MoonBox - DIY Raspberry Pi 2 Synthesizer powered by SunVox Virtual Modular Music Studio
Published on Aug 6, 2015
"No music to listen here. Just my low or no playing skills. This is rather about demoing some of the Analog Generator patches of SunVox. First part shows some of the default template sounds, second shows a bit of knob twiddling and a few quick patches I made from the simple 'analog' template I prepared and mapped to 16 knobs of the MoonBox. But SunVox can do a lot more!"
via the forum:
"Let me introduce you the SunVox powered Raspberry Pi 2 standalone synthesizer. The idea was to have dedicated machine/box with SunVox including some knobs. Like a real synth. This vision was maturing in my head for some time but the trigger were NightRadio's comments about upcoming MIDI CC support in 1.9 before the beta was released. I've collected all the building blocks but I was still missing the enclosure. For some time I was designing a custom made 'ponoko' box to be laser-cut. But then I got too impatient and searched through available stuff at home. Wine box for the win :-D
The synth is so far consisting of these bits:
Raspberry Pi 2 B
IQ Audio PiDAC+
5.0" 40-pin TFT Display - 800x480 with Touchscreen
TFP401 HDMI/DVI Decoder to 40-Pin TTL Breakout - With Touch
40-pin FPC Extension Board + 200mm Cable
Guts of the old Evolution UC16 USB MIDI controller (only the main and pot control board)
A bunch of nuts, bolts, spacers and wooden wine box.
Further improvements are still on the todo list:
* jack outputs for L, R and headphones mounted to the rear side of the box
* 5-DIN MIDI I/O connectors on the rear side - realized via USB<>MIDI cable
* some USB ports exposed on the rear side - mounting small USB hub
* power switch + connector on the rear side
* HW volume encoder for PiDAC+ on the top side
* main out GPIO LED volume indicators (this is optional)
* final paint and design tuning
A few notes to the design. RasPi needs to be powered with 2000 mAh adapter to feed all the peripherals. PiDAC+ gives you really powerful and clean sound, also for hungrier headphones. RasPi 2 with stock Raspian OS with ALSA (no realtime kernel, no JACKD, no performance tweaks except disabled CPU power-saving) is able to play decent SunVox synths with 11ms latency without compromising the sound - not ideal but already playable. Lowering the buffer to 5ms introduces occasional noise cracks. I'll try to play with the OS tweaks later but I might stick to ALSA as it is supported by PiDAC+ volume encoder routine. Display is connected via HDMI and USB cables (I'm waiting for shorter and flat HDMI cable). HDMI delivers the image, USB powers the display and touch board. UC16 MIDI controller is connected also via USB (not on the photos above). The only connection hack will be soldering wires to PiDAC+ so I get the normal jack connectors. Current cinch connectors are fine but the placement is not ideal. I want to keep all the 'internal' connections inside the box and expose only the stuff that has to interface outer world and if I would expose the cinch through the rear side, also the HDMI cable would stick out and then coming back which is not desired. The front panel will need some locking or support mechanism, ideally in various angles. The whole thing reminds the Roland's 'Plug-Out' system. You prepare the synth/composition/patch on PC/tablet/phone and then load it to the box if you don't want to mess around with the small screen. But it's actually nicely usable in the box as well as you all know from your own SunVox-on-phone experience. Sun bless Alex for his perfect and scalable UI. RasPi is configured to boot and load up the SunVox automatically, opening the last session. Like a real synth :)
Do you guys have any cool name ideas for the synth? Right now I call it simply SunSynth but that's too obvious. Some link to the SunVox would be cool but maybe something more esoteric :)
Alex, THANK YOU for such a great piece of software! Btw, I hope you don't mind if I put the SunVox logo on the box when it's finished?.."
"SunVox is a small, simple, fast and powerful program for music creation, based on modular synths and tracker-like interface. (Detailed info about music trackers is here)
SunVox is Based on parts of the PsyTexx tracker, the PsyTexxSynth engine and the SunDog engine.
Examples of use:
* composing music on PDA;
* music for games;
* "chip tunes" (sunvox tunes can be very small; for example - 30 kBytes (unpacked) or 2 kBytes (when packed to ZIP)).
Main features:
* Modular interface.
* Highly optimized synth algorithmes.
* Flexible architecture: SunVox can working on variuos devices. For example: PDA with slow CPU - 16bit sound (fixed point arithmetic); or big PC with powerfull CPU: 32bit sound (floating point arithmetic).
* SunVox engine (without GUI) is open source and distributed under the terms of BSD license.
