Zynthian for Custom Wind Synth/Self Contained?

Building Zynthian
1

Upon deciding to attempt my own custom wind synth, I found Zynthian and thought that it would be perfect for the ‘screenless’ application that I intended . Ideally, I could have presets loaded and simply find my Raspberry Pi a power source and audio output in order to play this thing, but I am flying relatively blind, and had some questions regarding the program.

  1. What would be the best way to effectively run custom inputs into Zynthian? I was thinking that assembling a custom “pedalboard” and running it through MOD-UI would be satisfactory (I am building the body of the wind synth from scratch).
  2. How could I effectively set the PI up so that power alone can boot the program straight into a preset for the wind synth so that a screen is only ever needed for configuration?

Like I said, I am relatively inexperienced, and would appreciate some pointers as to where to start my research into these topics, as well as any feedback about either question regarding my project.

Thanks in advance for your time!

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Hi @JazzIsAK. Welcome. I think you have come to the right place for your project.

What type of custom input do you mean? Audio, MIDI, GPI, potentiometers (knobs) , encoders?

You can save a default snapshot which has all the configuration including instruments, effects, routing, level, etc. This will be used on each boot so posing on the Zynthian will get you to where you were.

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now that you mention it, I think MIDI would make the best input, and im fairly confident I could get my system running through the MIDI interface. Basically, I would essentially have a keyboard that functioned and looked like the layout of a wind instrument (a saxophone key layout, for example).

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Yep, that would work. I have a Yamaha WX-11 which I should dig out and test. It could be quite good.

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Hi @JazzIsAK, welcome. I do not get exactly what are the musical gears you want to connect to Zynthian:

??

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Something like this

https://www.instructables.com/Make-a-Wind-controlled-MIDI-Instrument/

But good.

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