There are signs that 2017 could be the year in which the Raspberry Pi gets a second wind when it comes to musical projects.
In January, Tracktion Corporation announced that not only would Waveform, its new DAW, be compatible with the platform, but also that it was spearheading a new initiative to expand the Pi’s potential. Now, in a separate move, a crowdfunding campaign has been set up in support of pisound, a new Raspberry Pi audio and MIDI interface.
With stereo audio and MIDI I/O, this new board is said to be an ultra-low latency interface that mounts directly onto your Raspberry Pi. You can then select it from within your software and start connecting your gear.
Better still, pisound has also been designed to operate in headless mode - without an external monitor, keyboard or mouse, in other words. This is enabled by The Button, which responds to various interactions (click/double-click etc) and gives you the option of opening Pure Data and other patches straight from a USB thumb drive.
The developer suggests multiple applications for pisound, from turning your Raspberry Pi into an instrument or guitar effects processor to creating a networked audio player. It’s already gone through its funding target on Indiegogo, though an $89 pledge should still get you one in June of 2017.