* Built-in synthesizers: Generator (saw,triangle,square,noise waveforms); Flanger; Echo; Distortion; Filter (Low-pass, High-pass, Band-pass, Notch); Kicker; Sampler (supported formats: WAV, XI); SpectraVoice (FFT-based synth for analog-like pads); Loop.
* Supported platforms: Windows, Linux, PalmOS, WindowsCE.
* Export to WAV.
What is different between the SunVox and another music editors?
* SunVox has simple and useful interface.
* SunVox is small and very flexible. It can be ported on any device.
* SunVox engine (player and modular synthesizers) is open source software.
* Each music pattern has its own graphic icon (instead of name)."
"Demonstration of some synths (modules) that you can find in the SunVox distribution.
SunVox is a small, fast and powerful modular synthesizer with pattern-based sequencer (tracker). It is a tool for those people who like to compose music wherever they are, whenever they wish. On any device. On any system."
v2.0 (23 jan 2022): * iOS 11+: SunVox Audio Unit (AUv3) can now send MIDI notes and MIDI CC to other AU modules; * iOS 13.4+: full USB/Bluetooth keyboard support (like on desktops); * multiple module selection (see changelog_details.txt) + ability to save several selected modules to a sunvox file; * timeline: supertracks (see changelog_details.txt and simple_examples/supertracks.sunvox); * improved import of old tracker formats (XM and MOD); * new module - FMX: 5-operator Frequency Modulation synth; * new module - FFT frequency transformator; * sound engine optimization; * the name of the current file is now visible in the title bar of the app window; * module and timeline editor: "Select All" has been changed to "Select/Unselect All"; * timeline menu: new option "Vertical mode"; +shortcut * timeline menu: new functions "Load" and "Save" to load/save selected patterns from/to a sunvox file; * timeline menu: new function "Detach" to convert the clones to the normal patterns; +shortcut * module editor menu: new function "Detach" to detach the selected modules from the rest; +shortcut * module editor menu: new function "Make MetaModule" for packing the selected modules into a single MetaModule; +shortcut * now it is possible to delete modules, but keep the links; * pattern properties: X and Y fields - exact coordinates of the pattern on the timeline; * module properties: X and Y fields - exact coordinates of the module; * module visualizer: "Phase Sync" oscilloscope option has been added; activate it to see a single waveform cycle; * module visualizer: new buttons "reset", "apply", "copy", "paste"; * ADSR->Sustain: new value "Repeat" (repeat the envelope until the module is stopped); * ADSR->Smooth Transitions: new value "volume change" (the volume will change smoothly, but the envelope start is not smoothed); * Amplifier: new controller "Bipolar DC Offset"; * Analog Generator: the "Freq2" controller has been ranamed to "Osc2" (pitch deviation of the additional oscillator); * Analog Generator: new controller "Osc2 volume" - additional oscillator volume; * Analog Generator: new controller "Osc2 mode" - mixing mode of the additional oscillator with the main one (add;sub;mul;min;max;bitwise AND;bitwise XOR); * Analog Generator: new controller "Osc2 phase" - starting phase of the additional oscillator; * Analog Generator: new option "Increased frequency computation accuracy"; * Delay: new controller "Delay multiplier"; * Delay: new "Delay unit" values: sec/44100, sec/48000, sample; * Delay: max delay length has been increased to 60 sec; * Delay: new controller "Feedback" (for sound and events); * Echo: new controller "Right channel offset" (how much to shift the right channel relative to the left in time); * Echo: new controller "Filter"; * Echo: new controller "Filter frequency"; * Filter Pro: new modes "stereo + smoothing" and "mono + smoothing" for additional parameter smoothing; * Filter Pro: new types "LP 6dB" and "HP 6dB"; * LFO: new controller "Sine quality"; * MetaModule->Play patterns: new values "on (repeat, endless)" and "on (no repeat, endless)"; * MetaModule: number of user defined controllers has been increased to 96; * MetaModule: controller color can now be changed by adding "@X" to the beginning of the name, where X is the group number from 0 to F; group colors (c_cgp0, c_cgp1, etc.) can be changed in sunvox_config.ini; * MultiSynth: new option "Output port number = round-robin (cyclic)"; * Sampler: new option "Increased frequency computation accuracy"; * FM, SpectraVoice, Kicker, DrumSynth: clicks removal algorithm has been implemented - it is useful when the volume changes quickly or there are not enough polyphony channels; * FM: the "M.Feedback" controller