I was thinking about spending some time on an old project to write some audio PWM code for the Parallax Propeller, and experiment with making some oscillator code on top of that. (Retronitus is an amazing sound library for the propeller chip from a decade ago.) I then starting thinking of pi, and thought it might be a fun way to get into some ARM assembly code, started wondering why I would choose one over the other. One thing lead to another, and my mind was blown when I landed at Zynthian.org. Amazing how far Linux has come since I used it with the Yggdrasil Bible. With so many synth libraries and code out there already, and especially how Zynthian seems to bundle them all, who needs to write another low level assembly language PWM routine from scratch! (Maybe I should go even lower level and pull out the FPGA trainers and write the low level sound stuff in hardware from scratch in VHDL, but I digress.)
I happened to have a spare Raspberry Pi with 8GB that I had not yet setup as a server. So I decided this is the perfect time to try out Zynthian. Since I dont have a kit, (I want a 4.0 kit, and was trying to see if I could put together a list of all the parts that seem available in the shop and order that way, but wasnt sure what I might be missing), I want to simply use Zynthian as a headless server on this Pi.
I struggled through the download, got web.config on web port, told it I have nothing other than the raspberry pi headphones, and setup to allow VNC to my Mac (with Catalina MacOSX 10.15.5) (raspi-config last night was complaining the repo it was accessing didnt have libavahi-glibl, but trying again today it found the library), so I can see the main screen. i installed quartz, but I still cant get xwindows to work, when i do the ssh -Y root@zynthian.local i am asked for password, and then I just see a normal SSH login info for Linux Zynthian. I dont see any new xwindow opening. This happens whether i go from the quartz xterm, or from the web.conf Software → VNC Viewer and the xterm embedded on that screen. Still trying to figure that out, conflicting stuff out there says quartz not compatible with latest Mac OSX…
So on the VNC viewer screen, I can see the various screens of Zynthian. i saw there is one snapshot to load, “002-Fluid3 GM”. Saw all kinds of patches under that…
But how do I get the Zynthian to make some sound? Like play a demo or something? Be nice if one could hear a quick sample of each patch when browsing through the list…
i also have available to me a Korg microKEY AIR portable bluetooth/USB keyboard. Would love to hook that to the pi.
Put it another way: Logged in through my laptop in some way to Zynthian, can I have the same fun playing with all the synths installed as I could with Reason? Is Zynthian a great replacement for Reason, or Korg Gadget on my iPad? (Nearly total dearth of tutorials for that, a year or two ago, I couldnt hardly find any saved song setups to play with and copy ideas from.) What is the quickest way to get to that tweaking and making some sounds…
OK, here is another objective I have with Zynthian: How can i go from a royalty free midi file of a hymn, and have Zynthian playing that as a real cool arrangement of synths and instruments?
So again, how to take a naked pi, nothing more than headphones, and maybe a USB piano keyboard, and connect them to Zynthian on a fresh pi and make your first sound?
Great wiki! I will continue seeing if I can puzzle all this out from there, and eventually contribute some guides to help others. Appreciate your pointers in the meantime.
Thanks for your help!