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FAQ

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General first-timers

What is the blinking light at the top left?

That is the current step indicator of the sequencer. It blinks in time to the BPM.

Where is the LPF?

You can change the LPF under "Sensitivity". It is tied to the pressure sensitivity by default.

Can I save presets?

Yes! Just hold the preset button (the paper icon) and the lights on the left are your presets. Hold to save.

How about sequences?

Yes! Same deal, the lights on the right are sequences when you hold the preset button.

Sound

What sampling rate is Plinky running at?

Plinky runs at 32kHz stereo.

Oscillator shapes

When looking at the SHAPE option, you can sweep through several waveforms:

  • Below 0 (-100% to 0%) are algorithmic oscillator modes (sine, saw, square).
  • At 0, the mode is a pure supersaw.
  • Above 0 (0% to +100%) you can find a wavetable constructed by sampling a Polivoks synthesizer running through a Sherman Filterbank, sampled through an API 512c preamp and 550A EQ into RME A/D.

Modulation is locked at these 3 stages relative to the base value. For example, if you set the base value above 0 and assign an LFO to the shape, the LFO will cause a sweep through the wavetable modes. At 0, modulation will affect the supersaw. Below 0, it will sweep through the algorithmic oscillator.

Tech specs

What is the CPU in Plinky?

It's a STM32l476VGT6 (or 475).

Mac

Install firmware (Mac M1+ / OS 14+)

In UF2 (tunnel of light) mode, Plinky has been unhappy to automatically mount on some Mac OS versions (14 and higher).

Upgrading to Firmware 0.A7 fixes this issue. To upgrade, mount the drive using the terminal.

  • Make sure your USB cable can transmit data
  • Plug the USB cable into Plinky.
  • Hold the Encoder (rightmost knob) on Plinky.
  • With Encoder held, plug the USB cable into your Mac.
  • Plinky should come up in UF2 (tunnel of light) mode, with a black screen.
  • You can release the encoder.

Open a terminal, and execute 

diskutil list

Plinky should be listed as a device. It looks like this or similar:

/dev/disk4 (external, physical)
#:     TYPE NAME         SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:          PLINKY      *100.7 MB   disk4

The disk number is the information you are looking for. Mount Plinky manually via the command line, and adjust the disk number if needed:

sudo mkdir /Volumes/USB
sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk4 /Volumes/USB

You should see the Plinky drive with the UF2 files. You can now either backup the files to your Mac, or replace them with new firmware or presets.

Linux

Install firmware (Linux)

Here are the steps required to update your firmware to the latest build under Linux. This was tested on Raspberry Pi 4 running Raspian.

Upgrading to Firmware 0.A7 fixes the USB drive not mounting automatically. To upgrade, mount the drive using the terminal.

Download the latest UF2 file from the GitHub Repository page. To do this from the command line, open a terminal and enter

wget https://plinkysynth.com/firmware/stable/CURRENT.uf2
  • With Plinky powered off, hold down the encoder (the rightmost knob)
  • While still held down, connect Plinky to a PC or Mac USB port
  • The screen remains blank, and you’ll see a tunnel of flashing LEDs
  • Mount Plinky as USB Drive from the terminal:
sudo mkdir /mnt/plinky 
sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt/plinky
ls /mnt/plinky

You should see the content of Plinky listed as follows:

BOOTLOAD.UF2  CURRENT.UF2  INFO_UF2.TXT  SAMPLE0.UF2  SAMPLE2.UF2  SAMPLE4.UF2  SAMPLE6.UF2 
 CALIB.UF2     INDEX.HTM    PRESETS.UF2   SAMPLE1.UF2  SAMPLE3.UF2  SAMPLE5.UF2  SAMPLE7.UF2

Copy the firmware to Plinky.

sudo cp -f CURRENT.uf2 /mnt/plinky/

The blinking LEDs will change to a flashing pattern. Once that is done, press the encoder once to reset Plinky.