BlueARP DM: hardware arpeggiator/sequencer (news & discussion)

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BlueARP was born in 2012 as a software plugin
(viewtopic.php?t=361311)
and still I keep adding features and impriving it.

Now, 5 years later, I'm proud to present my 1st hardware BlueARP prototype, the result of 4 months of hard work - soldering, refactoring the code, trials and fails, digging through tons of datasheets and technical documentation, and so on, and so forth...

This is the prototype itself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGkJVwWGVX0

And here is the musical demonstration, hardware BlueARP driving Vermona Mono Lancet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRZJuiPyoD0

I'd like to get feedback about whether you're interested in such a device as 'hardware BlueARP', and if yes, what features are important to you, how it should look like and so on...
Last edited by graywolf2004 on Tue Nov 10, 2020 6:26 am, edited 4 times in total.

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Really interesting concept. It has the potential to be very successful.

It's difficult to tell from your video how the UI is implemented, but I guess that's something you're still working on.

I also wonder if you would benefit from making it Eurorack compatible? I'm not a user myself, but it has the potential to sell well there too.

One thing that it'll need is proper midi connectivity with the ability to sync, and be synced from other gear, possibly CV too?

I would also work on getting more non trance demos sorted out. I'm a massive trance fan myself, but most of your potential customer base won't be.

I'm also a big Mono Lancet fan, one of my favourite little synths! :)

I wish you luck, I'll follow you on Youtube to keep up with updates.

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tehlord wrote:Really interesting concept. It has the potential to be very successful.

It's difficult to tell from your video how the UI is implemented, but I guess that's something you're still working on.

I also wonder if you would benefit from making it Eurorack compatible? I'm not a user myself, but it has the potential to sell well there too.

One thing that it'll need is proper midi connectivity with the ability to sync, and be synced from other gear, possibly CV too?

I would also work on getting more non trance demos sorted out. I'm a massive trance fan myself, but most of your potential customer base won't be.

I'm also a big Mono Lancet fan, one of my favourite little synths! :)

I wish you luck, I'll follow you on Youtube to keep up with updates.
Thanks for feedback! Yes, I just started to work on GUI. At this point managed to connect the display on hardware level and to draw the basic stuff on it - lines, rectangles and fonts, had to make my own 4x7 and 3x7 font, cause common 5x7 seems to wide for this display and 4x7 still looks good.
Other important thing I've done so far - is porting the entire BlueARP engine to run on Cortex-M CPU (it's quite sophisticated, thousands of lines of code). It's not 2 branches of code, it's basically the same core code shared between plugin and hardware version. These are the 'bones' this prototype already has.
Also, I completed at least half of the HAL (hardware abstraction level) stuff - working MIDI in/out, buttons and LEDs, OLED display and SD Card.

More stuff to do for next several months is:
1. Adding more MIDI ins and outs (waiting for DIN5 sockets to arrive from China)
2. Implementing external MIDI sync - it's a must, of couse
3. Making 1st version of GUI
4. Making all the knobs to do some stuff
5. Last but not least - CV/Gate. This chip has built-in 12 bit ADC/DAC - should be accurate enough
for 1V/Octave CV. I just need another larger supply voltage and a linear operational amplifier.

Didn't yet decided whether it will be a eurorack or desktop module. Anyway, now it's too early for that, I'll return to this question after I complete all the stuff above.

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Awesome dude. I'm sure there'll be a lot of interest, if you're really planning to sell these. I guess a lot will also depend on how you market this thing. I would imagine there'll be more interest in a desktop module, than an Eurorack module, obviously, as not everyone is into modulars. I guess it's too early to know what price range you are aiming for. But, this is surely a good concept, and i am not aware of too many hardware arpeggiators/sequencers either with the kind of feature set of BlueARP (maybe i'm wrong, i'm not too much into hardware anyway), so, i could well imagine that there is some interest.