has been renamed to "M.Self-modulation"; * Vocal Filter: new controllers "Random frequency" and "Random seed"; * Vocal Filter: new controllers "Vowel1", "Vowel2", "Vowel3", "Vowel4", "Vowel5"; * effect 1ะก will work a little differently if you fill in its parameter as 10YY - this means that the velocity will be reset to 0 after YY ticks; (normal parameter 00YY means Note OFF after YY ticks); * new pattern effects (column EE): * 1A - fine velocity slide up/down (XX - up speed; YY - down speed); once at the beginning of a line; * 33 - slot sync (for sv_sync_resume() in SunVox library); * 34 - set (XX) or reset (YY) project options: 1 - no portamento on the first tick; 2 - no velocity slide on the first tick; (for compatibility with old tracker formats); * 3C - copy track XX from from the pattern YY; for example, if XXYY = 0023, then the first track will be copied from the pattern named "23"; * 3D - write a random value to track YY; min value, max value and column must be in track 0, starting from line XX; see example "pat effect 3D random value"; (columns: 0 - NN; 1 - VV; 2 - MM; 3 - CC; 4 - EE; 5 - XX; 6 - YY; 7 - XXYY); * corrected Mute/Solo algorithm for modules; * OpenGL accelerated versions for Windows and Linux; * new options in sunvox_config.ini: controller group colors c_cgp0, c_cgp1, etc.; * new options in sunvox_config.ini: module layer colors c_layer0, c_layer1, c_layer2, etc.; * new options in sunvox_config.ini: c_pbtn, c_pbtn_op, c_pscroll, c_pateditor_level, c_pateditor_cursor, show_sel_btn, show_sbars, edit_mode; * new curves in curves/MultiSynth/curve3 for different equal temperament systems (for example, ET19 - 19 tones per octave); * new modules in the instruments/ and effects/ folders; * new examples (SunVox Compo 2021.02 winners): Logickin - Mech Haven, So_ingMachine - Some of our tracks cant be covered, kiberaver - electric dreams; * new examples: NightRadio - Afterglow, NightRadio - Winter Is Coming; * updated version of SunVox library for developers: https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/sunvox_lib.php * bug fixes.
* new module: Side Chain Compressor; * new module: DrumSynth with 120 unique synthetic drum sounds; * new module: Amplifier; * added multitrack WAV export; * double click on the empty area of Sound Net -> Create a new module; * double click on some pattern of Timeline -> Open a window with pattern properties; * maximum BPM increased to 800; * interactive waveform drawing added to Generator (only for type 4 (dirty)); * added new simple examples: compressor, drumsynth1-4; * added new examples: chain reaction; * iOS: added stereo mode to Input module; * iOS: added Online Help (in the Main Menu); * many bugs fixed."
YouTube Uploaded by SolarLuneTube on Oct 27, 2011 All parts here.
"This part of the tutorial series deals with a few standard effects. If you have any tutorials to suggest, feel free to, well, suggest some for me to do. :)
P.S. If you wish to donate to help fund more tutorials / videos about SunVox, you can donate at SunVox Solstice.
Find more tutorials and resources at SunVox Solstice: http://sunvoxsolstice.blogspot.com/"
SunVox Tutorial Part 9 - Kicker, Compressor, and Ducking
Uploaded by SolarLuneTube on Oct 27, 2011
"Part 8 of the tutorial series on how to use SunVox. This part deals with the Kicker and Compressor, as well as creating a ducking / compressing effect that many dance and electronic songs use."
"If you don't know anything about music or SunVox, you may not understand anything I'm talking about in this video. To just listen to the song, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc7bY... [video below]
I'm talking about the modules, techniques and song structure of my song In Spite.
* Get SunVox at http://www.warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/
Published on Jun 1, 2013 Brian Muramatsu·24 videos
"This time I experimented with using a different scale than usual and incorporating some spoken word into the track. I know I broke my rule about using no samples, but only the vocals were sampled. I still use only Sunvox modules for the rest of the sounds. :-)
I used Pixilang for the visualization again. However, I rendered at 640x360 and zoomed in to get to 1280x720. This boosted the frame rate, so I hope it is a bit smoother than the last video. There is nothing too special about the video. The circles are just images that I made in GIMP and tinted by Pixilang.
YouTube Published on May 10, 2012 by SolarLuneTube
"A quickie tutorial into looping samples that you put into the Sampler module. If you think that this tutorial's not very informative, please comment - I can re-record it. Otherwise, it can stay up.
