ElectroTechnique TSynth

[MarkOne]

In my idle googling for interesting synths, I came across this

Anyone had any experience with it? Looks like only resellers in Germany Switzerland and US.

If I could find a supplier, I might just be persuaded to take a punt on one. I quite fancy a little DIY project.

[BJG145]

I'd never heard of it until a few days ago, when I came across it in this (sold) eBay listing which looked quite tempting.

Are the sounds produced by Teensy...? If so, it's a more capable synth engine than I'd realised.

[t-sun]

Are the sounds produced by Teensy...? If so, it's a more capable synth engine than I'd realised.

Ditto, I've only seen Teensy boards (even the fairly powerful 4.1 used here) used for complex I/O handling, partnered with a Raspberry Pi. I assume because the Pi has more pre-built tools intended for this kind of thing. Pretty good deal, if you can get the required board and hat. Although it looks like the kit costs $300 in the US and you're buying your own Teensy.

You can get away with a lot of you aren't using an underlying OS like Linux, but the Teensy 4.1 falls between the Pi Pico and the Pi Zero, so it's way more powerful than the Pico but doesn't require Linux like the Zero. I guess it was possible to run a similar VST on a 600mhz PC twenty years ago, so if you cut out the OS bloat it would work?

[Guest]

The Teensy 4.0 and 4.1 use the NXP IMXRT1060/1062 which is an Arm M7 design and is a pretty pokey processor.

It is a superscalar processor that can run two instructions at the same time, even without the programmer thinking about it and just knocking out C/C++ code it will manage this maybe 50% of the time, if you know what you are doing this figure will be higher.

Half the ram is also attached to two high speed buses with single cycle access (so it is running at 600mhz), the data bus allows access to two 32 bit reads at in a single cycle.

It also has two separate caches of 32K one for instructions and one for data, and branch prediction as well.

So all in all it is a pretty powerful piece of kit and as t-sun says it is not running an operating system.

https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/ ... 60XCEC.pdf

[Arpangel]

Might be wrong, but it looks and sounds quite conventional, same old architecture, and generic sounds, but they may just be presets so.

[MarkOne]

Might be wrong, but it looks and sounds quite conventional, same old architecture, and generic sounds, but they may just be presets so.

Probably, yes, but I do like what I hear in this demo and at the end of the day you’re getting a 12 voice poly synth for under 300 quid, significantly, if your happy to build your own case.

Sure, it’s basically a software instrument in a box, but so are reface and boutique re-issues.

I’m rather drawn to it. But I may hang on a bit in the hope a new batch of Micromonstas come into stock. (Or perhaps, maybe both if I can convince the financial controller)

[BJG145]

I've got a Teensy 4.0 and Audio Shield Rev D on the desk here. I'll have another look at it.

The TSynth build instructions are for 3.6 or 4.1. I picked up the 4.0 for a different project but ended up using 3.6 instead because 4.0 had no USB/MIDI support.

[Folderol]

On the Arduino you can fiddle the UART to make it send 31.5 kHz serial for real MIDI (via a buffer). I don't know if the Teensy can do that too. If not, you might be able to bit-bang one of the pins - assuming you can get a timer to produce 31.5kHz or close enough to it.

[Guest]

The teensy has a nice lib: https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_MIDI.html

Supports serial, usb device and usb host.

The 4.1 can support 8 serial ins and outs. I have one of these built https://www.tindie.com/products/deftaud ... -usb-host/

So this appears on my Mac as a 16 port interface, 8 serial and 8 via anything connected to the host port.

[Folderol]

Supports serial, usb device and usb host.

... but BJG145's 4.0 doesn't - although I believe there is a {painful?} work round.

[Guest]

It supports Serial and USB device.

https://www.tindie.com/products/deftaud ... -5out-usb/

Of course you can also add midi host by connecting something like this up: https://github.com/dmadison/Teensy40_Mi ... t_USB_Host

[BJG145]

Having soldered the Teensy 4.0 to the audio shield, I'm not sure if I can add a MIDI board now. I dunno why they missed USB/MIDI on that one. I guess maybe it might be stackable.

*edit*

I just found a post from 2020 saying "USB MIDI device mode is now fully supported on Teensy 4.0". Maybe I can use this now.

[Guest]

Having soldered the Teensy 4.0 to the audio shield, I'm not sure if I can add a MIDI board now. I dunno why they missed USB/MIDI on that one. I guess maybe it might be stackable.

*edit*

I just found a post from 2020 saying "USB MIDI device mode is now fully supported on Teensy 4.0". Maybe I can use this now.

Ok, are you after USB midi where you connect the teensy to a host, like a computer?

Or are you after the ability to connect say a USB Midi keyboard to it?

p.s. a lot of the PJRC "help" pages are seriously out of date and have not been updated for the 4.0 and 4.1.

[MarkOne]

Meanwhile…

Back with the TSynth,

Would you get the PCB with display and the smds pre mounted, and source all the other components and make a box,

Get everything except the Teensy and get that and make a box

Or have done with it and buy the whole kit?

[t-sun]

Whole kit, the price of getting a one-off case made (and praying it doesn’t take a dozen 3d print attempts) would wind up pushing you up that far anyway. I tried breaking down the price for the Swiss seller with full kits and case vs the US seller with no case, teensy or audio board and it was the same.

Speaking of teensy based synths, I saw this today https://codeberg.org/positionhigh/MicroDexed-touch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLKw ... pPxnm5jN1M

Remember those VST-in-a-box things from about 15 years ago? I guess they’re back, but possibly done correctly this time.

[BJG145]

Ok, are you after USB midi where you connect the teensy to a host, like a computer? Or are you after the ability to connect say a USB Midi keyboard to it?

It was some time ago, but it would have involved USB/MIDI between the Teensy and a PC. (MIDI DIN would also be fine.)

[Guest]

Usb midi and audio between the computer and the teensy 4.0 will work just fine.

In teensyduino go to tools->USB Type and choose one of the "serial + Midi" options, or if you also want usb audio "Serial +Midi +Audio" options.

If you are using another IDE let me know and we can get that doing as well.

[BJG145]

OK! Ta...