Who MIDI things with Arduino / Wiring ??

julienb · Post by **julienb** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 1:05 pm

Hello,

as I planned to build a gear, I get informations about micro controller platform, about electronics.

Is anybody build MIDI things with Arduino or Wiring platform?

I would like to know if it could be an alternative to midibox stuff or if it is unuseful in the MIDI controller world..

informations would be appreciated!

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 1:39 pm

I'm going with Arduino.
I don't understand a lot of this DIY stuff (yet), but it does seem like you can have more software control with the arduino boards then with a MIDIBOX which is pretty much designed around MIDI. With Arduino you can make an OSC controller.
Something that can probably be done with some of the HID or MIDI chipsets.
The point is, I'll try to avoid as much chips with embedded software as possible so that I can program it all in Max.

Bokonon · Post by **Bokonon** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 2:17 pm

I think that for building a decent sized midi controller then wiring or an Arduino Decimalia is going to be too limiting, the wiring hardware only allows 8 analog inputs and the arduino hardware only allows 6 - which is going to be a pretty small controller. That said the wiring board has lots of digital i/o (40) so buttons/LEDs would be really efficiently handled by it (or two of them) and it would be significantly cheaper than say a Doepfer CTM or MTC for the same functionality.

I'd keep an eye on the MIDIY from Livid Union, which seems like a good alternative to the doepfer boards, or plough the midibox furrow.

There are lots of projects available to do this, I'd say the easiest to build/most customisable and biggest range comes from doepfer, I've had no issues with projects that have used mine and they've been up in galleries for days on end before, although some people are critical of their reliability.

http://lividinstruments.com/hardware_midiy.php
http://www.doepfer.de/home_e.htm

I'd say the basic stamp/pic method might be the cheapest way of creating something which runs OSC instead of midi with a decent amount of i/o, but you'd be on your own software wise, but programming in basic is easy in the scheme of things.

nickw · Post by **nickw** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:25 pm

You can easily build basic midi stuff with an arduino, or wiring.

If you want more than the 6 or 8 analogue ins then you can use multiplexors to increase the number (switch between a number of inputs so fast you don't notice).

Faster bigger chips are also on the horizon with more analogue ins.

If you want to talk to Max then there is a much easier route than midi called firmata - search the arduino playground for it - you can then control the arduino from Max - selecting whether the pins are in or out as the Max patch runs. There is a Max object that just talks to the board. Firmata is now starting to ship as the default program on new Arduinos so you won't even need to put it on the board.

Have fun

Nick

mrboni · Post by **mrboni** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 5:26 pm

Is it possible to embed a max (for example) patch onto a controller or something so you could have a dsp powered installation without a computer running the whole time?

Bokonon · Post by **Bokonon** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 6:21 pm

mrboni wrote:Is it possible to embed a max (for example) patch onto a controller or something so you could have a dsp powered installation without a computer running the whole time?

Arduino works with processing, which is code based rather than node based, but I've seen Pd running on an Ipod through podlinux, so if you are after something like that - for an installation and you don't require interaction, then it might be worth looking at.

julienb · Post by **julienb** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:48 pm

nice answers, all !!

CTM from doepfer seems fine.
midibox stuff seems too.. and there are many things that work with many LED, Buttons etc..

I'd just like to know more about the future way that Ableton could be follow...
OSC? Open API? etc etc

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:41 pm

julienb wrote:nice answers, all !!

CTM from doepfer seems fine.

actually, it's probably one of the most expensive barebones systems out there.... they even have the audacity to charge what, 150 euros for 64 buttons?

julienb wrote: I'd just like to know more about the future way that Ableton could be follow...
OSC? Open API? etc etc

well no-one knows that, which means, at least for Hoffman2k and I, that we want to make our controllers as open-ended as possible.

julienb · Post by **julienb** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 8:54 am

indeed, O(pen)SC seems to be Open to the future

I put myself on Arduino and wiring platform forums.
Natively, these don't provide things to connect a LOT of LEDS and a LOT of buttons... but solutions seem to exist ; of course: the community works hard

doepfer is expensive! yeah!

midibox seems cheaper.

one way could be to build a OSC & MIDI platform.
Arduino and wiring provides that!

julienb · Post by **julienb** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:34 am

for those who want to get informations, I posted it : http://wiring.org.co/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB. ... 07586256/0

wiring forum
alternative to midibox?! probably

Homebelly · Post by **Homebelly** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:05 am

Ive just taken a quick look at this so i might have missed the obvious.
Are you looking to build a matrix that you can use live to trigger clips and scenes?
If you are i would be very interested to watch this project unfold as i would like to take a stab at this myself,, or at least maybe pay some one to build some thing like it for me.

What i would like to see would be a 16X16 matrix that can send out MIDI notes and be
able to bank or be able to switch and transmit on several MIDI channels. I'm aiming at being able to set up several "Songs" in a live set based around sixteen tracks. I would like to load up my live set with several songs and have each songs be controlled by it's own bank/channel. this way i can move between songs simply by changing a bank or channel on my MIDI matrix controller.
Am i expecting too much?
I am an absolute novice at this kind of thing

Bokonon · Post by **Bokonon** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:10 am

Machinate wrote:actually, it's probably one of the most expensive barebones systems out there.... they even have the audacity to charge what, 150 euros for 64 buttons?

As compared to what? It's not like they have many other competitors in the market place - take a look at the price Eowave or I-Cube-X charge, for a much lesser system.

http://eroktronix.com/
http://www.ladyada.net/make/midisense/
http://infusionsystems.com/catalog/index.php
http://www.eowave.com/

Yes a Midibox system is cheaper and you can get kits with a lot of the work done for you, but you still need pretty extensive skills - populating your first PCB is not easy - the doepfer kits fill a space between the very easy to use systems from the above - and the very cheap midibox based systems - and the amount of work needed is relative to the costs.

julienb · Post by **julienb** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:20 am

Homebelly wrote:Ive just taken a quick look at this so i might have missed the obvious.
Are you looking to build a matrix that you can use live to trigger clips and scenes?
If you are i would be very interested to watch this project unfold as i would like to take a stab at this myself,, or at least maybe pay some one to build some thing like it for me.

What i would like to see would be a 16X16 matrix that can send out MIDI notes and be
able to bank or be able to switch and transmit on several MIDI channels. I'm aiming at being able to set up several "Songs" in a live set based around sixteen tracks. I would like to load up my live set with several songs and have each songs be controlled by it's own bank/channel. this way i can move between songs simply by changing a bank or channel on my MIDI matrix controller.
Am i expecting too much?
I am an absolute novice at this kind of thing

you may take a look at:

http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/live-api
http://groups.google.fr/group/liveapi

but I guess Ableton will release, one day, something really open to do that natively !!!

Bokonon · Post by **Bokonon** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:36 pm

This is sort of an OSC version of the Doepfer OEM boxes:

http://www.glui.de/

Cheap it is not - but if you want 16bit resolution controls in a DIY format then this is your puppy...

julienb · Post by **julienb** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:55 am

for those interested in Wiring board as the brain of a controller, I began that:
http://wiring.org.co/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB. ... 1208346187