PyCon Pittsburgh. April 15-23, 2020.

Talk: Controlling the world of modular synthesizers using CircuitPython

Presented by:

Thea Flowers

Description

The niche world of modular synthesizers is filled with enthusiastic, creative musicians and boutique electronics designers. I was inspired by the DIY ethic of this community to explore how to connect my love of Python to my passion for electronic music. CircuitPython turned out to be the perfect choice for creating that bridge. With CircuitPython, I was able to design a unique module that allows you to write Python code to control various aspects of a modular synthesizer.

This talks covers my journey of designing and building my very first module and how I used CircuitPython as its heart and soul. We’ll cover why CircuitPython was uniquely suited for this purpose, how I used the resources in the CircuitPython community to design my hardware and software, and the challenges of building an open-source Python-based hardware product.

Even if you know nothing about modular synthesizers or hardware, this talk hopes to be an interesting look into the Python on hardware world.