Success Cases

If you think you’re getting away with that without a :face_with_monocle: you are sadly mistaken…

shimmies of muttering, “Potted Plants…”, some of them have got Potted plants . . . get me a raven!! and an ACME ducking stool . . .!

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:smile: I actually moved the plants slightly for the picture.

Here we go, left to right:
Yamaha AG03 - mic feed going to zynthian and back via usb (Stereo mix & Audio-FX Layer) then out feeding into nornshield (square white box) to cheat_codes for granular sampling & fates (grey rectangle box) into MLR for looping/sample-cutting.
Next is Elektron Model:samples for beats (I like the elektron workflow) and underneath is the codev2 (livid Instruments) general knob based midi controller.
Zynthian is next (another stereo mix layer for direct audio input & a string synth layer) and right after that Norns & Fates with a 16x8 Grid connected each.
Arturia Keystep at the bottom right.
Rightmost is a AX 2000 Alto xylophone by studio49, it is the main instrument I am live sampling (condenser mic that feeds into the ag03 mounted on top) but I love switching the zynthian audio outs to the Yamaha to sample the obscene amount of synth engines that come with it.

It will take me a long time to explore the limits of this setup, so far I am loving the possibilities.

TLDR; 3x raspberry pi’s, a lot of buttons knobs & lights & some code.

aaah yes, but the real question is how does it sound :smiley: ?
http://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Zynthian_UI_Users_Guide#Audio_.26_MIDI_Recording

Oh I understand now :joy:
Built in audio/midi recording & midi mappable as well. That is very cool. I will post a recording as soon as I can.

Thanks a lot for your words! It’s been a long journey until here … but there are lots of things to improve. We are always improving things (or trying it!) and commit some fix or feature almost every week, although sometimes this break something …

Advice: If you intend to update, it’s not a bad idea to make a copy of your “stable” SD card…

Enjoy!

P.S: really nice setup!! :wink:

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It’s just three months after I learned about zynthian and now I have a awesome working v4. The whole journey is a pleasure even though it needed some patience for the v4 to become available in the shop.
Ordering, delivery and assembling worked like a charm without any glitches. With some experience I was able to build the kit within an hour. The build instructions didn’t leave any question open. The fact that the kit has a high level of prefabrication contributes to the overall success. Well designed!
The single thing I observed is, that you need to have a good power supply. Powering the zynthian from one of my computers USB port gave some unpleasant background noise on the audio out. Using a dedicated wall plug power adapter solved that. I recommend to get one with a power switch.

The adaptation of the zynthian OS to your hardware and your environment needs a little learning curve, but certainly nothing difficult. One can have good reference with the online provided help content (WIKI).

Possibilities and sound seems kind of endless. Even though the device integrates so much functionality, I don’t come to the impression that it makes compromise. Things are straight forward and musical quality is on par with contemporary equipment.

Congrats to the developer community for this great project and thank you so much for sharing! :blossom:

In the picture you see, that my novation 49SL MkIII has already it’s own zynthian template :sunglasses:

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@wyleu Even if it’s not the same, may I?

@harry66 :face_with_monocle: How about some sound examples?

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Hey, great build
is the design available anywhere?

Impressive setup. I am surprised Norns/Fates has been around so long and I haven’t heard of them. Looking into Cheat_Codes you can use TouchOSC instead of the Grid/Arc controllers. A bit og a bonus seen everything is pretty unobtainable at the moment.

Now Zynthian has some buttons it would seem it should be transferred to the platform as a layer. Perhaps the scripting was too higher bar for the average punter to access a lot of functionality. It would be cool to have a scriptable graphical UX and engine layer with the extra bonus of an existing community’s efforts.

My first (dedicated) Zynthian. Complete with dodgy onboard audio with even worse built in speakers on a 7" 1024X600 capacitive touch screen. RPi 3b+ on the back with USB connected touch and Korg nanoKEY Studio and extra 5V power as ther wasn’t quite enough power from the RPi to power everything . Quite happy with the screen as it came with everything to connect and in a really nice box.

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@pac_71 Mounting 7" screens beyond the angle stands is involved isn’t it? :smiley:

What do you think chews up the current?

