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I am just floored! Paulee, one of the frequent contributors to Sonicstate asked me for an interview about the WaveBoy. So of course I said yes and the article just came out this morning! It even hit the front page! I never thought our tiny synth company would have made something as prestigious as Sonicstate. It was an incredible experience. Of course I recommend folks give it a read as it covers some of the history and design decisions I made. Sonicstate in general, for those that don’t already read the web publication or listen to the podcast and watch their video content, has some great content. It’s one of my go-tos for synthesizer info and I recommend it! Not just because we’re featured, but that was an incredible honor for us!

Sincere and deep thanks for interviewing us, but also for being such a good source of synthesizer news and information! Thanks also to Paulee! Of note in addition to their Sonicstate work, they also have a YouTube channel that covers some great content. I learned a ton of information about the Amiga soundchip for instance. I had no idea it was as flexible as it is or that there were a lot of audio applications for Amigas. I kinda just thought Soundtracker was the thing. A bit of shame on me given I grew up on trackers and the Demoscene.

For folks interested in the WaveBoy, it’s available now as both a fully assembled version as well as a kit. They are made to order and given the above article, we may be busy cranking a lot of these out. So thanks for your patience while we work to build all these!

I missed writing about 0.56, oops! So I’ll mention the new features from both:

• Save States
• Wave Mode Dual Audio Output Option
• Auto-Screenaver
• Pitch Knob Range Configurable
• Bufixes with tuning, UI

If upgrading from 0.55, folks will need to grab the updated SD card image for the update config.txt. Upgrading from 0.56 to 0.57 does not require any changes, as the firmware will attempt to update things as needed. The wave patch format changed slightly and will get updated when saving a wave patch.

All these features are good, though the dual audio output is a standout. It replaces the Step output with a secondary audio output that follows the wave frame but can either be detuned or set to a note offset (for doing fifths or having a sub-oscillator for instance). While this does make the WaveBoy a bit less GameBoy like with this mode, it does make it more flexible and adds its own sort of color to the chiptune / 8-bit / lofi landscape. It’s very fun!

The other features are mostly quality of life improvements. The save states in particular is quite nice. WaveBoy will now save the configuration of the Volume envelopes as well as the last UI screen and mode that were used. This way you can pick up where you left off in between sessions.

Lots more features to come for sure but 0.57 really makes WaveBoy a very capable module. There are still some in stock at the time of this writing! More will be coming though with the tariff situation, our plans are a bit on hold for the moment. So if you want one, now might be the time to get one.

For the past week or so I’ve been spending much of my spare time trying to improve pitch tracking in WaveBoy. I made some pretty giant strides by adopting a per-note tuning approach. This works well, but it uncovered and ugly problem I haven’t noticed before – certain pitches were “noisy” when sampling from the ADC. This noise was heard as audible steps which was both unpleasing to the ear and made it hard to tune.

To improve things where I want, I suspect I will need to make another WaveBoy PCB revision to add a low-pass filter to at least the V/Oct input (and maybe the Tune input, though I’m not sure on that one). There’s noise coming from somewhere and one way to improve things is to use a low-pass filter at the ADC input. Since the V/Oct is a slow changing value (relative to audio for instance), the low-pass can be pretty low. But I need to do more work there to see.

Even without a PCB update, I was able to greatly improve things by using both hardware and software averaging. In the software case, I’m using floating-point math so I can have more precise results when averaged. While not perfect it’s pretty good. And some imperfection is kind of part of the purpose of WaveBoy anyway.

This now unblocks actual feature development again, with the next thing I want to work on being “Manipulators”. These let you manipulate the selected wave frame by a number of algorithms which allows one to build a sequence of frames much more easily and right on the module rather than having to edit a text file externally (something I know many folks found not fun).

Once I have those out, the next step is full wave generators (which may themselves manipulate the Manipulators). This will allow one to start with a basic calculated or drawn wave and produce a full set of frames with parameters. It will be very similar to the LSDJ way of doing things, something that’s always been on my list. Until recently I just wasn’t sure how to tackle that.

What does all this mean? It may mean the full production version of WaveBoy may take a little longer to produce. Not because of the Manipulators (those can be added later) but because having good pitch tracking is pretty important and if I can make that better/easier with a few minor hardware additions, I should do that.

I’ve spent the weekend off and on working on another PCB revision to WaveBoy. The next revision will use purple PCBs to make the front panel. Not many people will see it (unless folks have transluscent cases, like my acrylic ones) but it’ll help identify the board revision.

Folks that have already purchased the Pre-Release, worry not! This version doesn’t add any features though I will have to keep multiple versions of the firmware around between the revisions, though that’s no big deal.

The main change is switching up the right encoder wiring to use pin 0 instead of pin 13 for one of the encoder pins. Pin 13 is used by an on board LED on the ItsyBitsy which has to be removed for the encoder to work properly. This update avoids that extra step which makes assembly easier but doesn’t otherwise change the functionality.

Otherwise it’s minor updates: The SD card slot has been moved over so the card is easier to remove. The protection diodes are moved to the opposite side for using a keyed connector for Europower and I cleaned up a bit of a layout. After the pre-release (I have one PCB left), I will probably settle on the yellow/blue OLED displays as well as I can get those in bulk.

I plan on doing a medium run of 50 PCBs which, along with looking at some alternative suppliers, should keep the module cost lower. To say I’m a boutique Eurorack store is perhaps an understatement so while this thing would be much cheaper if I were able to make thousands, as much as I love my quirkly little module, I don’t see it getting anywhere near that adoption. If it does, that’s a great problem to solve for another day. But that does mean the cost of the module probably won’t move too much.

