Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Couple of updates

Arduino Day 2015

It's that time of year again!. This year I'll be exhibiting locally at the following event:
North London Arduino Day
Saturday 28th March
The Salisbury, 1 Grand Parade, Green Lanes, London N4 1JX
If you're local and interested in Arduino, synths or both, then pop in and say hi!

Live Atmegatron gig video

I played a secret gig with DREAMTRAK in Shoreditch last week. You can check it out here. We used 2 Atmegatrons, one loaded with Delayertron software and one with Atmegatron software. They were controlled via Ableton. Nearly all the other sounds from the Ableton session were made by Atmegatrons too. Fingers crossed I get to do something like this again soon!

Monday, 26 January 2015

Hello 2015!

The Atmegatron Complete is sold out again! There are a few distributors still with stock though. The list can be found at the bottom of the Buy page. If your local distributor has run out of stock, just drop me an email at the waiting list. There's plenty of news about the Atmegatron and new products coming soon. Watch this space!

Tuesday, 30 December 2014

Bye bye 2014

The Duotron - Dual oscillator Atmegatron

Well it's been quite a year. I couldn't have hoped for a better response to the Atmegatron. There's gonna be a lot exciting new things next year too. I look forward to sharing these with you over the coming months.

Anyway I thought I'd finish the year off with yet another software version, The Duotron. This is a dual oscillator variation of the classic Atmegatron software. It uses the techniques used on the Delayertron, but replaces the delay-line with another oscillator. It's got a pretty heavy sound as you can hear. It does do warmer sounds too, I had the wave-crusher turned up high on that little demo.
You may wonder why the 2 oscillators are always slightly detuned.  This is because oscillator B uses a 16-bit timer and A uses an 8-bit timer.  The tuning accuracy of the 16-bit timer is better, hence why they always sound slightly out.
Some people may notice the high frequency PWM noise with this software (it's the same reason as with the Delayertron). It is nothing to worry about, it's well out of human hearing range.
I'll try and do a new version of this next year that is duophonic (i.e. if you press 2 MIDI notes, 1 oscillator goes to each note).

Dirt Cheap PCB

There's a dirt cheap PCB for sale at the online store.  It is a fully functioning PCB, the only issue is that some of the output filter components are faulty meaning that it has a sound which is a little too warm! I'm happy to show any soldering experts which components need replacing (should you want to).

Saturday, 27 December 2014

New Atmegatron software available

There's a new version of the Atmegatron software available (version 1.3) on the downloads page. It adds the ability to change MIDI channel and also fixes some stuck MIDI note issues that Ableton users were having.

Find out how to change MIDI channel here and how to upload the software here.

Thursday, 11 December 2014

Last minute Christmas presents!

Atmegatron Complete and PCB back on sale

There's a small stock of Atmegatron Complete's and PCBs available, via the website and also some distributors. The distributors currently with stock are:

If you order from the webshop, please bear in mind the following last dates for orders to arrive by Christmas:

  • UK - 20th Dec
  • Europe - 13th Dec
  • USA - 12th Dec
  • Canada, Asia, South America, Australasia - Won't make it in time, apologies

Delayertron and Atmegadrum overlays now available

Finally the Atmegatron overlays are ready! They are available from the webshop and you get 2 for £7.50 (ex VAT and postage). The overlays are for the Delayertron and Atmegadrum and the software for them can be found here and a tutorial on how to upload the software can be found here.

Please note that only orders to UK addresses will ship in time for Christmas.

New Delayertron and Atmegadrum demo track by DREAMTRAK

To celebrate the new overlays, there's a new demo track showing off the Delayertron and Atmegadrum software. The track was edited together from a jam between DREAMTRAK and Soulsby Synths, performed on 2 Atmegatrons. It's pretty experimental, and that's exactly what the Atmegatron is all about!

Oh and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

Music Tech Fest this weekend

It's Music Tech Fest this weekend. I'm going to be taking part in the 24 hour hackathon. Judging by past Music Tech Fests it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.
Do come along and say hello if you're free.  Details below:

Music Tech Fest - festival of music ideas

Jerwood Hall, LSO St Lukes, London.
Tickets: £20 per day

  • Friday 5 September: 6pm–10pm - Occupy Music (Soulsby Synths are not involved this day)
  • Saturday 6 September: 1pm–10pm - Gunk and HMI
  • Sunday 7 September: 1pm–10pm - Get Your Ears Dirty

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Delayertron (tron tron tron .... ....) software available now!

Turn your Atmegatron into a sci-fi dream machine

The Delayertron software is now available on the Downloads page of the Soulsby Synthesizers website.
You can see a video of the Delayertron in action here:
The heart of the Delayertron is a crunchy 8-bit delay line. The following parameters can be adjusted:
  • Dry/wet mix
  • Delay sample rate
  • Feedback
  • Delay length
  • Clip mode (for gritted distorted delay with >100% feedback)
  • LFO and envelope amounts to control the sample rate
There's also a filter which can be either high or low pass. The LFO can control it's cutoff and it can be inserted either after the delay or at the output mix.
All the oscillator waveforms are new too and have been increased from 32 to 256 samples long.  The waveforms are derived from Adventure Kid's awesome waveforms library.
The software can be uploaded by anyone who owns an Atmegatron and an FTDI cable.  See this video for instructions.