Arduino VS1053 General MIDI Synth – Part 3

Having prototyped a patch changer for my Arduino VS1053 General MIDI Synth this shows how that can be achieved in a slightly more useful manner using a shift register to control the 7-segment display. It also follows through a build using my Arduino MIDI Proto Shield PCB. Warning! I strongly recommend using an old or second hand keyboard … Continue reading Arduino VS1053 General MIDI Synth – Part 3

Arduino VS1053 General MIDI Synth – Part 2

Another I've wanted to do with my Arduino MIDI Proto Shield PCB is link it with my Arduino VS1053 General MIDI Synth to provide a means of selecting the voice from the shield itself.  As I almost always pair my VS1053 shield with an off the shelf MIDI module to use it, this seems like a natural thing … Continue reading Arduino VS1053 General MIDI Synth – Part 2

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

Lo-Fi Orchestra – Janacek Sinfonietta

I've been thinking about other things I could play on my Arduino tones and they seem particularly suited to fanfares, so here is the opening movement of Janacek's Sinfonietta. For details of the projects used in this performance: Arduino Tone One Year On! Arduino MIDI VS1003 or VS1053 Synth https://youtu.be/BroTjZgu1Bs All music rights and copyright … Continue reading Lo-Fi Orchestra – Janacek Sinfonietta

The Complete Lo-Fi Planets

Inspired by the legendary Tomita, the Lo-Fi Orchestra presentation of Gustav Holst's Planets Suite is now complete. The original Lo-Fi Orchestra project started off as an attempt to bring a range of my "Simple DIY Electronic Music Projects" together to "perform" a single piece.  After a number of initial performances, I decided to take the … Continue reading The Complete Lo-Fi Planets

Lo-Fi Orchestra – Neptune from The Planets

Inspired by the legendary Tomita, the Lo-Fi Orchestra presents the final piece, Neptune, from Gustav Holst's Planets Suite. This features the Adafruit Feather MIDI, Music and LEDs on the celesta, the Arduino MIDI VS1053 Synth as the 'harp', and the Raspberry Pi, Clumsy MIDI and MT32-Pi using the Fluidsynth soundscape as the voices. This has been programmed … Continue reading Lo-Fi Orchestra – Neptune from The Planets