Digital modules from Mutable Instruments (and related clones + offshoots) use audio-based data transfer for firmware updates.
Interesting way to give the consumer the ability to change the firmware without having to access the back of the module (there's a way to use a serial JTAG adapter as well).
As I understand it, transferring data as audio goes back quite ways, right?
I had a Commodore 64 that could use phillips tape. I'm drawing. blank, but IIRC there were musical instruments (maybe the roland juno 60?) in the 80s that were storing their data as audio, too.
Heck, my computer used to get on the land line telephone and ask its friends for software.
One of the weirdest things I did last week was realizing that my flipper zero could be used as a redbox... now I just need to find a payphone with a trunk...
Yep, that's correct about the Juno 60. There are people still sharing WAV files of the original factory patches which is cool to be able to re-load now and again.
On a similar if sillier note note, Korg made a Hatsune Miku guitar effect[1] that was programmable through audio sent from an iPhone app through the guitar pickup.
Annoyingly, the free app isn't available on the US App Store, so open source software would be useful (insofar as the ability to play back a predefined sequence of Vocaloid phonemes using an electric guitar is useful).
Interesting way to give the consumer the ability to change the firmware without having to access the back of the module (there's a way to use a serial JTAG adapter as well).
https://github.com/pichenettes/mutable-dev-environment?tab=r...