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by squarefoot 1305 days ago
You can overcome the RPi scarcity by migrating the code to the Teensy platform, which aside being cheaper and less power hungry than the 2,3,4 RPi, is a lot cheaper and more easily available. Not an easy task since there's no Linux under the hood, but there are some excellent audio/midi libraries to help. They already built commercial-level synthesizers with it. By combining the breath sensor data with other pressure sensors you could end up with a very expressive instrument.

https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/index.html

https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Audio.html

https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_MIDI.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2674LdYW5I

2 comments

I like Teensy but it looks like their boards are either low-inventory or out of stock too:

https://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy41.html

Says one SKU of 4.1 is available with limit of 5 per person

And meanwhile the 4.0 is in stock in all SKUs with limit of 20! per person. https://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy40.html

This is pretty available. Especially compared to Pi

Also, Mouser expects 712 in stock within one week.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/SparkFun/DEV-16771?qs=v...

Before I’d do any of that would be vibrato. Without it it is a emotionless keyboard with a blowtube.
If I had the knowledge/ability/skills to build an “emotionless keyboard with a blow tube” I’d be pretty damn happy. I don’t think a lack of vibrato diminishes what is going on here.

Am open sourced wind synth made with a custom keyboard? Pretty sick IMO

I don't know. Looks kinda easy to do vibrato through your blowtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtsZZKZcNC4
It's tremolo, vibrato would be oscillating pitch. Real woodwinds can do both. And yes, Fender got them the wrong way.
Pretty challenging to do vibrato w/ momentary switches (discrete). For vibrato you need something like flexforce pressure sensors[1].

[1] https://www.tekscan.com/flexiforce-load-force-sensors-and-sy...