There are a lot of good samples available over the Internet; one good page to find a lot of them is at Chipmusic.org: http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/136/tracker-food-samples/ As well as the SunVox forums: http://www.warmplace.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1445
If you want to see more tutorials and resources about SunVox, feel free to visit my song archive at SunVox Solstice:
Little sound demo of SloBo - a synth made purely with SunVox modules, no samples involved. It's my personal study case of synthesizing a raw approximation of bowed instruments and learning about the articulation techniques of cellos, violins & Co. It's called SloBo because as of now it allows only relatively slow bowing articulation. Future versions or derivations might include other types of playing styles (need to dig deeper into the topic).
Big thanks to Alex Zolotov of SunVox (a.k.a. NighRadio) for his latest update of SunVox which allows multi-channel MIDI mapping of modules and allowing construction of MPE enabled patches!
"Hey, there! After a huuuuuuuuuge delay, here's another Sunvox tip video. In this one, we look into using Sunvox to make sounds for games. As you know, Sunvox is a powerful tool for music and sounds alike, and we can harness these abilities to aid in making sounds.
______
Thanks for watching! If you wanna throw me something to thank me for making the tutorial, feel free to get something from my itch page:
"What's New in Version 1.9.1
* new module - Glide; it is similar to the MultiSynth, but it also adds the commands of smooth transition between the notes; see the glide.sunvox example;
* advanced Interpolator has been added to the Pattern Editor: with this tool you can make a smooth transition of the values of any pattern columns, with various parameters (like the curve type, noise, etc.);
* new function in the Module View (Routing) - Replace; use it if you want to replace the selected module by some other module without loss of connections;
* MIDI buttons (with notes) linked to some SunVox actions (shortcuts) are now ignored by the synths;
* Sampler (sample editor): now the Copy and Paste functions work through the file;
* Sampler (sample editor): new effects (Invert and Center) has been added;
* LFO: new controller "Duty cycle" (only for the square waveform);
* CUT operation has been added to the Module View (Routing) and the Timeline;
* new instrument from Cube48: DrumSynth48;
* new simple song examples: glide;
* new song examples: snowfall, SunVox Compo 2015.10 Winners (KnyazIvan - fatal precession, OceanicDegree - Dreaming, echo2 - unreal love 3);
* bugs fixed."
What's New
Version History
Jul 29, 2018 Version 1.9.4
* user files are now available through the Files app;
* partial USB/Bluetooth keyboard support (no key release, no Home/End, no F1/F2/...);
* improved iPhone X display support;
* sound engine optimization;
* indicating the modules whose controllers are tied to the MIDI;
* additional slider for scrolling the controllers when there is not enough space on the screen;
* spectrogram has been added to the to the spectrum analyzer;
* detailed settings of the spectrum analyzer are now available through the main menu -> Preferences -> Modules;
* Amplifier: new controller "Gain" for high amplification (x100, x1000 and higher);
"Hey. So here's another tutorial for SunVox - this one covers usage of the Loop module.
To donate to help fund more tutorials or development, or to see more examples of Sunvox usage, feel free to visit my Sunvox homepage at Sunvox Solstice at http://www.sunvoxsolstice.blogspot.com/"
Published on Jul 6, 2013 Alexander Zolotov·108 videos
"No MIDI used. Only iPad analog audio output: the left channel for the sound, and the right channel for the sync pulses (plugged in to the Monotribe Sync In).
SunVox song file: http://warmplace.ru/music/sunvox/mono...
SunVox is a small, fast and powerful modular synthesizer with pattern-based sequencer (tracker): http://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox"
YouTube Uploaded by SolarLuneTube on Sep 7, 2011 All parts here. "SunVox Tutorial Part 5 goes into the new DrumSynth module, as well as how to play more than one instrument at a time."
SunVox Tutorial Part 6 - Multisynth
Uploaded by SolarLuneTube on Sep 7, 2011
"SunVox Tutorial Part 6 speaks on using Multi-synths to trigger more than one module at a time. Very useful for more complex sounds. I notice that I completely glossed over the Multisynth's Velocity parameter - that controls how loudly the attached generators are played.
Find SunVox source songs as well as more tutorials on http://sunvoxsolstice.blogspot.com"
"Each track is infinite and sounds differently every time you press PLAY.
Used functions: slow (subsonic) LFOs, probabilities, random notes and controllers (pattern effects 20-29), random phase setting at the beginning of the song, random interpolated waveform of LFO, prime numbers as the sizes of parallel patterns (in the set of MetaModules), etc.
