Details via Github:
"Making electronic music is awesome! But for most of us, it requires a lot of setup, a lot of moving a mouse around on a laptop that's probably not quite equipped to handle realtime audio processing. Don't you wish you had one single device, which was xbuilt to do it all for you, easily and on the fly?
Introducing the OTTO!
The OTTO is a complete hardware and software solution, with synths, a sampler, effects, sequencers, and studio modules. The interface is modal, easy to use, simple, but most of all, it encourages experimentation. The graphics are quirky, and the workflow is minimal.That sounds cool and all, but haven't I heard about this before?
— You
Yes, the OTTO is heavily inspired by the OP-1, in fact it started off as a direct clone, but these days we try to take a different spin on an idea that is fundamentally the same.
At this point it might be important to mention that the OTTO is not, and will never be, a commercially aimed product. It is open source by nature, in both hardware and software. If you want an OTTO, you're going to get your hands dirty, if not with the code, at least with the hardware.Now that proper introductions are made, we would like to invite you to our discord server where we hang out and discuss all things OTTO.
The OTTO is basically going to be a Rpi3 (or other similar boards, we are looking into that), a screen, a DAC, 4 encoders and some 30+ buttons/keys. Some of us are currently building prototypes, and the formfactors and features vary greatly. Below this you see two OTTO hardware prototypes. Feature wise they are similar, but the first one is hand-wired, lasercut, and uses arduino pro micros for handling the keys/encoders. The second one is 3D printed, uses a PCB with onboard microcontroler etc.
As you can see, the OTTO can be built very differently depending on your skills, your avaliable resources and tools, and your priorities. You can also have other features than these two, for example the DSP all supports velocity sensitive keys.
You can find more info about the first prototype design on the "Otto Proto One" on this dedicated repo, and @cester-ino's over at his repo
The software
The software is written in (very) modern C++, and the goal is to be as modular and flexible as possible.
Technology
Core C++ 17 (you will need a very new compiler.)
Graphics C++ wrapper on top of NanoVG, with swappable backends, currently GLFW and EGL are available.
Audio/MIDI Designed to be swappable, though currently the only one available is jack.
DSP C++ and Faust (compiled down to C++)
It is possible to run the software on the desktop, with keybinds emulating the physical buttons and encoders.
For build instructions, check out the wiki.
Backbone
While OTTOs may differ on a lot, some things are fairly set in stone :
A Raspberry Pi (or similar) at the core, running a minimal Linux distro.
A >= 320x240 RGB screen, preferably AMOLED.
~30 hardware buttons, so nearly every feature has its own button.
4 colour coded rotary encoders (full credits to the OP-1 for that idea), as the main controls. Each screen has a maximum of 4 variables which will be coloured corresponding to their encoder.
Roadmap
