Diy hardware multitracker

Elk Audio OS Sushi
1

Hello elk community,

I want to build a midi synced multitracker since other than the model12 from tascam there are no hardware based simple to use multitracker with midi sync left on the market. 1010music has a device which looks fine.

However I am wondering if I can build a headless tracker with simple recording capabilities like old adat HD24 systems with sushi. Not sure if I need an embedded device or even a raspberry. A simple NUC would probably be sufficient with an external class compliant audio interface like tascams USB devices.

As controller I probably would use 1 of the countless midi controller available.

As a next step a timecode display and a custom hardware for punch in/out or volume adjustment would be nice.

I am wondering is this something sushi can do and is made for?
Like I said this should be as “headless” as possible and should feel like a hardware device. I am aiming at 16 or 24 inputs/outputs with 24 bit and 96khz. No extra DSP is needed (for now). Maybe a summing mix in stereo would be nice and maybe one day some compressors.

I would love your opinion on this project or should I just buy an outdated system from eBay? Do you see any problems and limitations or have any other suggestions?

Thanks for your time
Joe

2

Hi @dreh23 and welcome!

My gut guess is that Sushi can be a decent starting point for this, if you don’t want fancy recording capabilities. Sushi is more of a live plugin host rather than a full DAW, as it is missing many recording / sequencing features. But it might be enough for this use case.

My suggestion would be to make a rough prototype and work with Sushi on any of the computer versions (macOS or Linux), and then decide the HW platform (keep in mind that only the RPi4 is supported in the open-source release with the low-latency Xenomai kernel).

Best,
Stefano

1 Like
3

Hi Stefano,

thanks for the advice! I will play around with Sushi on my Computer and see if this will do the trick
and go from there.

Best
Joe