| contains all of the user interface elements, including display,
| buttons, knobs, wheels, and other synth-specific controls,
| along with MCU microprocessors to support them and communicate
| with the CM3.
|
| Main board has all the physical buttons, knobs wheels, displays
| etc and MCUs are used to communicate with CM3
|
| > The other circuit board has subsystems for audio, MIDI, the
| musical keyboard, and power, plus the socket for the CM3
|
| The 2nd circuit board has D/A converters, midi connectors, keys
| and power and the CM3.
|
| The CM3 is basically responsible for all the computations on
| the device. It gets inputs from various sources and outputs
| constantly digital audio to the DAC, midi to the midi out, data
| to the display etc.
|
| I guess this would be the part where details would have been
| nice, but there's probably lots going on. How they ensure low
| latency function of the synth platform, how does the
| development process go, how does the CM3 integrate with the
| various systems. Each of those would be very indepth stuff, but
| imo the HN relevant part how they sped up the overall
| development of the platform and that is covered by the article.
|
| Anyways, the cool part is how the three devices use the same
| hardware, so Korg can basically recycle both hardware designs,
| components and software from synth to synth. This speeds up
| development and reduces costs. Super cool.
|
| Comparing that to how synths were made in the 80s, where you
| had to have a separate board per voice and replicate all the
| analog components between voices and keep their power usage and
| heat in control.
|
| Thomann has nice pictures of the synths. The reuse is very
| obvious:
|
| https://www.thomann.de/fi/korg_wavestate.htm
|
| https://www.thomann.de/fi/korg_opsix.htm
|
| https://www.thomann.de/fi/korg_modwave.htm
|
| The insides of Yamaha CS-80 from 1977 (weight: 82kg) look a bit
| different
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_poihkLM5Go
|
| Of course, with modern components a CS-80 clone (Black
| Corporation Deckard's Dream mk2) fits in to rack format and
| weighs only 4.5kg:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNf0kpidGc4
|
| but the assembly of the DIY kit looks pretty painful:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk-pM2OBU1o
| cammikebrown wrote:
| It would be cool if they actually mentioned which synths use the
| Raspberry Pi, but it appears they don't.
| valdiorn wrote:
| It's the modwave, wavestate and the opsix.
|
| They all share the same core hardware and physical layout and
| enclosure but have customised front panels.
|
| Actually really good products, well designed, I love the opsix
| :)
| jscheel wrote:
| Everything but the keys, right? I've got my opsix right
| behind me, and I just can't believe how bad the keys are.
| TBF, it's right above my Moog Matriarch, so that might be a
| bit of an unfair comparison.
| mortenjorck wrote:
| This is more or less a meme on music gear forums, and in my
| view it's a bit overstated. It's no Fatar to be sure, but
| it's still in line with what I'd expect from a sub-$1k
| keyboard. The critical thing they got right is the velocity
| sensitivity: Especially on an FM synth, you need that
| expressive range, and the Opsix keys deliver there.
| homarp wrote:
| "In early 2020, Korg R&D announced the wavestate, a successor
| to its 30-year-old Wavestation and its first instrument to use
| Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3."
|
| so https://www.korg.com/products/synthesizers/wavestate/
| walrus01 wrote:
| Also unusual music related things: Moog
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moog_synthesizer
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moog_Inc.
|
| The cousin of the guy who made the Moog synthesizer created that
| company, which makes all sorts of technical/industrial/defense
| industry things.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| Korg also makes their digital and analog ecosystem fairly open at
| the lower end; analog devices are designed to be easily hackable
| and they facilitate sideloading of DSP applications; code that
| runs on this device can also be loaded onto several of their
| consumer models: https://www.korg.com/us/products/dj/nts_1/
|
| This has a lot to do with why they've been eating Roland's lunch
| for the last several years, while that latter company keeps
| trying to convince buyers that completely locked down circuit
| simulation of classic devices at fancy prices is what the people
| want.
|
| At the cheaper end of the scale, companies like Sonicware are
| exploiting commodity-priced microcontrollers for their 12-bit
| synthesis and processing capabilities. While their own offerings
| are not open-source, abundant resources exist for anyone
| interested in processing audio on crunchy chips and you can get
| into it for about $20 in hardware costs (years of your life not
| refundable; synthesizers are nerd crack).
| KerrAvon wrote:
| Korg is really amazing; they're also doing faithful classic
| analog synth reproductions like the ARP instruments and their
| own MS-20 line: https://www.korg.com/us/products/synthesizers/
| worldmerge wrote:
| That's so cool! Thanks for sharing that!
|
| Do you know how they're making the synth sounds on the pi? Like
| are they going full pure-data/MaxMSP/SuperCollider with it or
| are they still using discrete sound chips?
| blub wrote:
| Open source or open synths is a pretty arbitrary category that
| few are rushing to compete in because most musicians don't care
| how hackable their instrument is.
|
| According to their financials, Roland are doing fine: profit's
| down for 2022, but this seems partly related to a very
| profitable 2021. Can't find any financials for Korg on their
| website, oddly enough, but when it comes to synths at least
| they seem to be competing only in the mid (Minilogue vs e.g.
