Daisy is the $29 audio board that can be turned into a synth, guitar pedal and a whole lot more
Custom hardware development platform is tearing up Kickstarter
Going down a storm on Kickstarter - it’s already raised more than five times its funding goal - Daisy is an ‘embedded platform for music’ from Electrosmith that can be used to create synths, Eurorack modules, guitar pedals and more. What’s more, it’s available from just $29.
You can use Daisy however you want, but the barebones headlines are that it offers two channels of 24-bit/192kHz audio (you can add more if you wish) and full support for USB MIDI I/O. It features an STM32 ARM Cortex-M7 CPU running at 480MHz with internal 32-bit floating point processing, and 64MB of SDRAM. We’re promised low latency (less than 1ms), full compatibility with the Arduino platform and a suite of software libraries and documentation.
To show you what Daisy is capable of, Electrosmith has used it to create four devices, all of which are available as rewards. There’s the Pod breakout board ($79), Petal guitar pedal ($299), Patch Eurorack module ($329) and Field desktop synth ($399). You can also get the whole lot for $999.
Ultimately, though, it seems that Daisy is designed to inspire you to code your own devices, and the standard audio development board - which is about the size of a stick of gum - costs just $29. If you’re ever had the urge to build your own custom hardware devices, it could be just what you need.
Find out more on the Daisy Kickstarter.
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I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.
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