Selecting Microcontrollers for Music

I was browsing some of the newer ATtiny chips the other day and started to make a note of some of their properties and it made me realise I actually have quite a few different microcontrollers at my disposal and many more I could be having a look at. But having committed to not attempting … Continue reading Selecting Microcontrollers for Music →

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 →

Arduino MPR121 MIDI Touch Piano

A comment on the Arduino MPR121 Touch Piano pointed out that I never went as far as building a 48-note MIDI touch piano. In principle all the bits are there between that post and the Arduino MIDI Touch Piano so this post brings the two together to do just that. https://youtu.be/fdxiHUlXFbY These are the key Arduino … Continue reading Arduino MPR121 MIDI Touch Piano →

SAMD51 USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis

When I left my Trinket USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis – Part 3 I had the following: Mozzi synthesis on the Trinket M0 board (that uses the SAMD21 Cortex M0+ processor core at 48MHz). Four note polyphony. USB device functionality - it can be controlled via MIDI over USB from a PC. USB host functionality - … Continue reading SAMD51 USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis →

Trinket USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis – Part 3

So, I've performed some optimisations for my polyphonic Trinket USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis and think this is probably where I'll leave the code for the time being. You can get an idea of what it can do in the video below. https://youtu.be/piz4varsgXg Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your … Continue reading Trinket USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis – Part 3 →

Trinket USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis – Part 2

This is a first go at getting polyphony running on my Trinket M0 USB Mozzi synth. It is very much a work in progress though as I've just not managed to get the right balance of the different aspects of the system running together yet. But I thought I'd pause and report what I have … Continue reading Trinket USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis – Part 2 →

Trinket USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis

As I mentioned last time, I wanted to get my Trinket handling USB MIDI (as a MIDI host) so I could plug my Korg minikeys directly into it. This wasn't quite as straight forward as I imagined it would be, but I got there in the end. In part 2 I start to look at … Continue reading Trinket USB MIDI Multi-Pot Mozzi Synthesis →

Trinket FM Synthesis with Mozzi

Having played around a little with the Adafruit Trinket M0 I'm now starting to spend some time learning about the SAMD21 processor on board as part of an investigation into 32-bit ARM processors and their possibilities for synthesis. In a follow-up post I add MIDI host support via the built-in USB port. In a further … Continue reading Trinket FM Synthesis with Mozzi →

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 →

MIDI In for 3.3V Microcontrollers

I have a number of microcontrollers now that use 3.3V logic: Raspberry Pi Pico Adafruit Feather Adafruit Circuit Playground Express BBC Micro:bit So far, I've look at MIDI OUT functionality, so now its time to look at MIDI IN, based on the circuit from my Simple MIDI Monitor. This project shows how to build your … Continue reading MIDI In for 3.3V Microcontrollers →