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8BitMixtapeNEO media coverage
It’s the size of a cassette tape, has buttons and pots so you can play it as a handheld instrument, it’s open and hackable – and it sounds like 8-bit mayhem.
8BitMixtapeNEO is very, very lo-fi synth built around the Arduino-compatible ATTINY85 chip. But what’s interesting about it is that all that hackable, programmable mayhem is accessible to anyone curious, not just coders.
Article in Makezine Japan Edition, August 2018. Text by Toshinao Ruike.
日本では猛暑の日々が続いているが、さらに暑いインドネシアから熱波のようにやってきた「8bitMixtapeNeo」を紹介したい。Arduino互換チップのATTiny85を搭載したオープンソースの“ローファイ・8bit・シンセサイザー”だ。
上の動画の通り、期待に違わないチープな出音。2個のノブとスイッチ、そして8個のフルカラーLED。ギラギラしたLEDはシンセサイザーとしての機能には関係なく、純粋にプログラムして光らせるだけのもの。チップへのデータ書き込みはUSB接続ではなく、CV入力端子にケーブルを繋げてオーディオ信号で行われる。
Open-Source ist eine geniale Sache: da entwickeln verschiedene Personen an einem Konzept, verbessern dieses immer wieder und andere Interessierte können sich daran beteiligen. Dafür ist das Ganze dann am Ende frei zugänglich und wie im Falle des Synthesizers 8Bit Mixtape Neo auch selbst nachbaubar.
Open source is a brilliant thing: different people develop a concept, improve it over and over again and other interested parties can participate in it. But the whole thing is then freely accessible at the end and, as in the case of the Synthesizer 8Bit Mixtape Neo, also self-replaceable.
Synth Anatomy: 8Bit Mixtape NEO Is A DIY Synthesizer & Customizable Lo-Fi Electronic Music Instrument
The tiny synth can be updated with .wav files – so you can share and load ‘mixtapes’ that give the synth an entirely different personality. There are already mixtapes that turn the NEO into a drum machine, a pitch shifter, a algorithmic dance music synth and more.
Meet the 8BitMixtape-NEO, a miniature 8-bit lofi synthesizer that is compatible with Arduino and can be endlessly modified to create new, crushed-down, glitchy sounds.
If you are into DSP development and the exploratory world of programming your own sounds, the 8BitMixtape-NEO may be worth getting your hands on.
The 8Bit Mixtape NEO is a lo-fi 8-bit synthesizer, based on the Arduino-compatible ATTINY85, featuring 2 Pots, 2 Buttons and 8 addressable RGB Neo-pixels.
The tiny synth can be updated with .wav files – so you can share and load ‘mixtapes’ that give the synth an entirely different personality. There are already mixtapes that turn the NEO into a drum machine, a pitch shifter, a algorithmic dance music synth and more.
the 8BitMixtapeNEO looks like an ordinary music cassette. But with knobs and buttons to operate the integrated synthesizer. And that produces LoFi 8 bit sounds. An ATTINY85 processor generates the sounds. As known from the scene, you can hack this and program it freely. For this purpose, the developer of the sound generator sets its own software, which can very easily and visually create new sounds by drag-and-drop.
Commands are received by the chip via audio data generated by the software and loaded into the hardware. And here the manufacturer recommends as an upload source to use a Sony Walkman. Quite the old school. But that's exactly what the concept is all about. Retro look, retro operation and retro sounds. That sounds very consistent!