An Even Tempered Pico

I was having a bit of a discussion about tuning and temperament in music with Midi_in_out on Twitter, after they posted the latest update to their MIDISID project and we got on to talking about polyphony. I know the general theory behind natural harmonics vs the compromise that is the even tempered scale we use … Continue reading An Even Tempered Pico →

Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 5

In this part of my series on adding an Arduino to a toy keyboard, I've taken a second keyboard and actually embedded the Nano inside it to make it a complete DIY Oskitone Scout, powered by USB. This is using the version of the hardware and code described in part 2 - i.e. without the … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 5 →

Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 4

I'm continuing my series of posts seeing what I can do with a toy keyboard. This post looks at some possible uses of the additional IO pins I freed up in part 3. Part 1 provides all the details for adding an Arduino to the original toy keyboard. Part 2 demonstrates the toy keyboard running … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 4 →

Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 3

This post looks in a little more detail at the keyboard matrix decoding for the toy keyboard to see what is possible with less IO pins. Part 1 provides all the details for adding an Arduino to the original toy keyboard. Part 2 demonstrates the toy keyboard running the Oskitone "Scout" firmware. Warning! I strongly … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 3 →

Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 2

Having now plugged an Arduino into my Toy Keyboard, it is time to start experimenting. The first thing I really wanted to do, was build an Oskitone Scout, but not having a 3D printer or the funds to purchase one, I thought I'd have a go at getting the code to run on my toy … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 2 →

Toy Keyboard Tone Piano

I have a few old toy keyboards kicking around that I've wanted to put an Arduino in, so I finally pulled one apart and had a go. I was "live tweeting" it as I went in this Twitter thread, but thought I'd gather everything so far together into a single post. Further posts in this … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano →

Raspberry Pi Pico I2C MIDI Interface – Part 4

For this final (for now) part of my experimenting with my Raspberry Pi Pico I2C MIDI Interface, I've set it up to talk to multiple Arduino's, each with a speaker to act as an I2C MIDI "tone module". In part 1, I tested the concept of a Pico I2C MIDI interface. In part 2, I … Continue reading Raspberry Pi Pico I2C MIDI Interface – Part 4 →

“Bare Metal” Raspberry Pi Synth

The Raspberry Pi is an "SBC" - a single board computer, whilst the Arduino (and the Raspberry Pi Pico for that matter) is a microcontroller. Simplistically a single board computer is, well, what most people would think of when they think about a computer - a board (with or without a case!) that you plug … Continue reading “Bare Metal” Raspberry Pi Synth →

Arduino Four-tone Multi-tones

I had reason recently to take a look at the ATmega32U4 microcontroller again. This is used on the Arduino Leonardo and the Sparkfun Pro Micro and includes built-in USB functionality. But it also has four hardware timers, so I thought I'd try to get them working with the three-timer Tone library. https://youtu.be/N0GdLr4a9hM Warning! I strongly … Continue reading Arduino Four-tone Multi-tones →

Lo-Fi Orchestra – Fanfare for the Common Man

Here is another piece for my Arduino tones- Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. This is scored for four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum and tam-tam. The Arduino tones provide the brass. The VS1053 provides the timpani and bass drum, but the tam-tam was a bit problematic. Eventually I decided … Continue reading Lo-Fi Orchestra – Fanfare for the Common Man →