Good questions!
When we first created the OWL Kickstarter campaign, the primary goal was to create a hardware platform that could support a growing developer community. We knew that we didn’t have the resources to launch with a library of effects that could compete with decades of work done by the major players in the music technology industry. But we knew that by providing capable, high-performance hardware (given recent developments in ARM microcontrollers and modern codecs) we could open the field to the open-source community. Our bet was on there being enough interested DSP-coders and musician-programmers to get the ball rolling.
Personally I think we’ve succeeded with our first goal. If you have any doubts, consider the fact that the OWL can run Pure Data as well as Faust effects (we’re launching a set of patches soon!), and already has over 30 patches, most of which are user contributed and many that are amazing and unique to the OWL. It’s true that we’re not that great with promotion and showing how much fun the OWL can be. We’re techies, and our focus is still on building and improving the technology.
And now that we’ve created the device, we are turning our attention to the software. We, the core team, believe that the OWL has massive potential to unleash the creativity not only of coders, but non-coding musicians as well. It is, after all, a stompbox to rock out with, a pedal that adds something unique and personal to your sound and musicianship. However, as d3b5s3r hints at, we’re not quite there yet!
The OWL is primarily lacking, in my opinion, the following:
- dynamic patch loading : currently new patches must be compiled and uploaded with the firmware
- online library : to easily share patches, samples, and settings
- online compiler : instead of downloading, installing and upgrading toolchain, simply use a web service
In the vision we have for the future of the OWL, these aspects all come together in a new app that can run on your computer, smartphone or tablet.
We're currently in the planning stages and are working on a road map. If you, OWL users and supporters, have ideas and would like to tell us what is important to you, we'd love your input!
After that lengthy prelude, now let me answer some of your questions!
- Yes, or you can run two effects in series (mono or stereo), or two effects that you toggle between with the pushbutton.
- Yes, but currently the device is not sending MIDI data in realtime, ie when you turn the knob, but only when polled by a MIDI CC message. This reduces the MIDI processing overheads.
- In the current dev version of the firmware: yes you can! We’re introducing a Single patch mode (along with Dual, Series and Parallel) which lets the patch handle the button. Otherwise, the button toggles the active patch: green or red.
- Yes: several effects can be combined in a single patch, and two patches can be loaded in series. The only limiting factor is available CPU cycles.
- Yes, there are 2 SPI’s and 2 serial interfaces exposed - pls see schematics on wiki.
- The API is is intentionally minimalist, but the firmware itself is open to hacking any way you like.
- Yes. The current firmware runs at 48kHz (96kHz is possible), 24bits stereo, with 128 samples per block, giving a latency of 2.67ms, and SNR on a par with other digital pedals.
- You can plug in a generic Roland style expression pedal. If you need to swap Tip and Ring, then this can be done in software. It is also technically possible to use Tip and Ring for two independent ADCs, or even a serial interface (it connects a UART TX and RX pins), but we’ve not yet had the time to experiment much with this.
- We have so far shipped less than 200 units, that’s perhaps part of the answer. We’re useless with doing recordings ourselves, that’s another. I promise, we’ll try to improve!
I’m just too impatient with the complexities of software development these days.