Here’s a quick demo of some of the new features of Firmware 0.3, including new default patches (including a wrapping Saw to get the LSDJ style wave vowel/filter sound) and 6 noise modes as well as showing what it sounds like through a filter. Wasp in this case, though I didn’t go bananas with it since I wanted to showcase sounds from the WaveBoy itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCqC3Gd7GWg

No talking just noise!

Yesh it’s been quite some time since I worked on WaveBoy. I finally got back to working on the firmware and realized I hadn’t finished moving features over from the old (very messy) firmware to the new (much cleaner) base. So I spent a good chunk of the weekend doing that. But I did also get around to writing a Python script to generate some fun waveforms. Here’s one of them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH5oU5W5m5o

Though we deal in Eurorack mostly, I also tend to dabble in chiptunes with my band alongside my Eurorack. In fact our first album was chiptunes with surf guitar and used a real NES, GameBoy and other chiptune chips and synths alongside raging surf guitar. And of course my own WaveBoy was inspired by the GameBoy’s lo-fi wave output (which I am still working on and do still plan on releasing).

So it shouldn’t be too much of a shock that I have been following the Commander X16, a modern 8-bit computer which is sort of a modern successor to the Commodore VIC-20. In fact I’ve been writing a tracker for it and I own one of the early (and signed!) X16 Developer edition boards!

Recently, a member of the X16 community, Wavicle, has been working on a Mini ITX variant called the Otter X. It only has one expansion slot but is compatible with the X16 and is available as a kit. I grabbed one up and decided to use the holiday break to assemble it. Since I laser cut Eurorack cases, I thought why not try to make one for the Otter X too! And so I did!

Just like our Eurorack cases, the OtterX case can be made from acrylic, hardwoods, Finnish birch plywood, and MDF. This is still a prototype/beta while I wait on testing a few combinations of parts (such as a lower profile Pico PSU to make the case a bit less tall optionally, as well as perhaps a 3D printed solution for the internal standoffs to keep the case together). I expect it will be finalized soon.

I will make the design open source under a non-commercial license as well for folks that want to cut their own. Those that don’t own a laser cutter will be able to get the cases from me directly as well. If you’re not familiar with the X16, though it’s certainly not Eurorack, it’s worth taking a look! The sound solution in particular is somewhat unique, which is one of the main reasons I’ve been following and participating in the project.

Export this to be available in early 2024. If you’d like to get on the pre-order list just use our Contact Us form. And on the Eurorack front expect more case designs! 2024 is going to be finally the year of 84HP cases from us, I can just feel it!

I decided to record a test assembly for a semi custom Skiffy 648. I needed to do a fit test anyway so thought it would be fun to turn it into a fast forward speed build!

I’ve been hard at work adding features to my GameBoy Wave Oscillator module. It still needs a cool name. I originally called it GAVE (GB + Wave) but I think I can do better. At any rate, I’ve now nearly rewritten the codebase almost from scratch while switching over to C++. There were some bumps but it has vastly simplified things. Oddly my approach with C++ feels not too dissimilar to how I organize 6502 assembly programs (for the Commander X16 music tracker I’m writing, but that’s a blog for another day).

This has allowed me to add some nice features rather quickly. The step sequencer now has 4 modes: forward, backward, ping-ping, and random. The position of the step sequencer (as well as the edit position for adjusting the waveform manually) are now part of the main display. The default step sequence setting is stored within each patch as well.

There are still some features I want to add but I think the module is nearly ready as a minimum viable product, at least to folks that might not mind editing text files to mess around with waves. I want to have a means to generate waves using parameters via Python scripts initially and then plan to add that into the module directly, though I’ll want a better in-module patch UI first.

I plan on building at least one more prototype, in part so I can have two of these in my own rack, giving me 2 step sequences but also letting me do weirdo things with detune and/or using one as a dedicated step sequencer while using the other for audio (and a mix of both).

I’ve been working on a big update to my GameBoy Wave module and finally have it in a state where I can tease a short demo:

A brief overview of the module itself, it implements a similar solution to the Nintendo GameBoy’s wave channel. It uses 4-bit/32-slot waveforms which are output through a variable clocked DAC. By varying the speed the waveform is run through the DAC, the pitch can be changed. This produces a gritty sound with all sorts of aliasing and is exactly what I wanted – a gritty chiptune style module which sounds very close to the original GameBoy’s wave channel. As it should since it’s doing quite nearly the same thing.

This version swaps out most through hole components for surface-mount ones. I was averse to doing that but wanted to keep the form factor the same while adding a step sequencer, and SD card, and swapping the left/right buttons for an encoder. I would still like a through hole version so it’s easier for folks to build on their own without needing SMD experience, but I wanted to test the new features first. A through-hole version is likely to be more expensive as well.

The step sequencer uses the same wave being displayed and is updated via a trigger and has its own dedicated output. That means the audio and step sequencer can be used at the same time. Currently it only goes forwards but I plan to add more options (reverse, perhaps ping-pong, random, etc.).

The SD card is hidden along the back. In hindsight that might annoy folks that want to mess with patches off the SD card often, but I really don’t like the front mounted card slots. The SD card is used for both patches and the config. Both are just text files that can be edited in a text editor or generated from something like Python. I did this so I could more easily work on the wave generation functions external to the module first, and can then port the code over to the module itself (where I’d also need to add the GUI elements). The plan is to be able to generate frames just like you can in LSDJ using parameters like amplitude, filter, clipping vs wrapping, etc.

As alluded to above, I plan on selling this though it is also open source, though I need to clean the repository up a bit as it’s gotten pretty messy with working on all the features and the through-hole and SMD designs. I’m not sure if I’ll sell complete modules, kits, bare boards, or what but I want to give as many options as I can so folks aren’t forced into building one on their own if they don’t want.

Still more work to do on the software front too but I’m very happy with the hardware and the software has most of the core functionality I wanted for the module.