More information, at intervals, will be added to this description. Additionally, our blog is located at http://i.am.curiousviolet.jp/
IMPORTANT UPDATE
about order fulfillment
Here's the deal: The Greybox is going to get built. I'm building it right now. If this project does not meet its funding goals, everyone who orders a Greybox will still receive one. The only difference is that the shipping time will be longer due to us having to do more of the assembly work in-house.
TL;DR: If you order a Greybox, you will get a Greybox. Guaranteed.
About the Greybox
A long time ago, when I was still in college, I designed and built this synthesizer: essentially, I gutted my old Nintendo Entertainment System, fitted the processor's sound hardware to MIDI via a microcontroller, and made of this a playable, usable, surprisingly versatile little chiptune synthesizer. I had plans to start a company around this project, but I ended up getting a job in Japan instead. The synthesizer itself was damaged in the move, and it languished in the closet for seven years.
Recently, I started my own company (Curious Violet) to make electronic musical instruments and effects. A friend pointed out that since I was so proud of having built the Greybox all those years ago, I should dig the project out, start manufacturing them, and give other chiptune lovers a chance to have a Greybox.
So what, exactly, can a Greybox do? Well, here are the...
Specifications
DIMENSIONS: 88mm (height), 482.6mm (width), 200mm (depth)
INPUTS: MIDI IN, Control Voltage, Gate, Power (+9VDC, 800mA)
OUTPUTS: Audio (mono, 1/4" phone jack), MIDI OUT, MIDI THRU
PATCH STORAGE: 128 patches for squarewave, 64 patches for triangle and noise.
SAMPLE STORAGE: 32kB of delta-modulation samples
STORAGE MEDIA: Internal memory, SD card
FIRMWARE: Can be updated by SD card or via MIDI SYSEX.
DISPLAY: 128x64 pixel, monochrome graphic LCD with backlight
SOFTWARE: Includes a program to create and index patches, to convert samples into delta-modulation format, and to manage sample libraries/key mappings.
The Greybox is a rack-mount module and will fit into any standard 19" rack with 2U of space available.
The playable sound channels are: two squarewaves, one triangle wave, one noise waveform, and one delta-modulation "sample" channel. Each of these can be controlled by a separate MIDI channel, or the keyboard can be "split" into ranges for each channel.
The parameters that can be adjusted are:
SQUARE: Selectable duty cycle (25/50/75%), ADSTR envelope, portamento (on/off and speed), vibrato (on/off, speed and depth), frequency sweep (on/off, speed), envelope looping (on/off) and arpeggiator (on/off, speed).
TRIANGLE: Note length (T parameter of ADSTR envelope), portamento, vibrato and frequency sweep.
NOISE: Noise type (short/long sequence), ADSTR envelope
SAMPLE: Playback rate
In addition, the two squarewave channels can be combined for additional effects: chorus (on/off, semitone offset, amplitude) and phaser (on/off, phase separation).
A "POLY" switch on the front panel activates a limited 2-voice polyphony mode that allows both squarewave channels to be controlled by the same MIDI channel. In this mode, all "effect" settings are copied from Square 1 to Square 2, for consistency in sound.
Finally, although it is not strictly "synthesis" related, an audio player application allows playback of NSF files stored on the SD card.
What We're Doing
In addition to getting the Greybox out there and in the hands of enthusiasts, we are correcting a number of bugs and flaws in the original Greybox's implementation. We are also adding several features that testers had remarked upon. We have figured $20,000 and three months to polish the hard/firmware and get the first production run (150 units) manufactured.
FIXING AND POLISHING
By "polish" we mean things like:
![The back side of the control board on the original Greybox.]()
All those 74-series logic chips will be rolled into a single CPLD. And naturally, by the time we go to production, there won't be any need for jumper wires to correct circuit flaws.
We also mean things like:
![Power supply module of the original Greybox]()
The original Greybox was terrible about managing its own power. The 5V linear regulator was the only power source in the system, and what with the synth itself wasting power left and right, it would heat up terribly, threatening to go into auto-shutdown. The new Greybox has a sane power scheme.
EXPANDING
The original Greybox was a usable little synthesizer, but it lacked some things that would have made it a great piece of gear. All those things will be added into the new Greybox. Just to name a few:
A more flexible arpeggiator: using the KORG Polysix arpeggiator as a reference.
A better user interface: using a 128x64 graphical LCD screen instead of the 16x2 character screen on the original Greybox.
CV/Gate inputs: in addition to MIDI, the Greybox can now be controlled with CV/Gate signals.
Capability to play music files: the new Greybox has an SD card slot for bulk data save/restore, and any NSF files on the same SD card can be played.