After the December 2016 Summit, things got serious.

A prototype was the next step. The Proof of Concept had an outboard microcontroller (MCU), a computer, an audio interface, cables and wires, and jury-rigged crossrods with magnets, and more. The prototype would need to be a self-contained instrument.

That meant creating an embedded system.

The search began for:

• Someone to port the pitch-shifting software, originally written by Katja Vetter, to run on a powerful MCU.
• An electrical engineer, and eventually a team of EEs, with expertise in combined analog and digital high-quality audio.
• A builder for the body.

After choosing a microcontroller line, an IDE for software development, sensors, magnets, etc., the design of the circuit boards began.

There was breadboarding, hardware testing, a massive software development effort, user interface design, managing all the parts of the process. And of course, there was still the day job ....

As of March, 2021, the body was built and all the electronics and cables were ready. Read these two blog entries: Home Stretch and So Close. It took another year or so to make adjustments, design changes, etc. and really put it all together.