#41

There’s a link in the YouTube notes to the uncompressed audio from the video if you really want to go there.

It’s definitely stronger in the low and mid ranges so my thinking is that more rigid supports will tighten that up a bit. Unsurprisingly, changing the balance of the levels between the front and rear soundboards makes a big difference. As does mic position. Although my space is not big and I’m not really going very close with the mic here, it sounds quite different (more cohesive?) if I stand at the back of the room. Once I’ve sorted the supports out a bit more I think the next experiment will be to put a second mic back there and mix the two.

Executive summary from day 1 is that its easy to get it to sound rich and organic right out of the box. Getting it to sound brighter and tighter is more challenging

1 Like
#42

Spruce is a safe bet.

#43

The front is Red Cedar or Spruce tuned for higher frequencies and the back is Finnish Birch tuned for low (info from the pdf). Really enjoying the sound from it, it lends itself better to uncompressed sounds. Mine is number 14

4 Likes
#44

Do you know if the transducer is custom designed or a branded part?

Nice to see the innards!

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#45

I don’t know. I don’t recall any comments about the origin of the transducers on the Kickstarter bulletins. But there are some good photos in those bulletins of the construction process, including details of the bracing. Like here

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#46

I’m number 26 - just checked my order, so I guess I should be in the next batch of 10. What sort of heads up did you get before they shipped yours?

#47

I was 19th on the Kickstarter. I got notice on the 12th December and it was shipped the following day. It was delivered to me on the 20th. It had arrived in the UK 3 days earlier but FedEx seemed in no hurry to let it out of their depot.

#48

Day 2…

3 Likes
#49

This page mentions “carefully selected” transducers, so they probably aren’t fully custom. And one of the last photos in this Kickstarter post seems to show them trying out a few different styles.

I’m most interested in the way they’re mounted. Earlier designs had four screw heads or rivets clearly visible where the transducer was attached, but it looks like the final ones don’t, and @UMCorps’s photo makes it look like they’re sandwiched between two pieces of wood, which is surprising. That probably makes for a nice secure mount (lots of surface area for glue), but I’m surprised it doesn’t cause problems by restricting the movement of the transducer. Maybe the black material between the metal and the wood in that photo is a very soft foam?

1 Like
#50

I’m number 10
but have been hesitant to say anything for the following reason…
mine took a pretty bad drop during shipping
and it has a crack along the top of the soundboard
I’m in contact with them but I’m not sure how things will be resolved just yet

please make sure to check everything over very well when you receive it! I really didn’t even notice until on the second day I was caressing it like a totally reasonable person would while playing some OP1 through it
and then I felt the crack and my heart just sank

my audio system is finally coming together though a 2.2 minirig system with the onde for solo instruments

I’ll update as I know more the smell is out of this world and honestly just playing with the OP1 through it was pretty nice but I really preferred the continuumini as it is more of a solo voice kind of synth

1 Like
#51

Thanks for sharing, hope La Voix make it right for you.

#52

Today, testing the Bluetooth connection to the Onde. A friend wanted to hear it working with some purer, higher, more sine-like tones. So I put a little generative piece together in Wotja (www.intermorphic.com) on the iPad and piped it straight out to the Onde.

Recorded using X/Y stereo mic placed about 1.7 m back from the front soundboard.

Edit:
And a video of the same file but with a much better (probably permanent) mounting system

1 Like
#53

I took a better shot of the transducers.

Note their different sizes. The smaller one is for the front soundboard. The black stuff looks like some variety of flexible adhesive.

IMG_2014
IMG_20141654×2665 707 KB

3 Likes
#54

If you want this sound for like $20 instead of $2K, here ya go:

5 Likes
#55

@UMCorps, how do you have it mounted, currently? Looks like on a tripod? Does the Onde come with a tripod mount, or did you make one?

I had abandoned hope, but they reached out to me today to arrange payment, so now I’m all jazzed again.

#56

This thing looks and sounds incredible. Pardon my question (especially if it’s answered here) but do these include any pickup mic or line out of any sort? Or are they primarily viewed as speakers for a room. It’d be great to use them as a filter or physical reverb.

#57

It has 1/4" screw mounting points at all the appropriate places on both straight sides so you can mount it pretty much any way you like. After experiementation I settled on using a camera tripod on the central mounting point in this orientation. I think it benefits from being mounted firmly. I thought the tripod feet included with it were not firm enough. And as both straight sides have LF ports I also thought lifting it higher up might tighten the sound up a bit and help the balance.

Hope you have fun with yours when it arrives!

No, they just have 2 inputs - a stereo 3.5 mm jack and the Bluetooth interface.

It has a USB output but that is only to give a power connection for USB powered synths or tablets. It doesn’t carry data.

The 3.5mm input splits the signal between the front and rear transducers - each one has its own amp but there isn’t any fancy crossover circuitry involved.

In all of these videos I’m feeding it a mono signal from a monitor bus on the mixer. I think it would be interesting to see how it sounds with a stereo feed where I would have more control over which signal goes to which soundboard but that would make the recording process here a bit more tricky.

And finally, at the year end, had some old school audio collage fun which I think was complimented by the Onde warm tones

1 Like
#59

a little update on my situation

in talking with the owners we decided the best/easiest probably cheapest solution would be find a luthier close by that could take on the crack in the soundboard

luckily I was able to and after a good conversation with the guy I should hopefully have everything up and fully working in a couple weeks

not the best way to start out but I’m glad it is getting sorted without too much hassle

5 Likes
#60

How does the Onde handle unattenuated modular audio into it? Or would that just be a bad idea? I have this dim understanding that modular levels are “hot”, but am innocent of EE knowledge.

Edit: Aha, I see on their site it specifies “Line level stereo in.”, which I take to mean the modular levels in would not be a great approch.

#61

Shouldn’t be a problem. I run modular into a line level stereo amp input routinely. Don’t turn the modular out too high or it will clip.

1 Like