Pi Pico PIO Poly Tone Step Sequencer

In the next part of my messing around with the Raspberry Pi Pico PIO polyphonic tones, I've paired it up with my Pi Pico Keypad MIDI Step Sequencer using my Pimoroni RGB Keypad. In part 2 I add some MIDI controllers. https://youtu.be/JJSOUhSP038 Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I … Continue reading Pi Pico PIO Poly Tone Step Sequencer →

Pi Pico PIO Poly Tone MIDI “Pack”

This is a simple "pack" design for the Pi Pico PIO Poly Tone Keyboard providing 8-note tone-style polyphony with MIDI in functionality. 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 … Continue reading Pi Pico PIO Poly Tone MIDI “Pack” →

USB-MIDI to MIDI Revisited

Ever since building my Mini USB-MIDI to MIDI I've wanted something a little more self contained. Most of these projects have been built with 8-bit microcontrollers, but the costs of more powerful microcontrollers is coming down all the time and you can now get very powerful 32-bit ARM based boards for really not very much so … Continue reading USB-MIDI to MIDI Revisited →

Arduino Top Octave Generator – Counter Experiments – Part 2

This is an incomplete experiment, but I wanted to test the principles from Arduino Top Octave Generator and Arduino Top Octave Generator – Counter Experiments in practice a little more. You may recall the basic idea here is to generate 12 tones using an Arduino and then use binary counters to divide them by 2 several … Continue reading Arduino Top Octave Generator – Counter Experiments – Part 2 →

Zynthian and Clumsy MIDI

I'm really getting through my Raspberry Pi Synth "todo" list now! Next on the hitlist was doing something with Zynthian - the Open Synth Platform. This is an excellent software-synth that runs on a Raspberry Pi and is available in a fully self-contained kit or can be run "raw" on a Pi. The recommendation is … Continue reading Zynthian and Clumsy MIDI →

Raspberry Pi, Clumsy MIDI and MT32-Pi – Part 2

This is a short follow-up to my previous post - Raspberry Pi, Clumsy MIDI and MT32-Pi - to explore the General MIDI capabilities of the MT32-Pi. https://youtu.be/RcpGciIM-KA Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! If you are new to the … Continue reading Raspberry Pi, Clumsy MIDI and MT32-Pi – Part 2 →

Arduino Top Octave Generator – Counter Experiments

After building my Arduino Top Octave Generator I went off an ordered some binary counter devices to use to produce some "lower octaves". This is a test run project to explore how the 74HC393N devices I have work. In part 2 I start to explore how to expand this to multiple keys and octaves. https://youtu.be/MO8jG0fjUSU Warning! … Continue reading Arduino Top Octave Generator – Counter Experiments →

Pi Pico Keypad MIDI Step Sequencer

As soon as the Raspberry Pi Pico came out accompanied by the Pimoroni Keypad, people started making MIDI controllers with it. So far, most of the ones I've seen have used the USB MIDI library from Adafruit for Circuit Python, but I wanted to get some "real MIDI" out of it, so I've hooked one … Continue reading Pi Pico Keypad MIDI Step Sequencer →

Raspberry Pi, Clumsy MIDI and MT32-Pi

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll have noticed my trusty Roland MT-32 MIDI sound module in various experiments. It even featured in my "Raspberry Pi Plays Bach" video which was my first play with MIDI on the Raspberry Pi Pico. I've been wanting to experiment with some of options for using a … Continue reading Raspberry Pi, Clumsy MIDI and MT32-Pi →

Raspberry Pi Pico MIDI “pack” Interface

Having now done both MIDI In and MIDI Out for the Raspberry Pi Pico, and having seen the Adafruit MIDI Feather Wing and the design for "packs" ("shields" in Arduino speak or "wings" in Adafruit Feather speak) from Pimoroni, I wanted a convenient equivalent for my MIDI In and Out and this is the result. … Continue reading Raspberry Pi Pico MIDI “pack” Interface →