Shore Pine Sound Methods has launched its Tulip Artistic Laptop to basic availability, concentrating on musicians, writers, programmers, and different creatives searching for a distraction-free setting — powered by Python operating on an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller.
“It’s a really low cost and open moveable system for making issues, that boots proper right into a Python programming language immediate over a 7″ touchscreen show,” co-creator Brian Whitman, of Shore Pine Sound Methods, explains. “It is obtained an excellent analog (Juno-6, SH-101, and so on) and FM-style (DX7) music synthesis engine inbuilt, constructed from scratch by my expensive pal Dan Ellis and myself, that you would be able to management each oscillator and parameter of in code. It additionally can be utilized to make video games, animations, or simply write. We ship it with a textual content editor, drum machine, Juno-6 patch editor, some instance video games, and a Tulip-only BBS the place you possibly can share messages and packages.”
Whitman unveiled the Tulip a 12 months in the past, promising a distraction-free setting for musicians, writers, and programmers by internet hosting its devoted MicroPython-based software program on an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller — which means there is not any alternative to rapidly change away out of your mission to compensate for some movies or scroll social media.
The finalized Tulip design, which like its prototype predecessors is open {hardware} operating open supply software program, is constructed round an Espressif ESP32-S3 microcontroller mounted behind a 7″ full-color 1024×600 touchscreen. There is a jack for stereo audio, MIDI out and in, a Grove-style I2C connector for exterior {hardware}, and a USB port for a keyboard.
The MicroPython-powered distraction-free system is primarily aimed toward musicians, although will maintain attraction for digital artists, writers, and coders too. (📷: Shore Pine Sound Methods)
Two official expansions convey extra performance to bear: a two-channel digital to analog converter (DAC), of which 4 might be put in “with some gentle modification” for eight channels whole; and the Alles, an adapter for wi-fi speaker management expandable as much as 30 channels.
It is clear audio has been a spotlight within the Tulip’s improvement. The on-board synthesizer, AMY, presents help for as much as 120 oscillators, stereo sound, filters, reverb, refrain, frequency modulation, samples, polyphony, and multi-timbral operation — and all patches and music might be written in pure Python, Shore Pine guarantees. The show, too, is Python-programmable, with help for consumer interface improvement utilizing the LVGL library.
Elective Alles boards permit a single Tulip to hook up with as much as 30 wi-fi audio system for multi-channel audio. (📷: Shore Pine Sound Methods)
“I’ve been engaged on Tulip for a few years, over a number of {hardware} iterations. This all-in-one launch model of Tulip was designed with the assistance of our pals Makerfabs, who additionally manufacture it,” Whitman explains. “It is my hope that a number of folks get a Tulip and be part of us to make Tulip even higher, by contributing apps, or giving us suggestions, or exhibiting off cool stuff you have made. All the pieces in Tulip is open supply, from the {hardware} design to the apps and firmware and DSP [Digital Signal Processor].”
The Tulip Laptop is obtainable to order by the official web site now at $59, which Shore Pine says is “the price of elements and manufacturing […] with a tiny price added on to help future improvement.” Those that’d want to construct their very own will discover supply code and directions on constructing your personal on GitHub, below the permissive MIT license, together with a hardware-agnostic simulator.
