absolutely newbie questions

[stahlblau]

Hi everyone,
I'm absolute new to flowstone. I downloaded flowstone free and synthmaker free and find it very interesting.

I'm not sure if my plans are possible with flowstone + flowbard etc. So I want to ask some questions before i purchase the enterprise version.

My idea is to build a little dsp based "va synthesizer". Planned is to run the synthie on a fitpc1 + flowboard.

Now my questions:

- Is it possible to connect potentiometers to the flowboard, which controll the parameters of the synthesizer?
- Is it possible to controll an analouge filterchip from potis, connectet to the flowboard?

I hope that i'm not dreaming to much

Thanks alot
André

[nimbusgb]

I'm not sure of how the flowboard works, I'll get in to that next i think. I would imagine that connecting pots to an Arduino board and having the Arduino communicate values via a com port would be pretty trivial! It took me all of an hour to get a similar thing working after being on the software for just 1 day.

[fixstuff555]

Hi everyone,
I'm absolute new to flowstone. I downloaded flowstone free and synthmaker free and find it very interesting.

I'm not sure if my plans are possible with flowstone + flowbard etc. So I want to ask some questions before i purchase the enterprise version.

My idea is to build a little dsp based "va synthesizer". Planned is to run the synthie on a fitpc1 + flowboard.

Now my questions:

- Is it possible to connect potentiometers to the flowboard, which controll the parameters of the synthesizer?
- Is it possible to controll an analouge filterchip from potis, connectet to the flowboard?

I hope that i'm not dreaming to much

Thanks alot
André

I would recommend the Flowboard over a COM interface to an Arduino or whatever, simply because of the COM interface. Yes, it will work, and there is nothing wrong with that, but the Flowboard is a direct USB connection, which makes using it a whole lot easier, versus COM ports which can be a real pain in the rear, I'm not saying Flowstone has issues with COM ports but, it can be picky

The board has 8 analog inputs, that are 10 bit, which is fine for pot inputs. If you need more than 8 you can use an analog switch like a DG411 quad analog switch, since I would imagine a synthesizer needing more than 8 inputs.

Not sure about the "analouge filterchip from potis", but this would be where a COM interface could come in handy. There isn't an analog output on the Flowboard, simply 8 analog in, 16 digital in and 16 digital outs, in addition to the expansion port (gsm modem, etc). If the chip requires a SPI, I2C or other similar interface, using a COM port to an Arduino or similar chip (Parallax Propeller perhaps) would be your best bet. Although the Arduino is a good learning chip, and has a huge user base, the Propeller has a ton of audio capability, and would be my recommendation if you have no preferences.

As to the fitpc part, Flowstone would work well with it, but I would recommend the FITPC2 version, simply because it is more up to date. I also recommend the straight Windows XP versus the Embedded, even with the added bootup time, simply due to the added difficulty getting Embedded up and running.

[stahlblau]

Wow, this was exactly what I wanted to know

Many thanks for your detailed reply!

I think i'll give it a try with the flowboard. Flowstone free should be enough for the first try...

There is one more question i have regarding win embedded:
Isn't it allready well configured on the flowdrive?

[fixstuff555]

You are correct, it is supposed to be fully configured and ready to go. I haven't tried to though so I can't say how well it works.