Elk releases open source version of award winning Audio Operating System and Development Kit for Raspberry Pi.
We’ve covered ELK innovations on the site before. Check out these articles on Steinberg and the Elk Powered Retrologue desktop synth and the collaboration between Fishman, Arturia and MIND Music Labs and the band MUSE.
How Fishman, Arturia and MIND Music Labs Followed their MUSE to a State of the Art Synth Guitar in 30 Days –
Powered by ELK Retrologue synth –
Elk Audio OS is the award-winning Audio Operating System from Elk (formerly known as MIND Music Labs) that allows you to run existing VST and other plugin formats on hardware instruments and audio devices in real time with ultra low latency.
A beta version of the Elk Audio Operating System is being available under a Dual licensing model (open-source & commercial). The Elk Audio OS SDK & documentation is available and is free for anyone to start using.
Also available on is an Elk Audio OS Development Kit for Raspberry Pithat includes a customElk Pi Audio Hat.
The Elk Pi Hat alone is one of the most advanced pro Audio Hats in the markets with down to 1 ms latency, multichannel and support for Raspberry 4 coming up in the very near future.
“The idea behind the Elk Audio OS is to make a whole new generation of connected musical instruments possible. Instruments that can connect people around the world and spur new kinds of musical creativity. We believe there are so many potential instrument makers out there who could create fantastic things if they just had the right tools, and it is for them we have created Elk. So today I’m very happy to announce that we have reached a major milestone in our company, when we can make Elk available to everyone through the open source release.”
by – Michele Beninicaso CEO at Elk (former MIND Music Labs)
Elk Pi Hat for Raspberry Pi
- Texas Instruments PCM3168 audio codec, 24 Bit, 48 / 96 / 192 kHz
- 6 fixed analog audio inputs (2 configurable audio/CV inputs)
- 6 fixed analog audio outputs (2 configurable audio/CV outputs)
- Headphone stereo output w/ adjustable volume
- Stereo Input jack
- 2 fixed Control Voltage outputs
- 2 Gate/Trigger inputs
- 4 Gate/Trigger output
- 16 analog sensor inputs
- 32 digital inputs
- 32 digital outputs
- 5-poles DIN MIDI In/Out
- 1 I2C interface
The Elk Pi Hat is compatible with your Raspberry Pi 3b / 3b+
To get started developing and prototyping with Elk, you need to download the Elk SDK from the Elk Audio Git Hub,
Elk Audio OS · GitHub
Elk Audio OS for the masses!