No love for the Axoloti DSP Board?

electricanada · Post by **electricanada** » Sun Jul 08, 2018 12:29 am

ersatzplanet wrote:
electricanada wrote:I think I'll make an fx box first. How hard would it be to get some CV from my Eurorack into the Axoloti?
Unfortunately to drive the Axo with CV you will have to add some external circuitry to limit and polarize the incoming CV to something the Axo understands. Basically it wants to see only 0 to +5V and you can damage it by exceeding that range too much. There are some projects out there adding the circuitry needed (the Eurolotti and others). I myself went the more expensive, but for me more flexible direction, of buying a CV>MIDI CC converter module (I got the Doepfer A-192) and that gives me 16 CV ins to the Axo (or any other MIDI synth). Wiring pots and switches to the Axo is VERY easy and the chances of damaging the unit are much lower this way so I am making a module with 16 pots connected. The Pots and MIDI can both work at the same time so 32 inputs ought to be more than enough.

Thanks! What will your box do?

glennfin · Post by **glennfin** » Sun Jul 08, 2018 8:12 am

+1... this. Does anyone know, was the Euro PCB and panel ever released for sale?.

Euro?

cannonball swandive wrote:I’m pretty sure most of us who own the axo are eager for some sort of euro implementation. Also drooling over the axoloti control which is apparently still in the works but has no time frame for release

ersatzplanet · Post by **ersatzplanet** » Mon Jul 09, 2018 3:31 pm

electricanada wrote: Thanks! What will your box do?

I plan on it to take over sequencer/voice duties. The biggest space takers in any rig are sequencers and you can get some great stuff out of the Axo since its sequencers don't tax the system hardly at all.

I will probably make a polyphonic SEM clean on it as a voice, or something with more filters.

The Axo also works well as a effects box so that may be done too.

Basically in this configuration it may play a lot of roles. I had thought about making it into a separate box and dedicating it to one job (not programming it again) and make a stand alone semi-modular synth with it. Have some basic routing switchable or fade-able between different places.

The is the power of boxes like this and the Nord Micro, you can make them be whatever you want them to be. The Axo is a lot like a Nord Micro only you have more than four knobs if you want. It has stereo audio in and out, USB and MIDI control, and patches stored on microSD cards.

maximee · Post by **maximee** » Tue Jul 10, 2018 5:02 am

I have not much more to add other than that the Axoloti is freaking fantastic and hours of fun for very little money. It can look intimidating at first but I find it very accessible and it has a great community.
I bought three and have application ideas for ten more.

electricanada · Post by **electricanada** » Wed Jul 11, 2018 9:04 pm

I wonder why no one has imported Grids into Axoloti? I saw that someone had put Grids on Teensy; surely it's doable on Axoloti.

Branko · Post by **Branko** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:43 am

I love them, I have two.

A really fun thing to do is load the Cymatics demo patch (with some tweaks for the Axo Control and External sound input) and have endless fun with my oscilloscope.

Navs · Post by **Navs** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 3:15 am

The Axoloti is a great package - the processing power and physical ins and outs. In use, patch switching is fast, quicker than the Micromodular, for example.

I have found the patching to be intuitive up to a point - for me it's the modules and concepts that go beyond what's possible on, say, the Nord Modular and sample stuff. That's when I miss proper documentation. There are a lot of user patches and modules but these are sometimes difficult to decipher. I've been reading Pure Data tutorials to understand some of the concepts - like arrays - but, naturally, the info doesn't always translate 1:1. I need to join the Axoloti forum, I guess!

ersatzplanet · Post by **ersatzplanet** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 2:28 pm

Navs wrote:The Axoloti is a great package - the processing power and physical ins and outs. In use, patch switching is fast, quicker than the Micromodular, for example.

I have found the patching to be intuitive up to a point - for me it's the modules and concepts that go beyond what's possible on, say, the Nord Modular and sample stuff. That's when I miss proper documentation. There are a lot of user patches and modules but these are sometimes difficult to decipher. I've been reading Pure Data tutorials to understand some of the concepts - like arrays - but, naturally, the info doesn't always translate 1:1. I need to join the Axoloti forum, I guess!

I agree. Some modules can be really obscure and often there are many user made modules that are doing almost the same thing. The user modules are very confusing compared to the factory modules. The list of them is rather huge too.

The factory library (over 700 objects) - http://www.privatepublic.de/public/fact ... tlist.html

The user library (over 2083 objects!) - http://www.privatepublic.de/public/comm ... tlist.html

many are obscure math functions and programming stuff but still, the most common needed modules to make sounds are there in multitudes. The factory list is easier to understand because it is grouped by function, the Community list is grouped by author so a bit harder to find things.

Navs · Post by **Navs** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 3:19 pm

Yep. Some of the user modules/sub-patches can be opened/edited, so you can see how they work. But some are just code, so I can't learn from them.

bagoly · Post by **bagoly** » Sat Aug 11, 2018 2:14 pm

Maybe there is something wrong with my axoloti, but i find the onboard ADC to be almost unusable. The analog inputs are very noisy and not suitable for anything that requires precision over a wide range, like V/Oct tracking, which is a bummer. :(

I perfboarded a couple of CV-buffers using a MCP6004 (based on the Mutable Instruments schematics) and with an external ADC it's quite usable for coarse CVs, but I'll need a better solution for V/Oct, as i still get some jitter and the MCP3008 i used only has 10-Bit resolution, which is a too rough for me, even for 5 octaves. (ideally i'd like to go for 10 octaves)

I have some 12-Bit MCP3208s on order, we'll see how that goes.

