Modern Industrial: giving the synth a face

An instrument you can’t read is an instrument you won’t use. This pass made the front panel legible instead of merely present.

• A “Modern Industrial” theme on the 320×240 colour display: high contrast, two-column layouts, graphical parameter indicators instead of bare numbers
• An eight-bar performance macro strip, M1 through M8, so the eight things you actually reach for are always visible
• Patch storage moved to internal flash via LittleFS, so patches survive a power cycle
• A startup animation — expanding rings, a centred logo — because the first second of a device sets expectations for the rest of it
• The current patch name in the header bar, and text sizes retuned for a screen this size: primary values get the larger type, everything else gives way

The other half was an HTML and JavaScript preview of the interface that runs with no hardware attached. It mirrors the firmware layout closely enough to be worth having, which means layout decisions get made without flashing the board and squinting at 320 pixels.

That preview has quietly saved more time than anything else in this project. Possibly more than the synth.

More on the project page.