When everything is running, this setup turns a scrap FritzBox router into a small MIDI brain: Orca-C plays as a text sequencer in a terminal grid right on the box, while a custom eight-track Python looper handles looping, with networked MIDI traffic available across the whole setup. The looper clocks itself off an incoming KeyStep clock once a sequence is recorded into the first track, and it drives a small rig of synths and sequencers patched through USB and audio cables.
How it came together is the part I find impressive. Robin Sutcliffe - Audio Visual Art cross-compiled both Midish and Orca-C for the Lantiq MIPS 24C chip inside these boxes, since Midish has no package for the platform. Everything installs through the OpenWRT APK installer over SSH or the web GUI, config lines were edited in GNU nano, and terminal event logs captured the incoming Clock, Note On and Note Off streams during testing. Apparently the Mac cross-compile was fiddly enough that a Linux machine is on the wishlist for next time.
The looper interface itself looks thoughtfully laid out: eight tracks, each showing status, event counts, plus mute, solo and arm flags. And the router keeps its day job, since these boxes can still work as networked MIDI pass-through devices, with one acting as server and the rest as clients in a small network.
The honest sticking point is notes that drop or hang. Midish runs but loses and holds notes often enough to matter, and even the Python looper, which the maker finds very playable, still throws the occasional stuck note during dense playing. The cause is unclear, and trying a different FritzBox model is the planned next step to see if the hardware is to blame.
Project by Robin Sutcliffe - Audio Visual Art . Watch it on their YouTube channel: