11 things to know about Radio Music mk1
4 HP 40mm deep 75mA Designed 2014 Updated 2025
- Sadly Radio Music is no longer available because it relied on the Teensy 3.2 microcontroller which is no longer made.
- Radio Music is a virtual radio module, so it behaves a bit like a radio. It is designed to be a source of unexpected audio, not a drum loop player or a sample mangler. That said, plenty of people enjoyed it for playing drum loops or mangling samples.
- Radio Music has been a popular DIY project since 2014, and has been used by Chris Carter, Russell Haswell, Richard Devine, and Robin Rimbaud.
- In 2017, the module's firmware was completely rewritten and updated, bringing new features including pitch shifting, .wav file support and a new way to configure settings on the module. You can download the latest firmware here, which will run on any Radio Music module.
- On the same site you can configure your Radio Music, changing various internal settings.
- It's a well documented project, with a lengthy Radio Music Wiki and an active issues list for people seeking help with a build.
- The wiki also contains a huge suggested audio bank containing lots of interesting things.
- Like a radio, the module works on a series of banks and stations. Each of the 16 banks can contain many different stations. Each station is an audio file stored in a folder on the SD card. Choose a bank by pressing and holding the RESET switch. Choose a station by turning the STATION knob or plugging a voltage into Station.
- Because the audio streams from the SD card, it can handle long files easily. In the default setting, it switches between long recordings just as if they were radio stations — as if the audio was playing in the background.
- Radio Music runs on a Teensy 3.1 (or 3.2) microcontroller, which is programmed by USB and runs a very well documented Arduino-like language, so it's easy to hack.
- There are multiple alternative firmwares for Radio Music documented in the github, and on Voltage Control Lab including:
- Chord Organ is just an alternative firmware for Radio Music, but is also available as a separate module. You can turn a RM into a CO (or vice versa) at any time using a normal Micro USB cable.
- Telharfauxnium is an additive synthesis firmware.
- James Carruthers has written several different firmwares, including a cool 808 drum machine
- I often use this Loop Divider firmware to sync everything to loops in a small case.