Do you use a touchscreen and or stylus or a mouse…?

and could you provide a :face_with_monocle: ?

Works okay with the touchscreen once you work out where and how to touch to get the same functionality. Pretty much the same as the mouse to go back, long press off text and touch move the dials up and down.

Did some mucking around with what I had connected and its just the screen not quite getting enough power from the single 2.5A RPi supply. When power by a single PSU it doesn’t detect the correct resolution or the digital speakers like somethings not powered on.

Not quite sure what a :face_with_monocle: means but I just did the same process to build my first test of Zynthian connected to my TV. Well just connected the same RPi and build of Zynthian on to the back of the 7" monitor. Its working off HDMI too so it just worked.

The only real trick is connecting the HDMI from the RPi to the ZIF socket. Plug in the HDMI first, then work out how to bend it to fit, then remove the backing tape and insert into the ZIF socket and see if it works. Only took me 3 goes to learn how.

Aaah I see now you are using a 3B, Iv’e found them a bit marginal on Power and that’s with various audio cards. 4’s seem to have the PSU issues a bit more sorted out.

The trouble I’ve found is that 7" screens outside of the desktop really ain’t rugged and being light they tend to get moved around by cables and if you do mount them in another box you’ve got to make all the connectors accessible. I’ve looked hard at adding rotary encoders and switches but it all becomes involved and you end up in heavy engineering like my pedalbaord ( see posts passim), but for an easy desktop they are great. I’ve run one with a hifiberry amp2 on the back and it has worked as a Perfectly decent Piano ( with an 88 note keyboard) for sixth months with not so much as a complaint, but it’s going to get upgraded to a Pi4 soon as that’s where zynthian is obviously heading.

Are you thinking of upgrading to a Pi4? It’s amazing how many usb leads and such like need replacing.

The full explanation of :face_with_monocle: is here …

https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Talk:Zynthian_Wiki_Home.

Nobody ever realizes I do them as a link … sniff.

The screen did come with a micro HDMI to ZIF ribbon connector (which I didn’t expect) so I could upgrade to the 4B. I am really just waiting for my v4 kit to turn up so I can really play with a fully connected hardware setup with good sound.

Shame there isn’t a ZIF connector for USB too so that you could avoid connectors sticking out the side. I have a similar 7" capacitive touchscreen (without ZIF or mega bass sound systems :wink:) and the connector make enclosures more tricky.

This took the longest time ever to respond to and thanks for asking the important questions :wink:
(I am also still working on that strange feeling when publicly uploading work or just remembering to press record before exploring, it always feels so final and a little scary to me)

At the moment I am working on following sounds:

It is a bit hard to explain where the zynthian begins and ends & I am still careful not to add too many elements to the soundscape (omg there are so many options!)

I really enjoy string/chime synths though and have been spending days combining audio-fx layers and just tuning parameters, turning knobs, learning & relaxing.
wow! :sweat_smile:

I currently like arpeggiating into small string sequences or just chording layers on top of each other with super looper. I really love getting stuck in audio-fx layer-land and just fine tuning.
It is all about sound exploration therapy to me :slight_smile:

Again, thanks guys.
I think Zynthian just makes this so approachable and intuitive, I don’t have to reserve time sitting in front of a big screen to get something done, I can just jump in and stay in the flow. The whole process feels more natural to me and much closer to a classical instrument where I can pick it up without much preparation to see where it takes me. This works well for me & is exactly what I was looking for.
Yes, there are many other synths out there, however this one also is & also feels flexible, it just merges in with what I want to do already, it is not opinionated and it lets me bend it.

Lots of respect for getting this device out there in such a great package. Hardware & software, I can tell a lot of thought and detail goes into it. It is truly open source and just keeps evolving with everyones dedication! Big love and lots of respect for this :blue_heart:

/ramble off :slight_smile:

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Oh and @jofemodo I was that strange guy that kept on asking if there was an option for a white case. I probably hurt it’s resell value but I just had to, this one is mine and I will definitely keep it :joy:

Thank you so much for making this happen. It is such a fantastic project that keeps giving.

image

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Hi everyone! The isolation time is not wasted.

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With the power supply problem, I ordered it on Aliexpress with a large number of amperes.

Twinthian!

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