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ELK Audio, previously MIND Music Labs, is a Swedish startup widely known for developing the worlds first smart guitar. In 2017 they changed their focus from guitar development to the creation of real-time embedded operating system that could disrupt the music industry.
The problem that musicians have been struggled with since the beginning of digital signal processing (DSP) took off, is how to process audio in live situations with minimal delay. Usually, one has to make a compromise between flexibility (range of different effects) and delay (the time that takes to process the effect).
For example, by using PC in conjunction with audio card there is plenty of choice between software environments and effect plugins. However, since regular operating systems are not optimized for real-time operations, the signal processing delay becomes audible. On the other hand, by utilizing dedicated hardware DSP controllers (like guitar effect pedals) one has minimal delay but also limited range of effects.
ELK Audio was developing Linux based operating system, that has dedicated real-time user space. This enables both, high flexibility and very low delay even in low-power embedded applications.
In the beginning of July 2017. I started my Erasmus+ internship in the company as a hardware engineer. Three months later I was proposed with permanent contract and four months later I was the only one in the team responsible for hardware.
In the beginning of July 2017. I started my Erasmus+ internship in the company as a hardware engineer. Three months later I was proposed with permanent contract and four months later I was the only one in the team responsible for hardware.
I started my internship by designing a prototype PCB (in co-operation with Ilie Galan) that could be used as a demonstration and development board.
The board is 8 channel in, 8 channel out audio interface consisting of analog filters, ADC, DAC, microcontroller, headphone amplifier and system-on-chip computer module.
The PCB (showed on the left) was designed as 4-layer to minimize the interference from high speed signals to the analog signals.
Our very basic work setup can be seen on the image above.
The prototype PCB described on the image above was hand-soldered.
My next assignment was a smaller audio card with fewer channels and different computer module.
My next assignment was a smaller audio card with fewer channels and different computer module.
The first hand-soldered prototype got ready in the end of December 2017.
The first hand-soldered prototype got ready in the end of December 2017.
It had two channels in/out, had a very compact form factor, optical audio connectors and a bunch of digital and analog GPIOs that were used as inputs for virtual instruments. The high density PCB design had components on both of sides and used 4 copper layers.
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