RPi Dual MiniDexed PCB Design

I've been experimenting with various options for getting 16 tone generators running with MiniDexed and one of the options is running two MiniDexed setups side by side. I have a fork of MiniDexed that will allow one MiniDexed UI to control the 8 tone generators of a second MiniDexed over MIDI, but I'll come back … Continue reading RPi Dual MiniDexed PCB Design →

Rebuilding my Ability to Build MiniDexed

I do all of my non-Arduino C related development in an Ubuntu Linux virtual machine and managed to trash it recently (don't ask). I have several posts that detail how I got up and running with some of the environments I needed, but didn't have the notes from my first experiments with MiniDexed, so this … Continue reading Rebuilding my Ability to Build MiniDexed →

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 →

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 →

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 →

VS1053 and MIDI Revisited

Right back when I first started looking at the VS1053 I looked into the MIDI mode, which can be enabled in hardware, but at the time I opted for a software route to using the boards with MIDI. This post finally takes a fresh look at the range of VS1053 boards available and how to … Continue reading VS1053 and MIDI Revisited →

XIAO Pi USB MIDI Device PCB – Part 2

Here are the build notes for my XIAO Pi USB MIDI Device PCB. 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 tutorials for the main concepts used in this project: XIAO SAMD21, Arduino and MIDI 3V3 … Continue reading XIAO Pi USB MIDI Device PCB – Part 2 →