[HN Gopher] Smallest USB-C MIDI Synth
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Smallest USB-C MIDI Synth
Author : MaximilianEmel
Score : 259 points
Date : 2023-12-15 20:36 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (mitxela.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (mitxela.com)
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| Does this guy make a living doing this kind of stuff? His results
| are always so high-level/unique. It feels like he puts 100s of
| hours into the results.
|
| I'm always so worried like "corporate has their foot on my neck,
| I need to make sure I logged enough work to Jira and am showing
| enough sprint points worth of delivery week after week".
|
| I can't imagine just being "free" and getting to do what I
| want/when I want/at my own pace/investing this level of time +
| effort + resources into passion projects...
|
| I guess it's not a super big investment money wise. Probably
| $100-$200 in prototyping materials. But how much time are we
| talking? A few hours a day/night on average after work? For...
| years?
| NotSammyHagar wrote:
| I'm not a hardware person, but I'd say he's living the dream
| life. Hacking on stuff that he is having fun doing. Not many
| people could get time off to do it, make a plan and execute it.
| I love his snarky comments and that he's apparently running
| some software tool from 1998 in wine on linux.
| jareklupinski wrote:
| https://mitxela.com/support
|
| i knew a guy who was one of the first digital artists to do
| patreons, before that he streamed on twitch and had a paypal
| donation button in his profile
|
| he was easily one of the better artists streaming at any time,
| but i was still surprised how fast his bills got paid when just
| a few people started signing up to his subscriptions
|
| when you think about it lump sums, living off your savings
| seems difficult, but when you can thrive off a monthly amount,
| the calculus becomes much more do-able (but you have to
| maintain your audience)
| manicennui wrote:
| I've been doing this for a couple decades now, and I've never
| had a job where I had to put in more than 40 hours on a regular
| basis. At most I've put in a few extra hours due to some rare
| circumstance a few times per year.
|
| There are better employers out there.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Yeah, subtract 40 hours from a week and you have plenty of
| free time to do all manner of things.
|
| But if you come home from work and drop down in front of the
| TV/PC/XBox you'll think there aren't enough hours.
| jojobas wrote:
| Pretty sure he's done all that in front of a PC.
| Jedd wrote:
| Author wrote a rant (self-labelled) on this subject in 2018.
|
| Read https://mitxela.com/rants - head down to the _Spare Time
| and Hard Work_ heading.
| adamredwoods wrote:
| I read the article before it. Absolutely beautiful.
|
| >> The solution is obvious, and any companies that release
| products in this day and age that inflict on their users the
| monstrosity that is the firmware update .exe should be
| ashamed.
| Applejinx wrote:
| I bounced from that to the earring project he mentioned, and
| I'm just happy this guy exists. I'm strangely happy that he
| and I go through suffering, too. I've long suspected this is
| part of the human condition, much like this hackiness (in the
| best possible sense) is part of the human condition.
|
| Talk about sharing the message instead of the mess. Well
| done, tiny electronic trinket guy :)
| eternityforest wrote:
| This project would likely take about 3-5 days at a few hours a
| day after work for an experienced engineer, including video
| editing, plus shipping time, and random research here and there
| on a phone.
|
| It could also be done much faster, but then it would start to
| feel like work.
|
| The cost could be closer to $50 to someone who had the tools.
|
| If you're willing to use leaded solder paste it might be even
| cheaper and easier, but I'm sure as heck not.
| porbelm wrote:
| Dude also has an SMT machine on semi-permanent loan for those
| tricky jobs :)
| ipalreadytaken wrote:
| There is something very humorous about seeing these plugged into
| a hub that has each port labeled 10 Gig.
| 15155 wrote:
| I recommend red thermoset chip-glue for keeping those SMT
| connectors in place during double-sided reflow.
| trollied wrote:
| His volumetric candle is AMAZING
| https://mitxela.com/projects/candle
| Rochus wrote:
| Funny, but it's not actually a synthesizer; or can it do
| something else than playing a square wave?
| tecleandor wrote:
| Well, it synthesized nice square-ish waves of different
| lengths. I'd say that's enough for me
| mortenjorck wrote:
| If it generates an audio-rate waveform, and you can influence
| that waveform, it's a synthesizer by my definition.
| csdvrx wrote:
| > USB-C extension cables are technically against the spec, but
| that doesn't mean you can't buy them and all kinds of other
| nonsensical cables and connectors. I have one that only works in
| certain orientations, which is just so distressing and the
| opposite of what USB-C was supposed to be, but it'll do to give
| us power while I poke that SWIO pin with a probe
|
| I loled so much there!!
|
| Funny parts aside, that's a wonderful design!
|
| I wonder if it would be possible to do the same but with a small
| SoC running Linux, with wifi and/or bluetooth, a LED and a buzzer
| so a bit like a smaller and simpler Pi Zero W that would fit
| inside a regular USB A? (like sandisk thumbdrive or some
| bluetooth dongles)
|
| Oh and it would use usb-gadget to enumerate as a USB serial so
| you could either connect to it with picocom to actuate the LED
| and buzzer with AT commands _OR_ through bluetooth SPP or ping!
|
| Then you could have a wireless orchestra!
| porbelm wrote:
| Some cheap manufacturers make USB-C cables (and ports) that
| only wire up the one side of the connector, because, hey, we
| only need USB 2 right, defeating the whole point with the
| connector.
| chrismorgan wrote:
| > _I have one that only works in certain orientations, which is
| just so distressing and the opposite of what USB-C was supposed
| to be_
|
| The Nokia 2780 Flip has a USB-C charging port (... even though
| the box says Micro-USB) and it only works in one orientation.
| eternauta3k wrote:
| The photo where you can see his fingerprint in high-resolution
| gave me a little pause.
| jh00ker wrote:
| The macro zoom on the pads of his fingertips is so high that this
| video might be considered a security breach of his fingerprints!
| This could be worse than when people accidentally share a photo
| containing their house key!
| palemoonale wrote:
| So extensively detailed for a build report, but only very short
| sound demo? I also read it is basically producing a square wave
| only, so i'm having trouble recognizing this as a synthesizer,
| with no real synthesis, modulation, filter going on at all. More
| appropriately called a "greeting card sound chip with USB-MIDI",
| won't even categorize (as low-complexity as these are) as PSG.
| merelysounds wrote:
| Single oscillator synthesizer is still a synthesizer.
|
| It's not just the square wave, you also have an option to start
| and stop the sound (envelope). Sure, it's basic to the point of
| being almost useless[1], but that was the goal I guess.
|
| [1]: Although a device with similar capabilities called
| Stylophone ended up in Space Oddity. Details:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylophone
| fiips wrote:
| What a beautiful demo, very reminiscent of the sounds of the
| 8-bit microcomputer era.
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