elk-pi VS Rack

Just found Elk Audio OS. Looks exciting, but I'm struggling to understand exactly what it is and how it might be useful. Anyone using it? https://elk.audio/

That might not matter too much for you - if not then you're set. But if it does, using small buffers is hard with Linux (and non-realtime OSes), since the kernel has other things to balance, so you can occasionally miss your deadlines and have audio glitches if the buffers are too small. These guys offer a linux distro that's been well tuned for audio processing, as well as an engine that makes it easy to drop in your effects algorithm without having to deal with hardware support and making that engine: https://elk.audio/

There's https://elk.audio/

Overall there are JUCE embedded support.

If you need more bare bones there are some DSP only resources. Not sure if I saw there the RtAudio which is also very minimal -

I’ve run JUCE apps on embedded linux, a Raspberry Pi running maybe Elk Audio or Patchbox OS might be a good bet

VCV Rack - Modular Synth

> It’s haven’t bought any Modular’s yet but I’m really looking forward to getting into other on the new year.

http://cardinal.kx.studio

https://vcvrack.com/

The former is libre and gratis, runs as a standalone or plugin and in the browser!! and is based on the latter.

Ther former has a libre and gratis standalone version, the plugin version is non-gratis.

A music synthesizer. It's a pathway to learning electronics, music, and the nature of sound. There are cheap kits, cheap synths, lots of kinds of synths, and there are much more complicated and expensive systems you can grow into. You can get software synths also, VCV Rack is a free though complex one:

https://vcvrack.com/

However I'd recommend an inexpensive hardware one with real knobs you can turn, like one of the Korg Volca series:

https://www.korg-volca.com/en/

Recording the sounds can lead into exploring all the concepts and gear involved in recording and mixing music. It's not mutually exclusive with doing other things also, you can play with both synths and computers and being involved with something artistic can add dimensions to and an escape from the nature of classwork/work.

Some other suggestions: gardening, high voltage electronics (with lots of supervision), electronics, photography, movie making, ham radio (gnu radio), show lighting systems (there's more than disco lights, robotics is involved), robotics, acoustic instruments (guitar, piano, flute, drums), sensors (you don't necessarily have to know electronics, get a data logger with built in sensors), weather monitoring/forecasting, hydraulic systems (with supervision), wood working, metal working, 3D printing, bird watching, painting, minibikes/small engines.

What really opened my eyes was the Nord Micromodular; it taught me what I just described. It showed me how limited other synths were - but that limitation was a trade-off because it's much faster to make something on a fixed-structure synth than on a modular, in most cases. Nowadays, you can use https://vcvrack.com/ instead of a small limited box that needs Windows 98 to run the editor on.

Also I would suggest the paid version of VCV rack which works as a VST too ( the free version is just stand alone ) Expecially when experimenting with modular ( believe me, it can save you a fortune whilst you learn what different modules do ) I would also recommend Omri Cohens Youtube channel for learning this too.