Radio Music Front
Radio Music Rear
Radio Music Front
Radio Music Rear

Radio Music – Model 1440

Radio Music is a virtual radio / sample player module, that behaves a bit like a radio.  A digital way to simulate the radio-powered compositions of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen as well as Don Buchla’s voltage-controlled radio experiments.

Tune to the “stations” using the front panel control or the CV input jack.  Play audio from an SD card to simulate a voltage controlled AM/FM/Shortwave/Time Travel radio. Each station is simply an audio file stored in a folder on a micro SD card.

$275.00

Out of stock

SKU: ASMSSL1440DCOMMU Category:

Description

Radio Music is a virtual radio / sample player module, that behaves a bit like a radio.  A digital way to simulate the radio-powered compositions of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen as well as Don Buchla’s voltage-controlled radio experiments. Play audio from an SD card to simulate a voltage controlled AM/FM/Shortwave/Time Travel radio.

Tune to the “stations” using the front panel control or the CV input jack.  Each station is simply an audio file stored in a folder on a micro SD card.  Select from up to 16 “banks” of stations by pressing and holding the RESET button.  Depending on the SETTINGS.TXT file on the SD card, the ADJUST knob and ADJUST CV inputs allow pitch shifting up and down, which is quantized to equal tempered scale.

The audio streams from the SD card and can handle long files easily. In the default setting, it switches between long recordings just as if they were radio stations — as if the audio was playing in the background.  One 32 GB micro SD card can store about four-and-a-half days of .WAV format audio.

Includes: One 8 GB SanDisk Edge micro SD pre-loaded with several samples, and free SD adapter.

ABOUT:
Here’s a great page to get you started learning about this amazing module: Radio Music Wiki

Radio Music is Open Source hardware and software by Tom Whitwell (Music Thing Modular), and has been a popular DIY project since 2014.  It has been used by Chris Carter, Russell Haswell, Richard Devine, and Robin Rimbaud.  It runs on a Teensy 3.2 microcontroller, which is programmed by USB and runs a very well documented Arduino-like language, so it’s easy to hack if you like.  This means that if you feel adventurous, you can completely change the firmware of Radio Music fairly easily to make a completely different instrument, and then change it back when you’re done!

Some alternate firmwares you can download are: “Chord Organ“, “Telharfauxnium“, and several different firmwares from James Carruthers.

Voltage Control Lab have produced a fantastic five-part series on Radio Music, covering preparing samples, alternative firmware, and the 2017 firmware update.  You can download the latest firmware here, which will run on any Radio Music module.

NOTE:
 The SSL Radio Music control names differ a little from Tom’s original.  Instead of START, we use the term ADJUST.  We felt like it was a bit more generic when using different modes and firmwares.

Specifications

SD Card 

Includes: One 8 GB SanDisk Edge micro SD pre-loaded with several samples, and free SD adapter.

- Use decent branded SD Cards from a reputable supplier.
- May be Fat16 or Fat32 formatted. Most SD cards come Fat32 formatted, so you don't need to do anything.
- May be up to 32gb. (Over 100 hours)
- Folders containing files must be numbered 0 to 15.
- Each folder becomes a bank on the module.
- Each folder may contain up to 48 files. More files make it harder to accurately select the files with the knob or control voltage.

File Formats 

- .WAV (or .RAW)
- Mono
- 16 Bit
- 44.1 kHz
- Headerless

Controls and Connectors 

- Station control
- Adjust control
- Reset push-button (lighted)
- Micro SD Card slot
- Station CV input
- Adjust CV input
- Reset input
- Audio Output

Inputs 

Nominally accept 0 - 5V

Outputs 

Approx. +/- 5V, 10V P-P.

Power 

+15V at 9 ma, -15V at 9 ma, +5V at 55 ma, Synthesizers.com 6 pin Molex standard.

Size 

Height - 8.75"
Width - One Moog Unit (MU) - 2.125"
Depth - " behind panel

Product Documentation

(WEBSITE WORK IN PROGRESS)

Getting Started

Learn more about this amazing module here: Radio Music Wiki

You Have Options!

There’s a file in the ROOT folder of your SD card called SETTINGS.TXT that controls several cool options for the Radio Music. The file is automatically created if it doesn’t already exist.  Here’s a description of the settings in the file:

SETTINGS.TXT Description

(Example)
crossfade=0
crossfadeTime=25
showMeter=1
meterHide=2000
chanPotImmediate=1
chanCVImmediate=1
startPotImmediate=0
startCVImmediate=0
startCVDivider=2
looping=0
sort=1
pitchMode=1

MORE options – Change your FIRMWARE

What is “firmware”?  Firmware is the program that runs on the little Teensy computer chip that drives your Radio Music module.  Think of firmware as the “personality” of the module.  Find out more here: Radio Music Firmware

Radio Music Schematics Rev 1.2

Radio Music DipTrace PCB Files.zip

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