| Boutiques) and low (volca vs new Aira trio) range. Korg doesn't
| have any flagships any more and have few products in the
| DJ/production category. They're apparently also 1/10th of
| Roland's size...
| Jedd wrote:
| There's a bunch of people doing some pretty amazing synth builds
| with the Raspberry Pi -- the Zynthian crew [0] springs to mind.
|
| Basically bring your own USB midi keyboard / controller - these
| tend to be _cheap_ , but also engender very strong opinions, so
| there's some distinct advantages to having them as separate
| components, but with the synth box being much more portable than
| a laptop or desktop.
|
| As to the Korg Wavestate - on this side of the pond (AU) it has
| an RRP of A$1500, though street pricing is around A$1000.
|
| [0] https://zynthian.org/
| zxcb1 wrote:
| Raspberry Pi - Enterprise Edition
| WorldPeas wrote:
| You'd be surprised how much of your medical data is generated
| by pis! Many medical OEMs I work with encourage their clients
| to integrate such chips into their machines. I just can't wait
| until they're cycled thru so I can play quake 3 on a centrifuge
| [deleted]
| worldmerge wrote:
| How do you break into the sound world? It looks like a really fun
| space to be a programmer. I love hardware and tactile stuff.
| ruleforty wrote:
| I came across the LMN 3: there's a lot to unpack but it might
| be the most mature project in terms of both hardware and
| software out there. It's as close to having the right tools,
| PCBs, etc. for an open source Teenage Engineering OP-1:
|
| https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2022/06/25/the-lmn-3-an-o...
| throw_m239339 wrote:
| InMusic/Akai/Alesis/Numark are hiring. Just learn C/C++ and
| JUCE and read a few digital signal processing book, you're good
| to go.
|
| The market for synthesizers/grooveboxes has literally exploded
| in the last 10 years.
| type0 wrote:
| Look at Bela and Electro-smith Daisy, there are a bunch of
| simple diy synths made with teensy and some minimal components
|
| https://bela.io/ https://www.electro-smith.com/daisy
| monkmartinez wrote:
| The shortage of Raspberry Pi's is going to be their undoing.
| Everyone in the circles I travel (3D printing, Hobby CNC, Self-
| hosting, cyberdeck, plotters, etc.) are looking for replacements.
| There are quite a few contenders, and more recently lots of folks
| are grabbing thin clients (then installing Linux).
|
| My thought process; In a silo, the raspberry pi isn't all that
| spectacular and needs a lot of do-dads/thing-i-majigs for even
| basic functionality. Power supplies and real HDD/SSD's for Rpi's
| can be a pain point. There are cheaper and better alternatives
| imo. What makes the Raspberry Pi so cool is the community and
| ease of use due to said community effort. If that community
| coalesce around another platform, the rpi foundation will be in
| big trouble.
| Uehreka wrote:
| At the moment some of those competitors may have spare supply
| because people weren't interested in them before. But once that
| runs out, I don't see a reason they won't all run into the same
| problems as the RPi Foundation as they get in line behind them
| for the limited-available time at the fabs.
| nimbius wrote:
| the average pi costs about $200 these days (if you can find one)
| wwweston wrote:
| Yeah, I went looking for one about two months ago and decided
| it wasn't worth it.
|
| The value calculation has always been a bit iffy vs "let's see
| what small-factor desktop machines people are dumping in the
| local classifieds" if what you want is a cheap PC to mess with.
| That's probably very much true for software instrument /
| sequencing stuff.
|
| Because of the ecosystem, the value calculation has been better
| for the Pi if you're building projects that are a small
| computer built into a larger electronic setup. But at the
| current price & availability I'm definitely trying to figure
| out what other single board options are easy enough or
| considering learning more about the microcontroller space.
| VTimofeenko wrote:
| Check out rpilocator.com. I was able to get 4 different pis at
| MSRP over the course of this year.
| jchw wrote:
| I'm jealous. Every time I see adafruit get restocked, it's
| all gone less than 10 minutes later. I've basically given up
| on Raspberry Pi at this point.
| mhzsh wrote:
| Recently, though? This worked earlier this year, but one
| vendor had at least 90x RPI4-8B in stock yesterday and they
| were gone in seconds. rpilocator didn't even see it.
| mindcrime wrote:
| I've bought 2 or 3 Pi's this year at the regular price,
| thanks to rpilocator. The most recent was a couple of
| months ago.
|
| You do have to kinda watch it a bit obsessively if you're
| really serious about finding one, but it can be done. Or
| you could also just constantly refresh the page(s) of a
| couple of vendors that you know to get stock on some
| regular / semi-regular basis. Adafruit is one, and Elektor
| seems to get stock now and then as well.
| deathanatos wrote:
| ... they are _perpetually_ out of stock, even in brick and
| mortar retail.
|
| Which makes it all the much odder for RPi to write what amounts
| to a press piece about their hardware. You don't need more
| marketing, you need the price to not be $[?] due to supply
| issues.
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