Midiori with Wavetable synth extension

[hiker]

I'm currently experimenting with adding more features to the Midiori 2.2 design.
Initially I was thinking about adding memory but I mostly lost interest in that after tinkering with galspanic.

I did add a header for a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 for running MT32-pi and a DAC.
Then I also added a header for wavetable boards compatible with those found on most 90s PC sound cards.

The two buttons on the back are to switch synths and ROMs of the MT32-pi.
I also exposed the button lines on a RJ12 connector as well as 5V and the Pi's I2C lines that could be used to create some kind of a remote control with display. I haven't built that yet and and I am not sure if I'll keep this.
It should be possible to control the Pi via SysEx messages but I have not tried that yet.
Does anyone know an existing tool for the X68000 to generate SysEx messages?

The blue component with the mess of wires is a 3 position switch to adjust volume attenuation of the wavetable board output. I will fix this in the next revision.

MT32-pi and wavetable have separate outputs, no mixing is done. Personally I'm using an external mixer anyway but I wonder how other people handle mixing of the sound of the x68000 with MIDI music.
MIDI output via TRS connector (Type A).

The DAC for the Pi is currently on a separate board (GY-5102). I have no plans to change this, I wish it was available with green though .

I'm using low-profile headers for the Pi (from Samtec). If the Pi is removed it can fit a fullsize wavetable board, but barely. Now that Pi Zero 2 are cheap again it might also make sense to just solder it to header pins.

[incrediblehark]

This is really interesting, looking forward to seeing your progress.

Also for my own setup, I also use an external mixer for MIDI and X68000 sound (just a small Rolls 3 input mixer)

[SuperDeadite]

I love the QWave. 

[hiker]

Built another revision.
Mainly removed failed experiments, fixes and moved the wave table connector a bit to better accomodate full size daughterboards.
However I messed up some trace routing by the edge connector, but works anyway.

[kamiboy]

Funny to see Pi's used as slave devices for ancient systems when one considers that the computing capabilities of the Pi are thousands of times that of even the fastest X68000. This is just me, and I fully realise how illogical a take this is, but the absurdity of reducing a much more powerful computer to emulate as a simple device for a unimaginably weaker computer is so absurd it hurts my mind. For this reason alone I tend to prefer devices that use FPGA to emulate devices instead of Pi's. Even though, in practice, there is no difference, yet, somehow, an FPGA is more palatable absurdity to my mind.

As for how I handle sound mixing, I spent a lot of money and effort to try an find a good compact sound mixer that can take output from my Japanese PC collection, along with any accompanying internal or external midi/sound modules and route it all to a set of active speakers.

I never did quite find a mixer that was up to the task, seems most of the devices sold, especially those with enough inputs to cover my needs, are geared at professional musicians or audio technicians, so they are big, ugly, bulky devices that take up too much space and do not look right next to the hardware I hook them up to.

There is something to be said for a manner of mixing midi and FM/PCM audio from the X68000 without having to rely on external mixers. At the very least it would be very neat for single system setups. Mixers are one extra device that adds cost, need for power, messy cables and cost for such a rudimentary functionality.

I imagine it is beyond the scope of this project, but a 3.5mm jack audio input to take the X68000 audio, a volume dial to control mixing of midi and X68000 audio and another 3.5mm jack for outputting the final mix would go a long way.

[hiker]

Thanks for the feedback @kamiboy.

MT32-pi is the best MT32 clone/emulation that I am aware of.
But I appreciate that it runs on bare metal without first having to boot a full OS like Linux.

I thought about adding line-in and a digital mixer. Maybe based on ADAU1701 and PCM1808. It could replace the current DAC.