

Open Source Guitar Effects Pedal - carlos
http://www.openstomp.com

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teach
I think it's a shame that this is targetted at the hacker-musician community,
but the development environment is almost Windows only. (Written in C#,
partially working under Mono on OS X, not tested under Linux.)

I suspect the vast majority of musician-hacker types don't use Windows.

Edit: I see that the Linux version is mostly held back by a third-party
Windows-only tool, and a cross-platform replacement is under development.
Awesome.

~~~
bitwize
_I suspect the vast majority of musician-hacker types don't use Windows._

Since the death of the Amiga and Atari ST, virtually all pro digital music
stuff is done on Macs.

But more musicians probably use Windows than use Linux.

~~~
ScottWhigham
That was true a decade ago but, starting around 2008 and forward, that's just
not the case anymore. Macs are good and still popular but they are not what
powers "virtually all pro digital music stuff" in 2012.

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loeschg
I was super excited about this until I saw the price tag. $300 definitely puts
it into that "I'm gonna think 2x about buying this" categories. Not to say I
wouldn't drop the cash if musicians I respect like it and use it.

~~~
anigbrowl
Yeah, it's very overpriced. This is a common problem with tools like this
because it's a niche market; specialty gear tends to be much, more expensive
than the mass-market equivalent, to the point of limiting sales. It needs to
a) be $99, at which price it will fly out the door, or b) have MIDI, because
keyboard nerds are much more used to this sort of technology and likely to
make up the bulk of initial sales, or c) have a much, much larger library of
pre-programmed DSP modules.

I used to work in this field, and though I don't want to run down the
excellent achievement of this project, it's an untried brand and technology in
an area with multiple mature competitors. The only really new thing here is
that it's in a pedal rather than a desktop device aimed at keyboard users.
(Well, video out _is_ novel - but Raspberry Pi has video out and costs $35.)
For about $100 more you could pick up a used Nord Micro Modular, which would
be _enormously_ more versatile:
[http://www.clavia.se/nordmodular/Files/MicroModular_folder.p...](http://www.clavia.se/nordmodular/Files/MicroModular_folder.pdf)
...not to mention a wide variety of highly configurable guitar stage
processors like this: [http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-
effects/line-6-pod...](http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-
effects/line-6-pod-x3-live-guitar-multi-effects-pedal) or
<http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/adrenalinn-iii.html> ...

I agree with the comment above about trying to get Kickstarter funding and
doing a larger production run with the resulting economies of scale. Starting
high and waiting for sales to drive down the production cost is a poor
strategy, and one that has caused many products/manufacturers in this market
to go out of production/business. I love this kind of technology and want to
like this product, but for $300 I could buy a lot more signal candy.

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lux
Will there be an option to order the hardware pre-built? I'd love to hack on
some effects, but my resources are a little thin for putting together the
hardware side of things at present.

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david_a_r_kemp
Whilst I applaud the effort, I think there needs to be PCB layouts and the
like before this can be considered open source. At the moment the source code
is there, and probably enough resources to give you a jump start on building
your own, not detailed enough to build your own.

It's like me calling a program open source and ownly making the
roadmap/initial spec publicly available.

~~~
steauengeglase
[http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/docs/cusapps/Pro...](http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/docs/cusapps/PropellerContest08/OpenStomp-
Report.pdf)

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retrogradeorbit
I have been waiting for this device for ten years! This is great.

But my experience with digital effects processors in the audio domain, both
guitar and recording gear, is the gear's AD and DA converters are super
important. The software and digital side is important too, but if those 44kHz,
20 bit converters do a poor job, the units audio will subtly suffer, and
emotional content from the playing will be masked.

There's a huge difference in sound quality of digital units on the market.

I'm hoping with the nature of the unit, that I would get very high quality
components across the board. Seeing as every patch developed is dependent on
that quality, and that I'd probably buy only one of these, and that I'm
willing to spend more than on a normal, non-programmable pedal, then the unit
better be seriously high performing.

High quality balanced +4dBu line level ins and outs on a rack unit version of
these. That would be the next unit to do. Or even AES/EBU digital ins and outs
and a wordclock in!

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S_A_P
This is also available from Line 6, in a slightly different fashion. Line 6's
solution would require more DSP programming knowledge. Open stomp looks
analogous to a hardware version of Native Instruments Reaktor.

more info here: <http://line6.com/tcddk/>

~~~
retrogradeorbit
I didn't know about this line6 offering. Thanks for pointing it out.

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larrydag
Great to see the musician/hacker community is alive and well. I would like to
see an tablet app for Rakarrak myself. <http://rakarrack.sourceforge.net/>

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h00k
I'm reminded of an Arduino-powered pedal on Instructables:
<http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Guitar-Pedal/>

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tricky
Those who are sad it is windows based might be interested in resurrecting
Justin Frankel's <http://www.cockos.com/jesusonic/>

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DigitalSea
As a musician/developer who programs in Windows primarily and Linux only when
I have too, this appeals to me. The price tag doesn't appeal to me however.

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lux
Would also love an option for a premium four button pedal, and maybe a bit
more memory or some kind of storage option (SD card reader?).

