Arduino and AY-3-8910 – Part 3

I suggested in Part 2 that it might be possible to do some simple modulation of the amplitude of the AY-3-8910 channels rather than drive frequencies directly. This is taking a look at the possibilities of some kind of lo-fi direct digital synthesis using that as a basis. Part 1 - Getting started and looking at … Continue reading Arduino and AY-3-8910 – Part 3 →

Arduino and AY-3-8910 – Part 2

Following on from my initial experiments in Arduino and AY-3-8910 this post looks at the sound generation capabilities in a little more detail and adds some basic MIDI control. Part 1 - Getting started and looking at playing YM files. Part 2 - Adding basic MIDI control. Part 3 - Basic experiments with direct digital synthesis. Part 4 … Continue reading Arduino and AY-3-8910 – Part 2 →

Diagnosing and attempting to fix a Yamaha DX100 – Part 4

I decided to have one more look at the data pins, largely inspired by this oscilloscope trace from part 3. I figured if the address and select pins were working (yellow, cyan and purple) what could I do to try to work out what is driving the data pins (darker blue) wobbly... And no, after … Continue reading Diagnosing and attempting to fix a Yamaha DX100 – Part 4 →

Arduino and AY-3-8910

I've had some AY-3-8910 programmable sound generators for a while and planned to do something with them, but they've sat in the "to think about" box for a while. But recently getting hold of the WhyEm sound card for the RC2014 has re-awakened my interest. This is some "first looks" experiments with the AY-3-8910 and … Continue reading Arduino and AY-3-8910 →

XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 6

Expanding on my previous posts, I thought it might be interesting to see how I might be able to add some additional IO to the MIDI Synth. This is an exploration of some options there. Part 1 - Getting started and getting code running. Part 2 - Swapping the ESP32-C3 for a SAMD21 to get USB … Continue reading XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 6 →

XIAO USB Device to Serial MIDI Converter

Having recently revisited the CircuitPython USB to Serial MIDI Router as part of XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 2 it reminded me I didn't really have a simple Arduino USB device to serial MIDI for the XIAO. So this is filling that gap. Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. … Continue reading XIAO USB Device to Serial MIDI Converter →

XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 5

So I was somewhat guilty that I'd replaced the XIAO microcontroller in the last couple of parts to get USB MIDI, so in this one I put the original ESP32-C3 back in and now have a version of Part 4 for serial MIDI. Part 1 - Getting started and getting code running. Part 2 - Swapping the … Continue reading XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 5 →

XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 4

In Part 2 I looked at how to add USB MIDI to the XIAO MIDI Synthesizer and in Part 3 I looked at some of the properties of the SAM2695 synth chip itself. This post combines the two into a relatively simple, but playable, synth. Part 1 - Getting started and getting code running. Part 2 - Swapping … Continue reading XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 4 →

XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 3

So, now that the basics are out of the way I'm going to dive into the specifics of the Dream SAM2695 chip itself. Part 1 - Getting started and getting code running. Part 2 - Swapping the ESP32-C3 for a SAMD21 to get USB MIDI. Part 3 - Taking a deeper look at the SAM2695 itself. Part 4 … Continue reading XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 3 →

XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 2

After an initial play with the XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer the first thing I wanted to try was to swap out the ESP32-C3 for something else, just to see what could be done. Part 1 - Getting started and getting code running. Part 2 - Swapping the ESP32-C3 for a SAMD21 to get USB MIDI. Part 3 - … Continue reading XIAO ESP32-C3 MIDI Synthesizer – Part 2 →