Ever dreamed of being able to program your own DSP hardware as easily as you can connect custom effects on your computer? Earlier this summer, we saw the open source OpenStomp effects pedal. Then, information was scant and we hadn’t seen an actual unit. Now, the box is going into production for North America at US$349, available for purchase right now.
The magic inside is Parallax’s Propeller CPU core. If anything kick starts a DIY revolution for DSP hardware, this could be it. The software is Windows-only, but Mac users, could be a good reason to install Windows dual-boot; there’s a graphical interface for programming custom effects, vocoders, or whatever you like.
Effects so far, which come GPL3-licensed as open source patches:
- Tremolo
- Chorus
- Distortion
- Delay
- Tunstuff (Layered repeat loop)
- Test Tone
- Pong w/source
And it gets better: because of its use of the Propeller, video features are possible, too. (Yep, this could be a video stompbox — I’ll have to unleash our Create Digital Motion readers on that.)
I hope to have a chat with the creators so we can cover this in more detail; if you have questions you’d want answered, leave them in comments and stay tuned for a full-blown CDM feature.
OpenStomp Project Page + Details
Online Store
Previous round-up: Guitar Pedals Go DIY, Open Source
Via MusicRadar.com and several of you who sent this in! (Okay, stop with the awesomeness, already! We’re going to have to run like a dozen stories today. I need to eventually get out of the house!)