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chk071 wrote:Awesome dude. I'm sure there'll be a lot of interest, if you're really planning to sell these. I guess a lot will also depend on how you market this thing. I would imagine there'll be more interest in a desktop module, than an Eurorack module, obviously, as not everyone is into modulars. I guess it's too early to know what price range you are aiming for. But, this is surely a good concept, and i am not aware of too many hardware arpeggiators/sequencers either with the kind of feature set of BlueARP (maybe i'm wrong, i'm not too much into hardware anyway), so, i could well imagine that there is some interest.
Thanks. To my best knowledge, none of hardware arps and sequencers on the market today have the same features as BlueARP, and there is only a few of them, so there should be a niche for such a thing. The question is how big is this niche, will it be enough to justify serial production.
One of the key things here - you can create patches in BlueARP plugin (which is freeware) and load them into hardware version (this is what my prototype already does). On one side, it limits the possible amount of customers (why to buy a hardware thing when there's a freeware plugin), but on the other side, I can use my well-tested code (with the help of the community) in the hardware version. So I think the target audience will be those who love playing hardware synths, including modular and CV/gate controlled stuff.

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Hm... maybe it would be a good idea to post your info on a hardware gear focused website, such as Gearslutz ;) Good hardware arp/sequencers are very few and expensive, so yeah, there's definitively a market for it - but (IMO) you do need to address to the right crowd ;)
TELURICA - "Made In ___ [INSERT LOCATION]" - EP.
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Good point, we're only the Softslutz here. :D

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To be fair you could throw a Mono Lancet down the stairs and it would still sound amazing.

(Don't do that btw)

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Why not run a kickstarter to generate funds to build final versions of it? I think your competition would be stuff like beatstep pro though. Think of what is needed in hardware that you can provide.

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I think the features of BlueArp vs other hardware sequencers will get user's attention, but the main selling point will be workflow-- how fast and easy it is to access BlueArp's many features in hardware (eg knobs vs menus). If you can make the hardware workflow a lot faster than software, you may have a winner. Once you have a prototype with UI to demonstrate the workflow, you can 'test the market' on kickstarter. Fortunately, you make great demo videos, and that helps a lot.
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Whatever it is...its needs CVs...a LOT of CVs. Please, let us know if
it will have CV Outs, if it does i will preorder and prepay one today.
Reality is a Condition due to Lack of Weed!

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BasariStudios wrote:Whatever it is...its needs CVs...a LOT of CVs. Please, let us know if
it will have CV Outs, if it does i will preorder and prepay one today.
It will have CV's, I had it in mind from the very beginning.
I'll start to mess with CV when I finish GUI stuff and multiple MIDI ins/outs.

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Great idea, this is what I'm looking for!

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Lixma wrote:To be fair you could throw a Mono Lancet down the stairs and it would still sound amazing.
(Don't do that btw)
tehlord wrote: I'm also a big Mono Lancet fan, one of my favourite little synths! :)

Really? I've heard this from a few other people as well. I've never heard one (in person) and don't know anyone who owns one I could borrow but now I'm intrigued. So what makes it special?

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Wow, that is stunning!

I have Blue Arp in my arsenal for a long time, though I haven't used it that much as of yet, but am getting back into it again at the moment. That's why I discovered this thread. I always prefered it over Kirnu Cream.

Having it sit on my desk as a hardware unit would be so great. To have hands on control of the arp while playing gives so much creative freedom and workspeed. I would absolutely buy one.

What is the plan, can it also be fed back in a DAW (FL Studio user myself)? Could I hook my Oxygen controller's midi-out to Blue Arp and Blue arp to my DAW? Or is it only meant to drive hardware synths?

UI wise, do you have any plans lined? I would respectfully suggest a type of UI like Nektar Panorama P1 (see image). The sliders could be the sequencer step controls for instance. And if you make it not sliders like they are in the P1 but perhaps ribbon controllers they could change value with each selected function. Same goes for the knobs: make them endless controllers (P1 has those, and it's great to work with, I own one), so they can pick up on any point when switching functions. I hope I make sense?

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I could see this becoming a huge hit with trance or techno producers and live performers worldwide!

Lot's of respect, you are a genius!

regards, Frank
Vocal MC for 21 years straight // http://mc-ub.free-frank.net

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