Open-Source Licenses

The TBD platform is open source. You can study how it works, learn from it, build on it, and contribute back. At the same time, the licenses are chosen so that no one can simply repackage our work into a competing commercial product without giving back to the community.

dadamachines is a small, independent team. We don’t run on venture capital. Selling TBD-16 hardware is how we fund continued development of the platform, the documentation, the web UI, and the tools that make TBD useful for musicians and developers. The open-source licenses below protect that work while keeping development fully open for individuals and contributors.

How It Works at a Glance

Component

License

What It Means

Core DSP engine (upstream CTAG TBD)

GPL 3.0

Modifications must be shared under the same terms

dadamachines additions (web UI, flasher, plugins, docs, tools)

LGPL 3.0

More permissive for developers; companies must share modifications back

Original CTAG hardware (V1/V2, Eurorack)

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Non-commercial use, share-alike, attribution required

TBD-Core & TBD-16 hardware

Proprietary

Commercial products (not open source)

Planned open-hardware core design

Open source (TBD)

KiCad reference design for education, prototyping, instrument building

Software Licenses in Detail

Core DSP Engine (GPL 3.0)

The audio engine, sound processors, and platform core were originally developed at CTAG Kiel by Robert Manzke. The upstream repository is ctag-fh-kiel/ctag-tbd.

This code is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL 3.0). If you modify this code and distribute it, your modifications must also be released under GPL 3.0.

dadamachines Additions (LGPL 3.0)

Everything added by dadamachines in this repository is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL 3.0). This includes:

  • The web UI (redesigned interface for TBD-16)

  • The browser-based flasher for DSP and UI firmware

  • Plugins developed by dadamachines and friends (see below)

  • The documentation source you are reading right now

  • Build tools and utilities

We chose LGPL because it strikes the right balance:

  • For individual developers and contributors: You can freely use, study, modify, and contribute to this code. You do not need to release your own unrelated projects under the same license.

  • For the community: Any improvements to the LGPL’d code itself must be shared back if distributed, so the ecosystem keeps growing.

  • For commercial protection: Other companies cannot take these components and ship them in a competing product without contributing their changes back as open source.

This approach is similar to how Bela licenses their core code under LGPL, keeping things open for makers and researchers while protecting the work that sustains the project.

Plugins (LGPL 3.0)

Plugins developed specifically for the TBD-16 by dadamachines and friends are also released under LGPL 3.0. This currently includes:

  • PicoSeqRack – a MIDI-driven sequencer/rack plugin developed by Per-Olov Jernberg (Possan) (GitHub), custom-built for the TBD-16. PicoSeqRack is the default app/firmware shipping on the TBD-16.

Future plugins developed by Johannes Lohbihler and Benjamin Weiss for dadamachines will follow the same LGPL 3.0 license.

The existing 50+ plugins in the core library are part of the upstream CTAG TBD project and remain under GPL 3.0.

Hardware Licenses

Original CTAG TBD Eurorack Designs

The original CTAG TBD hardware designs (V1/V2) by Robert Manzke are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

dadamachines TBD-Core & TBD-16

The TBD-16 (complete desktop instrument) and TBD-Core (core DSP board with FFC connector for custom UIs) are commercial products. Their hardware designs, including industrial design, PCB layout, and custom electronics, are proprietary.

Planned Open-Hardware Core Design

An open-hardware core design based on the same ESP32-P4 + RP2350 platform is planned for future publication in KiCad as an open-source reference. This will give educators, researchers, and instrument builders a starting point to learn from and build on, similar in spirit to how the original CTAG TBD Eurorack designs were published.

There is currently no Eurorack module based on the new ESP32-P4 + RP2350 platform planned by dadamachines, but we would love to partner with anyone interested in building one. See Custom Integration or contact us.

Using TBD in Your Own Products

As a musician or maker: Use TBD however you like. Build instruments, perform live, teach with it, hack on it. That is what it is made for.

As an individual developer: Contribute plugins, fix bugs, improve the docs. Your own projects do not need to be open source unless they include modified TBD code that you distribute.

As a company: If you want to build a product around the TBD platform, two options are designed for you:

  • The TBD-Core – our core DSP board with all audio, MIDI, and USB I/O assembled. Connect your own UI board via the 30-pin FFC and design your own enclosure.

  • Custom Integration – we integrate the ESP32-P4, RP2350, and codec directly onto your PCB for full control over form factor, connectors, and BOM.

We also work with companies on licensed special editions of the TBD-16. Contact dadamachines to discuss.

If you modify and distribute dadamachines-added code (web UI, tools, docs), those changes must be released under LGPL 3.0.

If you modify and distribute the core DSP engine, those changes must be released under GPL 3.0.

Want to keep your modifications proprietary? dadamachines can provide a commercial license tailored to your project. Contact dadamachines to discuss.

The dadamachines Name and Brand

The dadamachines name, logo, and TBD-16 product name are trademarks reserved for products made by or licensed by dadamachines.

If you build something with the TBD platform, you may reference it as:

  • [YourProduct] for TBD

  • [YourProduct] (TBD-compatible)

Please do not use “dadamachines [YourProduct]” or “TBD-16 [YourProduct]” without prior agreement. Contact us if you are unsure.