Honestly one of my favorite DIY builds. It doesn’t feel like a ‘project that makes sound’ when you’re done — it feels like a proper instrument. And being able to change samples / firmware afterwards makes it even better.
pikocore kit
A DIY rp2040-based sampler mangler.
Details
The pikocore is a tiny, handheld, wonderfully hackable music device built for mangling samples on the fly. It holds minutes of gritty 8-bit audio and lets you twist, stretch, retrigger, and reshape sounds in real time using simple controls, tempo-synced effects, and a built-in sequencer. Powered by a single battery or USB-C, it’s designed to be portable, immediate, and fun—whether you’re jamming live, experimenting with custom firmware, or pushing lo-fi textures into unexpected territory.
Videos
5 videosSpecifications
- capable of holding 8 minutes of 8-bit 33 kHz monophonic samples.
- powered by a single alkaline AAA battery for up to 3 hours or by powered by USB-C.
- tempo-synced with a selectable BPM between 60 and 300, with samples mangled by beat-synced effects (stutter, retrig, gate, tunneling).
- loaded with real-time effects like a resonant filter, timestretching, volume, and wavefolding.
- sequenced with a 128-step sequencer with recording/playback.
- saved and loaded via EEPROM for instant patch recall.
- able to load custom firmware, new samples, all through USB-C.
- sync-compatible with Pocket Operators.
- open-source, wonderfully hackable.
Customer feedback
Reviews
The PIKOCORE KIT is exactly what DIY music hardware should be: affordable, hackable, slightly weird, and genuinely useful once you’ve finished building it.
Such a cool little kit!! built it over the weekend, loaded my own breaks and immediately lost an evening mangling them. love that its open source too
Came for the build, stayed for the chaos :) There’s something very satisfying about soldering together a little machine and then using it to completely destroy your own samples.
8 buttons + 4 knobs and somehow there is an entire instrument hiding in there. Retrigs, jumps, timestretch, filters, sequencing... ridiculously capable for something this small.
Building the PIKOCORE yourself somehow makes it even more fun to use. Tiny box, huge personality... and button mashing is basically part of the design.
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