Very cute! UI and feature-wise, not far from what I would have done if I had the time to work on a drum machine.
And now the biggest question: anybody knows where to start to have cases like that made in small batches (say 50 units)? In terms of form factor, not very far from a Shruthi case…
That’s the one! I’ve not tried putting a Shruthi-1 in one, but it’s tempting. Having said that, I’ve spent lots of money on coloured plexi cases from Frank now, so I’ll probably leave mine as they are.
I’ve just made up one of the MIDIbox SpeakJet synth modules, and the smallest of those enclosures would probably make a nice box for that, I’m thinking. Would look nicer than my utilitarian plastic box from Rapid, anyway…
Incidentally, check those eye-searingly bright blue LEDs in the video
Is the DCM8 a sample box, I wonder? Apparently they’re due to launch next month. I reckon they’ll be pricey…
The effects (biscuit-like bit toggling, sample reduction) imply that it’s sample-based. Could very well run off an AVR or dsPIC - in fact I’ve seen protos on a german forum and it’s through-hole parts inside.
"DIGITAL Chip Tune Drum Machine"
I highly doubt theyve crammed that much stuff into such a tiny case (Sample sample sample baby)
I believe there was a note somewhere about it “having multiple oscillators” aswell…
… which is more or less what I had in mind for the eigendrums, ie, raw waveforms or sample playback from eeprom + ENVs/LFOs to control pitch, volume, and digital (bitcrushing, sample reduction) effects per voice.
There’s no problem “cramming” this stuff in a tiny case (which appears to be 1.5x the size of a Shruthi?) - no analog filter so the board has just to be large enough to accomodate the switches/pots/LCD, besides that it’s only a MCU, a DAC and an output op-amp.
Excepting the Digital FX board (which is cool, and I may be tempted to buy, at some future date), I think it’s the analogue filters that make the Shruthi-1 project so nice-sounding. I can see how attempting to make a polyphonic synth with an analogue filter would quickly get very expensive, and big, at least without using loads of multi-layered PCBs and surface-mount components, anyway. Such a device certainly wouldn’t be suitable for home-built kits.
I understand that having sixteen buttons can get expensive (and take a lot of real estate), but I don’t like how they’ve split up the 16 step pattern into two chunks of 8. Means you can’t see your whole pattern at one time - annoying.
Obviously too large for a Shruthi, but sexy nonetheless. Will have to keep this in mind for a future project (or just build a similar one myself, might not be too difficult).
i use front panel design its free software for producing front panels i use it for making modular synth sections also a 19" rack panel for with 7 scsi to compact flash adapters drive enclosure
once panel is designed you can choose what material you require and the screen printing then you send the file to front panel design they tell you how much it will cost to manufacture
if your happy then get a proto type made and sent to you
they keep a copy of your file so if you need duplicate copies they can call up file and make more panels