If you are interested in purchasing a modular zeptocore, please see the
EZEPTOCORE product
page.
I, Zackary Scholl, am the one-person team behind Infinite Digits (Infinite Digits). After I
created the
nyblcore and
pikocore I
developed the
zeptocore which
itself morphed
into two different
eurorack modules: the
Ectocore and the
EZEPTOCORE.
There is some confusion surrounding the attributions and acknowledgements for these two products,
so this post is intended to clarify and acknowledge all the contributions and inspirations that
went into these two products.
The Infinite
Digits x Maneco
Labs EZEPTOCORE is
an open-source eurorack version of the open-source handhold sample slicer created by Infinite
Digits - the
zeptocore - with manufacturing and hardware
design by Maneco
Labs and all other aspects created by Infinite Digits and sold by Infinite Digits. The
zeptocore is also the basis for the 2024
Infinite Digits
x Toadstool
Tech Ectocore which
which had manufacturing and hardware co-designed with Toadstool Tech, but all other aspects
solely created by Infinite Digits and also sold by Infinite Digits.
Both the
EZEPTOCORE and
the
Ectocore are
fully open-source
modular versions of
Infinite Digits’ open-source
zeptocore device (both GPLv3-licensed and
CC-BY-SA-3.0, with
exception for the final schematics, BOM and board files). The
zeptocore itself comes from a long lineage
of Infinite
Digit’s open-source devices and open-source software including
pikocore,
nyblcore,
amen script,
glitchlets script,
amenbreak script,
abacus script,
makebreakbeat script,
sampswap script,
dnb.lua utility,
raw script, and the
paracosms script (most of
these licensed
under MIT license). These devices and software libraries have their own long legacies and many
acknowledgments, but would especially like to acknowledge being inspired by
Jerboa modular synthesizer (for inspiring me to use the
attiny85), Fay Carsons (for inspiring to use the rp2040), Limor Fried and Émilie Gillet (for
pioneering CC-BY-SA hardware), and Nick Collins (for the Breakcore UGen), the open-source
contributors to RP2040 community (Raspberry Pi Foundation, Carl J Kugler III for the SDIO
library, which is built upon FatFS which I am thankful for), Steven Noreyko and Jacob Vosamer
for helping improve MInfinite DigitsI and porting to RP2040v2, as well as countless musicians
who inspire all Infinite Digits creations and all the open-source maintainers who I find
inspiration and inspire me to continue to produce open-source designs and making my work freely
available to remix and re-purpose.
The
EZEPTOCORE and Ectocore websites and sample
manipulator and
downloader was developed and maintained by Infinite Digits. The open-source tools for splitting
drums was designed at
Facebook Research by
Alexandre Défossez
which is used to generate the splice points to do a Trig Out in the Ectocore. The automatic
splicing was done using the
Aubio library and
sox which are both open-source
software libraries.
The name EZEPTOCORE is a product of Infinite Digits, combining “eurorack” and
“zeptocore” to signify its lineage.
The name Ectocore is a collaboration of Toadstool Tech+Infinite Digits, combining of
Toadstool Tech’s mythical ethos (“ecto”) and Infinite Digits’ *core products (“core”).
Toadstool Tech asked for the following attribution and credit text without modification:
“Ectocore’s original hardware design, interface layout, and artwork were created by Toadstool
Tech / Izaak Hollander. Toadstool Tech has no involvement with the current Maneco Labs/Infinite
Digits 2025 iteration of Ectocore and is not responsible for any support related to iterations
not branded ‘Toadstool Tech’. This product is not a collaboration with Toadstool Tech, and there
was no involvement with its engineering or marketing. Toadstool Tech will receive no monetary
compensation from sales of this product.”
Infinite Digits would like to clarify compensation of Toadstool Tech: Toadstool Tech was paid for
the original Ectocore collaboration, and compensation was offered for the EZEPTOCORE project but
Toadstool Tech declined.
Infinite Digits would like to clarify the attributions of the original Ectocore hardware design:
the original design was based from Infinite Digits’
open-source pikocore schematic
and
open-source zeptocore schematic
combined with
open-source designs from Raspberry Pi foundation, Adafruit, and Émilie Gillet’s
plaits
schematic (licensed by CC-BY-SA schematics). Iteration on the Ectocore hardware design was done
by Toadstool Tech, Infinite Digits, and Instruo. However, the final Ectocore hardware
schematic and board files developed solely by Toadstool Tech.
Infinite Digits would like to clarify the attributions of the interface layout of the Ectocore:
The interface was designed throughout a collaboration between Toadstool Tech and Infinite
Digits, combining of Toadstool Tech’s mythical inspiration (“Grimoire”) and Infinite Digits
interfaces from previous monome norns scripts written by Infinite Digits (e.g.
amenbreak script for singular
“amen” and
“break” knobs,
makebreakbeat script for
sample splicing,
sampswap script,
dnb.lua utility for “tunneling”
and jumping)
and inspiration from devices previously created by Infinite Digits (
pikocore and
nyblcore). Infinite Digits
also acknowledges
that the norns scripts developed by Infinite Digits that inspired the Ectocore and EZEPTOCORE
panel design were born out of ideas from many other people, built in a community of open-source
creations, with special thanks to scanner_darkly (who came up with the single “amen” and “break”
knob idea) and Nick Collins (who created the inspirational Breakcore UGen from SuperColldier).
The “Infinite Digits x Maneco Labs EZEPTOCORE” front panel is inspired by the design from
Toadstool Tech+Infinite Digits, and incoroprates changes by ML to add a reset button to the
front.
Infinite Digits also wants to acknowledge the countless community members of the open-source
world (Supercollider, monome norns, Raspberry Pi, Adafruit, many many more) who I have been
inspired from and continue to be inspired, and from their work I am grateful and continue to try
to pay forward by continuously making my work similarly freely open-source and available. (One
note on that: The final hardware design from Toadstool Tech and ML are NOT open-source as they
are proprietary designs of their own work, each created separately based on my open-source
zeptocore device).