Speculation on Raspberry Pi computer

[Shane Sanders]

Mine is finally here. Can't wait to get home and begin loading Debian on it.

[Scrutinizer]

Got mine a while ago, have it up and running with Raspbian Wheezy. I am impressed with the number of packages that are available for Raspbian. I was able to successfully install and run:
Jack (provides low latency audio and midi connections)
QJackCtl (utility to control Jack)
KMidiMon (midi monitor)
Pure Data (graphical programming environment for audio/midi processing)

Getting MIDI in and out of the RPi was very easy. I had to install a driver for the MidiSport 2x2, but it was simple plug and play after that.

The RPi is not very fast compared to a modern desktop PC. But it does have a lot of features for a $35 board: HDMI output w/ support up to 1920x1200, composite video out, analog audio out, Ethernet, two USB ports, and GPIO pins.

[prinspatrick]

Originally Posted by Bakachan

For this you can use an Arduino board, it's even simpler to use/program/run, there's already a good midi library that i'm using for creating a small router/looper.

+1!

[Scrutinizer]

I agree, the Arduino boards are perfect for hardware MIDI projects. Keep in mind that long sysex messages are problem if you use the Arduino MIDI library. The library uses a fixed-size buffer to capture the incoming sysex message, so messages larger than the buffer size will be corrupted. Rarely a problem, but could be if the device is routing messages between an AxeFX<>AxeEdit or AxeFX<>Mfc101.

One thing the Aduino can't do easily is act as a USB host. I bought a Mega ADK board, which has the USB host connector and support libraries, but getting the Mega ADK to recognize & communicate with USB MIDI devices is not easy. Getting it to work with a USB hub would be very difficult. I've abandoned my plan to try this, it just does not make sense now that the RPi is available.

Yesterday I was able to compile and install Pd-Extended on my RPi, following these instructions. I could have downloaded the package he had built, but I wanted to see if my RPi could compile the huge software suite.

Pd-Extended adds a pile of functionality to PureData. It's like Max/MSP/Jitter with a huge library of externals. And it's free software running on a $35 board. Amazing!

[Lightcraft]

Interesting thread...is anyone still playing with the Pi for audio work?

[fly135]

I'm thinking about getting one. The first thing that needs to be done is making an audio interface. No audio capture except possibly through USB, which would give me concerns about latency.

[eriwebnerr]

Originally Posted by Lightcraft

Interesting thread...is anyone still playing with the Pi for audio work?

It seems that they put most of its architecture towards graphics. Some reporting Xbox 1 level graphics out of this unit. You can even install Xbox media center (XBMC) on one of these:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Raspberry_Pi

Another interesting option to me is the "A13-OLinuXino"
It costs a little more but has far more I/O and an optional (and very affordable) 7" touch screen that plugs right into it. You can get the whole package with touchscreen for 100 EUR ($135) / 45 EUR for just the board.

Now THAT would be a cool little device - say if it could run plugins, process midi and had a touch screen - like a Muse box but cheaper and with a screen!

[fly135]

That A13-OLinuXino looks interesting. It already has an audio input.

[gulliver]

Can you just hack a tablet for most of these applications? You can get a good refurb android tablets for sub $175 these days.

EDIT: I guess not, looks like this has a special development language written for it which you won't find for a tablet (yet).

[eriwebnerr]

Originally Posted by gulliver

Can you just hack a tablet for most of these applications? You can get a good refurb android tablets for sub $175 these days.

EDIT: I guess not, looks like this has a special development language written for it which you won't find for a tablet (yet).

Forgot to post a link for the A13-OLinuXino if anyone is interested:

https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLin...A13-OLinuXino/

I was wondering the same (about the tablets). The processors on these small boards are the same (I believe) as used in tablets (ARM processors).
The advantages are low power consumption the disadvantages are processing power and compatibility (in general the apps and OS need to be specially compiled for these processors).

I think these little boards make a good foundation for something small and cheap, but at the end of the day they would need a dedicated processor for audio. It may be that this could be accomplished via USB, but I'm not sure.

[Scrutinizer]

Made a case for my RPi from a Hammond 1590B.

[fly135]

Looks good Scrutinizer. What are your plans for the audio I/O? A USB audio interface?