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 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 →

Arduino Light Mozzi Generator

Now we have our simple LDR circuit there are a number of other experiments we can try. This page suggests a few more ideas based on the examples provided with the Mozzi synthesis library. In part 2 I build this up on stripboard. Tutorials used in this project: Sounds from Sensors with Mozzi Mozzi Library … Continue reading Arduino Light Mozzi Generator →

556 Timer Light Theremin

I found this "Atari Punk Light Theremin" circuit which uses a 556 timer chip but haven't been able to find out much about it on the Internet ... at least under that name... But I did find quite a lot about the "Atari Punk Console" which appears to have taken on an Internet life of … Continue reading 556 Timer Light Theremin →

JQ6500 MIDI MP3 Player Module

As I mentioned last time, I want to turn m JQ6500 into a MIDI-driven sample player. This project describes how to do that. In part 2, I turn this into a simple shield. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mvTisAVe5o&feature=youtu.be Warning! I strongly recommend using an old or second hand keyboard for your MIDI experiments. I am not responsible for any damage … Continue reading JQ6500 MIDI MP3 Player Module →

JQ6500 MP3 Player Module

I was given a JQ6500 MP3 Player Module to play with so I immediate saw the potential here to repeat my MCP4725 Sample Player experiment. In the next part, I add MIDI control. The JQ6500 module is designed to be the basis of a simple MP3 player, supporting the following features: Mono or stereo MP3 playback. … Continue reading JQ6500 MP3 Player Module →