Arduino MIDI 7 Segment Controller – Part 2

As mentioned in my previous post, the Arduino MIDI 7 Segment Controller is ripe for turning into a self-contained module. To keep it all relatively small, I opted to build an add-on board for an Arduino Nano. Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any … Continue reading Arduino MIDI 7 Segment Controller – Part 2 →

Arduino MIDI 7 Segment Controller

An Arduino is quite capable of driving a seven segment display directly without additional circuitry, but it does use a lot of pins. But the advantage is that you have a much larger range of displays to choose from and you have the option to include it on your own board or shield in the … Continue reading Arduino MIDI 7 Segment Controller →

Simple Potentiometer Breakout

I've been using potentiometers quite a bit in recent projects and now have two boards that include options to link out to potentiometers to control boards too, so thought it useful to have another, smaller, breakout to make experimenting easy. Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am … Continue reading Simple Potentiometer Breakout →

Arduino VS1003 Drum Machine

I picked up some cheap matrix button boards a while back and wanted to use them as some kind of MIDI controller, so linked up with the Arduino MIDI VS1003 Synth I thought I'd make a self-contained simple drum machine. https://youtu.be/xzDqOiP5L4g Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I … Continue reading Arduino VS1003 Drum Machine →

Arduino MIDI VS1003 Shield – Part 2

Having left a good half of a proto shield free in my Arduino MIDI VS1003 Shield I thought it would be useful to add in some potentiometers, a MIDI link and an optional indicator LED. This documents the build process continuing where the previous project left off. Warning! I strongly recommend using an old or second hand … Continue reading Arduino MIDI VS1003 Shield – Part 2 →

Arduino MIDI Button Controller

Having spent some time recently playing with synth modules it reminded me to revisit my MIDI Patch Button and Arduino Simple MIDI Controller to produce something a little more useful. As a start I wanted up/down buttons to change the patch number and ideally a display to show which number is active. This is how I did … Continue reading Arduino MIDI Button Controller →

Arduino MIDI VS1003 Shield

I've put together a simple shield to hold my VS1003 modules. This documents the build process so far. In the next part, I'll add some potentiometers for control. Warning! I strongly recommend using an old or second hand keyboard for your MIDI experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! These are the … Continue reading Arduino MIDI VS1003 Shield →

Arduino MIDI VS1003 Synth

After having some fun with my Arduino MIDI VS1053 Synth I wanted a few more synth modules to play with and found some cheap ones online. But when they turned up, it turns out they are not VS1053 breakout boards (which I'm pretty sure they said they were), but used the VS1003 instead. Here are the … Continue reading Arduino MIDI VS1003 Synth →

Arduino MIDI Mux Step Sequencer – Part 2

By way of completing this initial look at multiplexing potentiometers, this is how I used a Sparkfun 16 port multiplexer in my Arduino MIDI Step Sequencer. https://youtu.be/MiPyJrPlmVs Warning! I strongly recommend using an old or second hand keyboard for your MIDI experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! These are the key Arduino … Continue reading Arduino MIDI Mux Step Sequencer – Part 2 →

Arduino MIDI Mux Step Sequencer

If you keep using single IO ports of the Arduino for your controls you reach the limits pretty quickly. In terms of analog IO that is six inputs for an Uno and eight for a Nano. The solution is relatively straightforward however, use a multiplexer. This project inserts a 74HC4051 eight port multiplexer into the Arduino … Continue reading Arduino MIDI Mux Step Sequencer →