Anybody tried something similar yet?

ersatzplanet · Post by **ersatzplanet** » Sat Aug 11, 2018 3:59 pm

robin87 wrote:Maybe there is something wrong with my axoloti, but i find the onboard ADC to be almost unusable. The analog inputs are very noisy and not suitable for anything that requires precision over a wide range, like V/Oct tracking, which is a bummer. :(

I'm sure the best way to run the Axo for pitch is through MIDI and not it's analogue inputs. I would get, or make, a CV to MIDI module and use it for pitch control.

bagoly · Post by **bagoly** » Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:43 am

Yes, I used it with CV-to-MIDI before and while it works well, it's not what I'm looking for in this case.

Ideally, I'd want the axoloti to track unquantized Pitch CV and fm it at audio rates as well, so sending 0-127 MIDI note numbers wont work for me.
I could probably use 14-Bit high resolution MIDI (I think there even is a object for that in axoloti) or pitch bend to get the resolution i need, but then it would probably be to slow for audiorate FM anyway.

In theory, the MCP3208 should be totally fine, but due to the physical layout of the Axoloti, my perfboard-setup is a bit of a mess, which doesn't help with my noise/jitter issues I'm afraid...

tIB · Post by **tIB** » Mon Nov 12, 2018 4:31 pm

I'm leaning towards trying one of these in the near future - a couple questions...

I used to love making little midi sequencing systems in Nord G2 - there's enough going on here module wise to get my funk on and spit it out of the midi out?

Thinking of Nord am I right to assume there aren't things similar to nords variations or patch mutator?

toneburst · Post by **toneburst** » Mon Nov 12, 2018 5:01 pm

The Axoloti was very much inspired by the Nord Modular.

There are lots of MIDI tools available, and, unlike with the NM, you can make your own if the exact patch you want isn't already available.

I'd say go for it!

adnauseam · Post by **adnauseam** » Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:06 pm

tIB wrote:I'm leaning towards trying one of these in the near future - a couple questions...

I used to love making little midi sequencing systems in Nord G2 - there's enough going on here module wise to get my funk on and spit it out of the midi out?

Thinking of Nord am I right to assume there aren't things similar to nords variations or patch mutator?

There are thousands of freely available user made modules in the community repository.

What you can do is very open ended - the only limitation is the processing power and ram and currently they cannot be expanded. That being said you could pick up 20 of these for the price of one Nord G2

tIB · Post by **tIB** » Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:21 am

adnauseam wrote:[
What you can do is very open ended - the only limitation is the processing power and ram and currently they cannot be expanded. That being said you could pick up 20 of these for the price of one Nord G2

That's definitely a factor! Assume like the Nord the it's the audio processing modules that suck up most of the processor. Building sequencers shouldn't be too taxing if so...

Are there recallable patch variations in the editor?

adnauseam · Post by **adnauseam** » Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:39 am

tIB wrote:
That's definitely a factor! Assume like the Nord the it's the audio processing modules that suck up most of the processor. Building sequencers shouldn't be too taxing if so...

Are there recallable patch variations in the editor?

There are no patch variations unless you program the patch to use the patch variation module. It's also sorta quirky to change patches without the editor. I would say the way the Axoloti works isn't for everyone but sure is fun. I'd recommend checking out the Axoloti county forum and read before deciding to get one. Then again I personally find it more fun than the nord modular stuff. The issue you may have is there paradox of choice: sooooo many modules and many ways to do the same thing.

tIB · Post by **tIB** » Tue Nov 13, 2018 2:13 am

Thanks for the help - with the g2 I basically just used to mess with dividers, logic, mixers and sequences and spit that out of midi - basically just a very modular approach to sequencing and variation. For 65 euros I think it's worth me investing some time- it's q project for next year I think...

skee · Post by **skee** » Sat Feb 09, 2019 2:29 am

Any news on when the Axaloti will be back in stock? They are not taking orders and have gone quiet since December.

skee · Post by **skee** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 6:13 pm

Just back in.

Neontribeent · Post by **Neontribeent** » Mon Feb 18, 2019 2:13 am

Just ordered my second axoloti. Have had a lot of fun with the first, but I want to expand a bit.

sizone · Post by **sizone** » Sat Apr 06, 2019 1:47 pm

mine's on the way. anyone been using theirs as a cv source?

djthopa · Post by **djthopa** » Thu Jun 13, 2019 1:53 pm

Seems to be out of stock....

proubaud · Post by **proubaud** » Thu Jun 20, 2019 6:50 am

Is there still a way to get one ?

sizone · Post by **sizone** » Fri Jun 21, 2019 5:41 pm

They do small production runs, wait a few weeks or a month and they'll probably be back in stock.

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No love for the Axoloti DSP Board?