I want to try out Zynthian and I’m going to buy a used Raspberry 4 (likely 4GB RAM). Is it fine for Zynthian V5? The wiki talks about Raspberry v4, but the shop ships Raspberry v5 only.
Also, does it make sense to buy a touch display for the Raspberry? Can Zynthian OS be controlled only from the touch display (no buttons/knobs)?
Does it make sense for upgrading to a real Zynthian v5 in the future?
Thank you so much!
Hi @00sapo,
Welcome aboard 
You can definitely try whatever current ZynthianOS version of your choice (Oram or Vangelis) on a bare-bone Raspberry SBC, with a monitor, an USB audio board, a keyboard and a mouse. V5.1 is the current official hardware kit, designed for lodging a Raspberry Pi 5, but nothing prevents you from using a previous generation of the Pi for a DIY build.
It surely makes sense to mount Zynthian on a touchscreen-driven setup, since all functions are conveniently reachable through a touch interface, with more custom settings available on the configuration app run on an external computer (webconf).
As for the Raspi version, Pi5 is mandatory if you want to try out the hardware synth emulators, which are disabled by default if a Pi4 is detected. You will have anyway quite a few powerful processors to explore, even if you renounce for now the greater computational power of the Pi5.
Also, keep in mind that, if you plan to load large soundfonts on Sfizz or FluidSynth, 4 Gb of RAM might turn out to be a bit on the tight side, depending on the combined size of the samples collections employed. You will be able to load even bulky instruments, to play them one at once, but will probably need more RAM if you aim at building complex soundfont-based multichannel arrangements.
Enjoy!
Thank you so much! I usually use Salamander piano as sfz (~1 GB). Maybe I would like to use some other instruments, but for now I guess it’s fine. I will go on with a headless setup and smartphone remote screen, I will then upgrade to zynthian if I find myself.
Last question: I have an Akai APC64 midi controller. Do you plan to support it directly somehow or should I re-map it from scratch? Is there some community-maintained repo of controller-mappings?
Hi,
I am not much in the control surfaces subject, since grid launchers are not exactly my thing, as far as musical workflow is concerned, but I invite you to peruse this recent post, concerning the ctrldev drivers migration to the current testing (and soon to be tagged stable) Vangelis system release.
Cheers 
Also, you can start with midi learn to see how far it takes you.
If that’s not enough, the Wiki gives an idea of what controller device drivers allow to do - they are coded by the community.
Regards
I can only comment from the rPI5 atm, but as goes for touch only, then yes, its perfectly doable. I’ve seen many persons do it and finally even i managed to do it (and it now works 100% flawlessly) - New screen, overcame rotation issue, but now lost in touch & resolution space - #36 by Aethermind
You can access on screen buttons easily. If your plan is to begin by trying a touchscreen out, then later perhaps go for the “real deal”, then just do it (my only advice would be to get a half decent DAC when you start out)
Important regarding version numbers might be: Zynthian V5 and Raspberry Pi 5 are not related, I think even initial Zynthian V5 started with Pi4. If you plan to do a custom headless build it’ll be fine. @Aethermind told everything about the limitations, but most engines should work anyway.
Thank you very much! I will try and try to contribute to the project in some way, maybe a mapping for the controller.
Best,
Federico