Zoxnoxious synth

[brer-rabbit]

Would be cool to add the beyond obnoxious Zoxnoxious synth to the list:
https://github.com/brer-rabbit/zoxnoxious/

It's a VCV Rack controlled analog with hardware voice cards. Running from a Pi Zero2.
Schematics and source in above repo. Still working to get it more DIY-friendly and a better form factor. And developing additional voice cards.

[Atarity]

I understand, it is against your design philosophy but should to ask. Is it possible to control the synth without host computer (VCV Rack) and with only MIDI device?

[brer-rabbit]

TL;DR: today you need to use VCV Rack to control the hardware. That's not a design philosophy, that's just a result of existing implementation.

Detailed:
Nothing is explicitly tied to VCV Rack, but one would have to replace it with something that accomplishes the same. MIDI alone wouldn't do it. VCV Rack is tied to the underlying Pi Zero via a USB MIDI and USB Audio interface. A different frontend could be introduced so long as it provided the same USB interface with MIDI and 54 channels USB Audio for control voltages. Or take it even a level deeper, ditching the Pi and USB, down to just the voice cards: the voice cards use standard protocols that most any microcontroller provides. An ambitious designer could pick up the voice cards and hook them up to a different microcontroller, developing a different frontend in the process. If there's a design philosophy here it's to build each layer based on standards that could be replaced if a developer chooses.

Or- one could control VCV Rack with only a MIDI device. And Rack, in turn, could take that to control the Zoxnoxious synth. But that wasn't really your question.

[Atarity]

I can't consider this as standalone design yet, since it still requires a computer for control. I added the project to the Watchlist because I like the flexibility / scaleability of architecture and digitally controlled analog voices. I’ll be keeping an eye on it. Thanks for making it.