Terrarium Synth Pedal Code & Demo

[Steve Schulteis]

I've been working on a monophonic pitch-tracking synth pedal firmware for the Terrarium. The thing is, I play concertina, not guitar. So I'm really interested in hearing from any guitarists that are willing to try this thing out. How's the tracking? Are the knob ranges good (especially the trigger)? Anything I missed?

Project page: https://github.com/schult/terrarium-synth
Firmware binary: https://github.com/schult/terrarium-synth/releases/download/v1.0.0/TerrariumSynth.bin

 

[keyth72]

I'll check it out when I get a chance! And thanks for sharing the code!

 

[Davemulls]

Hey Steve I gave this a go, I found that with a tele I couldn't get the tracking to latch onto much, tried fully dimed to fully closed and nothing really worked, just some random spurts of sound with a sharp attack. Happy to test anything out that you're after!

 

[Steve Schulteis]

Hey Steve I gave this a go, I found that with a tele I couldn't get the tracking to latch onto much, tried fully dimed to fully closed and nothing really worked, just some random spurts of sound with a sharp attack. Happy to test anything out that you're after!

Thanks! Not exactly the result I was hoping for, but I really appreciate the help. I'll think on what might be wrong and see about getting some changes into a test build tomorrow night.

 

[Steve Schulteis]

Just to make sure I know what I'm working with, here's what I suggest for initial control configuration.

Turn all knobs to zero and all switches down. Move Filter (knob 5) to noon. Then increase Synth Level (knob 2) until synth starts coming through (It should be pretty wild at this point). From there, you can adjust Trigger (knob 3) until it settles down.

 

[Davemulls]

Ok with that process I was able to dial in a fairly usable sound! The tracking works pretty well for sharp staccato notes, holding notes results in some synth sound ringing out long after the note is done, or pitch not following correctly with the notes. I'm happy to record a vid as well if you want me to test various settings

 

[Steve Schulteis]

Awesome. From there, turning the Trigger setting a bit higher may help. You could also try turning on Envelope (switch 2).

If you want to record some video, the top thing I'd like to see is how the Trigger works at different settings. Run it with Envelope turned off to start with, and a little bit of dry signal in the mix, so I can get a feel for whether the gap between the on and off thresholds is about right. Hit a note and let it ring until the synth quits (or goes crazy), then adjust Trigger and repeat. I expect that pretty small adjustments may make a big difference. I probably need to change the range of that knob.

 

[Steve Schulteis]

I went ahead and adjusted the trigger range. It covers anything I'm likely to care about for my setup, but it's still a shot in the dark for guitar. Here's a temporary build if anyone wants to test it (this file will self-destruct in 7 days): https://github.com/schult/terrarium-synth/actions/runs/9662204792/artifacts/1635801727