Gecho and Friends
Gecho is a collaborative lizard
Kickstarter has been fulfilled, shops open and recently sold out as I've ran out of certain material. There are still some boards left so the plan is to re-open early next year.
This allows me to get back to expanding the firmware for the time being. The list is quite long, but one feature that you guys were asking about a lot was syncing with other devices. I'm starting experimenting with my humble but growing collection of prevailingly DIY synths, most of them have some kind of clock input or output.
The results of this effort will be demoed and published on my channel.
Please shout if you think something is missing here, a device that will feel at home in this companion, I've actively hunted these for months but there must be more of them hiding in the depths of the Internet!
Gecho's current (and growing) friends list
Listed in order of appearance on my desk. Descriptions copied from respective manufacturers' websites.
| Friend's name & home address | Friend's creator / company | How creator described it | Where this friend arrived from | Open Source? | What's ticking inside? | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yowler | Roberto D. Jordan / Cat Full of Ghosts | A community built DIY noise synth | Kickstarter | Yeah! (Github) | 40106N (hex Schmitt trigger), 4070N (quad 2-input XOR) | Soldered, works! |
| Tiny-TS | Jan Ostman / DSP Synthesizers | An Open-Sourced DIY Touch Synthesizer | Kickstarter | Yeah! (article with code) | ATmega328 | Soldered, works! |
| Pocket Operators PO-14 (sub), PO-16 (factory) | Teenage Engineering | Ultra portable music devices, with studio quality sound and the flexibility to make music on the go | teenageengineering.com | Nah | EFM32 Gecko | Learning how to program them |
| Business Card Sequencer | Division 6 | Fun little sequencer, which can also be used as a tiny keyboard | division-6.com | Yeah! (ZIP archive) | PIC16F1783 | Soldered, works! |
| T.Chordstrum | Johan Berglund | USB MIDI chord strummer kit for Teensy 3.2 (MIDI and built in audio output) or Teensy LC (MIDI only) | Tindie | Yeah! (Hackaday project) | MK20DX256VLH7 (Teensy 3.2) or M26M6VFT (Teensy LC) | Soldered, flashed (Teensy 3.1), works! |
| Minty Synth | Andrew Mowry | An Arduino-compatible synthesizer/sequencer/audio experiment kit that fits neatly in an Altoids® tin | DFRobot.com | Yeah! (article with links) | ATmega328P | Soldering in progress |
| OPL2 Audio Board | Maarten Janssen | A board with YM3812 OPL2 FM-synthesizer chip for Arduino and Raspberry Pi | Tindie | Yeah! (Github) | YM3812 OPL2 | Soldering in progress |
| Minijam Studio tek.waves | Sebastian Heinz / Patchblocks | 3 voice, 4 pattern wavetable synthesizer with arpeggiator, sequence recording and 16 sound tweaking parameters with automation | Kickstarter | Nah | MK02FN64VLH10 | Almost synced, plays nice! |
| Ardutouch | Mitch Altman / Cornfield Electronics | Arduino-compatible Music Synthesizer kit - make way cool sounds and music! | cornfieldelectronics.com | Multiple firmwares to choose from, yay! | ATmega328P | Soldered, works, trying alternative firmwares |
| Groovesizer Red | MoShang | A DIY 16-step sequencer and granular synth | groovesizer.com | Yeah! (article with links) | ATmega328P | On the way! |
| Gecho Loopsynth (for comparison) | me | Polyphonic, pocket synthesizer with interactive controls | It's born in Dublin! | Sure! (Github) | STM32F405RGT6 | Expanding the firmware |
Yowler is sadly missing from the picture as I've misplaced it somewhere. There are also simpler boards from eBay - FFT matrix, ICL8038 oscillator and NE555+CD4017 driven "sequencer", and some new pieces we will talk about later - stay tuned! :)
