Electrosmith Daisy: An open source board that can run a synth, a pedal or a module

25 Feb 2020 by Robin Vincent |

3,0 / 5,0 | Approximate reading time: 2 Minutes

Electrosmith Evaluation Platforms · Source: Electrosmith

· Source: Electrosmith

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We saw the Electrosmith Daisy at NAMM and now it’s ready for some Kickstarter action. Daisy is an embedded platform for music that can be an effects pedal, a Eurorack module or a synth.

Daisy

Within this little microcomputer board is everything you need to make sound. Plug in a USB cable and you’re off! But you might want a bit more control than that which is why they’ve created some boxes that turn Daisy into something useful. Currently we have Petal which is a guitar pedal, Patch which is a Eurorack module, Field – a desktop synth and Pod which is like a prototyping board. They give you the ins, outs and controls appropriate to the environment you’re interested in.

You can run the Daisy by itself if you like.

Daisy features 24-bit stereo audio with up to 192kHz and 32-bit floating-point processing. It runs on an ARM Cortex-M7 processor and has 64MB of SDRAM onboard. It has 32 pins that can be addressed to access function, protocols and I/O.

You can program Daisy with a number of languages including Arduino, Pure Data, Max/MSP, and C++. Apparently it’s really easy. But within it you can create effects, synths, processing modules or whatever your programming skills can conceive.

Evaluation Platforms

Petal – Along with 4 footswitches you get a rotary encoder and an SD card slot. There are two channels of in/out and an input for an expression pedal.

Electrosmith Petal

Patch – 4 modular level audio inputs and outputs, 4 CV inputs, 2 CV outputs and MIDI In/Out. It has 4 knobs, 2 buttons and a toggle switch. It also has an SD card slot.

Electrosmith Patch

Field – CV patchbay, built-in headphones, 8 knobs, 2 buttons and a toggle switch. A little keyboard and the SD card slot.

Electrosmith Field

Pod – MIDI and audio in/out with headphones, couple of buttons and a knob and the SD card slot.

Electrosmith Pod

The Daisy itself costs only $29 and so is a remarkably cheap platform to develop for. The Evaluation Platforms cost a lot more but Kickstarter is the best place to buy into this idea. Petal is $299, Patch is $329 and Field is $399 with a Daisy, or you can get the little Pod for $79.