[sdiy] programmable synth module

[Daniel Kruszyna]

Richard Wentk <richard at skydancer.com> wrote:
> I don't see the point in putting a microprocessor inside a box when you can 
> hook up the equivalent of a supercomputer laptop over USB2. (Except 
> possibly as a programming exercise.)

Part of the reason I prefer the microcontroller approach is that it becomes
a dedicated piece of hardware. The psim has demonstrated that a laptop would
be extreme overkill for many tasks. A laptop can perform many more simultaneous
operations than a microcontroller, but things can get complicated if you try to
use up all of those extra cycles by running several programs at the same time.

> A single processor system can, by definition, only do one thing at a time. 
> With a multi IO system you can have MIDI/CV, spare envelopes with weird 
> shapes, LFOs ditto, whatever you want, all in real time, and potentially 
> all at the same time.

I agree with this statement, but must add that it's possible to use multiple
microcontrollers in a design. My current project is an additive synth that
uses an atmega128 plus 4 (soon to be 10) attiny26s connected by a CAN bus.
Separate functions run on separate nodes. An attiny26/mcp2515/mcp2551 combination
costs less than $10.

-- Daniel