Licenses

The TBD firmware is open source under the GNU GPL 3.0 — you can study how it works, learn from it, build on it, and contribute back. The licence is chosen so that no one can simply repackage our work into a closed competing product: to ship a closed-source product on TBD you need a commercial licence from dadamachines (a dual-licence model, like JUCE or Bela). The WebUI is dadamachines’ own proprietary application (see below). The TBD-16 hardware is proprietary.

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

How It Works at a Glance

Component

License

What It Means

Firmware: core DSP engine (upstream CTAG TBD) + dadamachines / Per-Olov Jernberg additions (REST API, macro/preset/rack layer, plugins, drivers, tools, simulator, docs)

GPL 3.0

Open source; modifications you distribute must be GPL 3.0. A commercial licence is available for closed-source products.

WebUI (sdcard_image/www/)

Proprietary – © dadamachines / Johannes Elias Lohbihler

A separate browser app talking to the firmware over the REST API; not under the GPL; reuse needs written permission

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 & Per-Olov Jernberg Additions (GPL 3.0)

Everything added to the firmware in this repository — by dadamachines (Johannes Elias Lohbihler) and by Per-Olov Jernberg (Possan) (GitHub), who authored the macro/preset system and the rack layer — is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL 3.0), the same as the upstream engine. This includes:

  • The REST API and the browser-based flasher logic

  • The macro/preset system and the rack layer / rack plugins

  • Plugins developed by dadamachines and friends (see below)

  • The drivers, build tools, the desktop simulator and tests

  • The documentation source you are reading right now

We use GPL 3.0 for the firmware and also offer a commercial licence (a dual-licence model, like JUCE or Bela):

  • For individual developers and contributors: you can freely use, study, modify and contribute to the firmware under GPL 3.0. (Contributions are accepted under a Contributor Licence Agreement so the dual-licence is possible — see Contributing / CONTRIBUTING.md.)

  • For the community: modifications you distribute stay GPL 3.0, so the ecosystem keeps growing.

  • For commercial protection: a manufacturer cannot ship a closed-source product built on TBD without a commercial licence from dadamachines — and the WebUI (below) is dadamachines’ alone.

If you want to build a commercial product on TBD without GPL 3.0’s source-disclosure obligations, contact dadamachines.

The WebUI (proprietary)

The dadamachines TBD-16 WebUI under sdcard_image/www/ (the dadamachines-authored HTML, JavaScript and CSS) is not open source:

© 2014–2026 dadamachines / Johannes Elias Lohbihler. All rights reserved.

It is a separate program that talks to the firmware over the firmware’s REST API — it is not a derivative work of the firmware — and it is not licensed under the GPL. You may not copy, modify, redistribute or reuse it without dadamachines’ written permission; for that, contact us. Vendored web components it bundles (Shoelace, webaudio-controls, Sortable, …) keep their own licences — see the per-file headers / LICENSE / readme inside each vendored directory under sdcard_image/www/.

Plugins (GPL 3.0)

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

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

Future plugins developed for dadamachines follow the same GPL 3.0 licence.

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

Third-party libraries vendored under components/ and simulator/ keep their own licences — per-file headers and the component’s own LICENSE / readme file are authoritative.

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 the firmware (the upstream engine, the dadamachines / Per-Olov Jernberg additions, the rack layer, plugins, tools, docs), those changes must be released under GPL 3.0.

Want to ship a closed-source product on TBD — keep firmware modifications proprietary, ship without attribution, use the WebUI, negotiate custom OEM terms? dadamachines provides a commercial licence 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.