Tag: usb

  • MIDI Controller Stage 2

    It works! I had made a couple of foolish errors, due to looking at the wrong pin schematic for the TEENSY (I have 3.2 not 2). But I now have a working, single pot controller. With this mastered I’m hoping that adding more pots should be straight forward. I’d also like to include an LED that flashes on the MIDI clock, this should help me keep time without the need for headphones.

    I was impressed at the simplicity of the coding for TEENSY. The snippet below is the entire code. I’m having to smooth the value to reduce noise. Apparently the inclusion of a capacitor will help reduce this.

    Looking forward to designing a case..

     

     

    
    #define NUM_PORTS           1
    int values[NUM_PORTS][2];
    
    void setup()
    {
    
    }
    
    void loop()
    {
    
     for( int i = 0; i < NUM_PORTS; ++i )
     {
       const int prev_value    = values[i][0];
       const int current_value = values[i][1];
       int new_value           = analogRead( A0 ) / 8;
    
       int blended_value       = ( new_value + current_value + prev_value ) / 3;
    
       if( prev_value != blended_value )
       {
         Serial.print("analog 0 is: ");
         Serial.print(blended_value);
         Serial.print("n");
    
         usbMIDI.sendControlChange( 1, blended_value, 1 );
       }
    
       values[i][0]             = current_value;
       values[i][1]             = blended_value;
     }
    
     delay(5);
    
    }
    
  • MIDI Controller Protoype

    I’ve just put together a very simple prototype for a USB MIDI controller. I’m using Teensy, which is a programmable circuit board, which lets you code small programs in C, and upload them to the board. Very much like Arduino, but smaller, and easier to setup MIDI on. I’ve just prototyped it on some breadboard. Once I’ve got a setup I’m happy with I can start on the enclosure. It’s not working quite right yet, more details to follow.

      

  • DIY controllers

    When I began to prepare to play live, earlier this year, I was amazed how few decent USB MIDI footpedals were available. Especially ones small enough to fit in my gig bag. As an aside, after spending ages in previous bands, lugging and setting up gear, one of the tenets of Cutlasses was to have a live act that ostensibly fits into a single bag (plus my guitar). It strikes me as strange that there isn’t a 4 switch, programmable USB pedal, around the size of those larger EHX pedals, widely available. There is Looptimus, but that’s rather expensive and over-customisable for my needs. Another thing that struck me as strange was that the vast majority of information online about such pedals was from people playing music at church congregations. Am I really the only electronic musician who wants to use their feet as well as their fingers? (I realise I’m not.) My eventual solution was to buy a homemade non-programmable USB 4 switch midi pedal from eBay (pretty cheap, sub £50), and replace the DPDT switches with the combination of toggles and latches that fitted my needs.

     

    I found this very slight foray into the world of soldering and DIY controllers pretty fascinating, so I’m going to try and take it further. I’m considering for my next project, building something from scratch using the TEENSY USB development board, more on that if and when it happens.