WVR: tiny open source sample player platform for audio projects

30 Dec 2020 by Robin Vincent |

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

WVR · Source: WVR

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WVR is a ready-made wav player board for building custom electronic instruments and experimental machines. It features a dual-core 240MHz processor, 16MB of RAM, 8GB of storage, WiFi and Bluetooth, USB MIDI and HiFi audio. It’s ready to go out-of-the-box.

WVR

So what could you use it for? It could be a sample player triggered using all sorts of input possibilities. You could use it in art installations, to generate sound effects in monsters and robots, build it into a speaker as a music player or use it as a musical instrument. It’s a platform and a little board that’s packed and ready to perform without needed much in the way of soldering or coding.

WVR Board

It’s perfect for makers who want to integrate sound into their projects whatever they are trying to make.

As a sample player you can upload samples over Wi-Fi, then control the pitch and volume, whether they latch, one-shot or loop, apply sensitivity curves and velocity responses. You can map samples to velocity for building multi-sampled instruments with up to 18 stereo samples playing at one time. It can hold over 12 hours of audio at 16bit and 44.1kHz. It has a MIDI input plus a bunch of GPIO pins that can operate as 8 analog inputs and 4 capacitive touch inputs. Firmware can be written in Arduino and ported over via the Wi-Fi.

It’s a pretty capable little board.

The Kickstarter is trying to raise £5,778 to get it off the ground and a single board will cost you CA$30 or CA$45 with the programmable USB Host backpack. They offer a makers board which has audio connectors all ready to go and a development board which adds in MIDI, knobs and switches for deeper applications.

WVR Dev Board

WVR has a lot of potential for being built into a pedal, small enclosure or Eurorack module. It’s a great platform for getting your ideas into a workable instrument.