Raspberry Pi Pico Capacitive Touch

I've now done a number of projects using capacitive touch, using a range of methods from native IO handling to the use of the MPR121 and off-the-shelf boards. Typically native IO methods require testing a response between a signal on one IO pin being received on another, with the timing of that response affected by … Continue reading Raspberry Pi Pico Capacitive Touch →

Arduino PCF8574/8575 MIDI Controller

This project uses a PCF8574 or PCF8575 I2C digital IO expander with an Arduino as a MIDI controller. https://youtu.be/yrNB3riWBH4 Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! These are the key Arduino tutorials for the main concepts used in this … Continue reading Arduino PCF8574/8575 MIDI Controller →

Arduino OPL Bus Sniffer – Part 2

Having now made myself a Arduino OPL Bus Sniffer I've put it to some use grabbing the voice data from the YM2413 based Yamaha PSS-170 keyboard. https://youtu.be/evERlSJY7zY Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! These are the key Arduino tutorials … Continue reading Arduino OPL Bus Sniffer – Part 2 →

Arduino OPL Bus Sniffer

This is a slightly off-track application. I want to be able to probe a YM2413 chip "in situ" - i.e. installed in a keyboard, so I thought it might be interesting to develop an Arduino application that can monitor the data signals and pull out the data being sent to the chip. Warning! I strongly … Continue reading Arduino OPL Bus Sniffer →

Arduino OPL FM Drum Machine

I've finally returned to having a look at my Arduino OPL FM Synth. This time I'm taking a look at the drum channels. https://youtu.be/IBDu9h4716U Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! These are the key Arduino tutorials for the main … Continue reading Arduino OPL FM Drum Machine →

MIDI Matrix Patch Bay – Part 3

Having now described the design (and the mistakes) and the build guide (and the workarounds) this post looks at the mechanical side of things that I had completely neglected when designing the PCB! Part 1: Design. Part 2: PCB assembly. Part 3: Mechanical design and assembly. Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand … Continue reading MIDI Matrix Patch Bay – Part 3 →

MIDI Matrix Patch Bay – Part 2

Here are the build notes for my MIDI Matrix Patch Bay PCBs. This post is in two parts (below) covering the two boards required. A further part will consider the mechanical build issues. Recall that there is a mistake in the first version of the OUTPUT boards. Although in the design I've presented the fixed … Continue reading MIDI Matrix Patch Bay – Part 2 →

MIDI Matrix Patch Bay

As my collection of instruments and projects grows, I find myself plugging and unplugging MIDI cables quite a bit and although I've experimenting with a number of MIDI routers, sometimes I just need a relatively simple way of switching MIDI connections in and out. This is another one of my "think while doing" projects - … Continue reading MIDI Matrix Patch Bay →

ML Synth Tools XIAO SAMD Synth

Having listed out a few Arduino Audio and MIDI Frameworks and having spent some time recently with the XIAO SAMD21, I thought I'd take a closer look at the ML Synth Tools XIAO synth. Important Update: It would appear that the ML_SynthTools and samd21_mini_synth repositories have been fairly significantly updated since I wrote this. I've tried … Continue reading ML Synth Tools XIAO SAMD Synth →

Arduino Audio and MIDI Frameworks

I've been collecting bookmarks for interesting Arduino audio projects for a while now, and having now played with the XIAO SAMD21 I started looking back over my list for other things to try. One thing that occurred to me is that there are a now a number of more powerful audio frameworks available for a … Continue reading Arduino Audio and MIDI Frameworks →