Bonome

So I was going through some old posts and decided to see what Julien Bayle of Julienbayle.net is doing and was looking at the monome clone called the Bonome. This project really excited me it was a meeting of the minds with so many different people, hardware, software, firmware, and of course we can not forget the creators the original monome team.

Now with my new project I have decided to switch to PIC32. Why because I want to learn another platform and there are a few other reasons such as the support for DSP with there new library. Less coding means more fun for me.



This board is something new a PIC32 development system designed for audio. I have some interesting needs for art installation ideas however, the realization of the works have been halted due in part to the extreme cost of audio synthesizers. Of course there is a large amount of intellectual property under the hood of a synth, but developing your own can be rewarding, and teaches you much about synthesis techniques. There is a forum post started here on Electro-Music. Inventor has designed a system called eChuck based on the Chuck programming language; essentially it is an audio programming language. The eChuck concept will allow people to port that idea onto hardware.

I expect to be in prototype soon, I just need to hear back from a board house on the cost of manufacture of a few prototypes. In the mean time a programming application framework is being developed to meat my needs, and additionally board for tactile input and visual output are in the works. Which brings me back the the bonome, I have designed the unit with a header to connect to the 8x8 keypad / led matrix. If I can port the code over I will but it is more likely that I will write the interface to suit my own uses internally for sequencing. But its a way to reuse some older equipment if you have it.

Stay tuned for additional info on the project either here or on the Electro-music forum.

Cardboard ADSR and RGB 40h brOnome

Two new projects are in the works, the first is the ADSR (Attack Decay Sustain Release) module for the modular synth I am building to use in performance art. This project was a build from the ADSR on the Music From Outer Space Webpage, by Ray Wilson. If you have not seen this webpage you really do need to check it out.

The second project which has just started as of today is the RGB monome 40h. I am temporarily calling it the brOnome. Some more research needs to be done to determine the correct way to implement the RGB Leds with PWM functionality. Its just a matter of time before this one comes together. My plans are to loosely base this project on the monome 40h. In essence I want to make something that not only functions as a monome but also does a lot more. Something like a [Tonorion / Monome]-megasord.