I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. The Basement Scientist, a fine DIYer and hardware hacker, has finally received his MIDI shield boards from Batch PCB. What does this mean? It means that soon, he’ll do a run of MIDI shield PCBs that will be available for purchase. In turn, that means you can easily run MIDI through your Arduino, making it fun and easy to create your own instruments.

I received my two MIDI Shield circuit boards from Batch PCB over the weekend. I’m happy to report that they came out 100% error free. However, I think I’m going to make one or two minor tweaks before getting a bunch produced.

MIDI requires the use of the Arduino serial port pins, which are also used by the on-board USB programmer. With my current design the MIDI Shield has to be unplugged before the Arduino can be programmed, which is a pain in the ass. Instead, I’m going to add a jumper to the MIDI Shield. Remove the jumper, program the Arduino, then put the jumper back on. Much better than pulling the whole shield off every time you need to upload code.

I’m incredibly excited to get my hands on one of these shields. I was contemplating on building my own but TMS has done a fine job and I wholeheartedly support it.

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Looks like NYC-based artist Rucyl Mills and I have a lot in common. We both love music and hacked M-Audio equipment for MIDI purposes. It’s wearable, it’s ugly and it’s ready to rock.

I built the elektro-07 so I could control the sonic and visual parameters of my live performances without having to look deep into the eye of my laptop, hunched over in computer music stance. I’m still learning how to play it.. Software wise, it runs a maxMSP/Jitter patch smoothly, connected to my laptop by a long usb cable. Major thanks to Luke DuBois. Originally it was named the Chakakhantroller after Chaka Khan… but you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t get the reference.. so I changed it to Elektro-07 after my newly launched label, Elektrocardio. Next version will be wireless, and yes… it’s made of black leather and snakeskin.

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Not since the days of Sifl and Olly on MTV have I seen sock puppets singing. If Matt Irvine Brown gets his way though, he’ll have a choir of these singing socks howling at me on a bad night. Each puppet has built-in sensors that measure how far open the puppet’s mouth is. You can make the puppet sing higher and higher on a scale or go real low to make smooth love like Barry White. He can also be hooked up to Ableton Live or your favorite MIDI software as a controller.

Ridiculous looking? Absolutely. Sings out of key? Check. Entertains children, thus making it a cash crop? Oh yes.

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Air guitar is a big thing but an even bigger musical hit is on the horizon. Omer Yosha has created an interesting, elegant interface that uses infrared sensors to control music applications he’s calling AirPiano. Similar in concept to the theremin but with many more advancements, the AirPiano allows any untalented schmuck to wiggle his fingers above the board to make sound.

This is done by a virtual matrix of keys and faders above the board, each assigned with MIDI messages and ready to be triggered at the whim of the user.  Once those MIDI messages have been triggered it then relays the positioning of your fingers to a computer via USB, where the preprogrammed AirPiano software converts it into sound, or if you’re talented, music.

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We’ve talked previously about how the Nintendo DS can be used in all kinds of fun ways, including both homebrew and music. The fine folks over at Remaincalm.org have rounded up 25 pieces of audio software for your enjoyment. You’ll find everything here: drum machines, sequences, mixers, loopers, bit crush filters, trackers, MIDI interfaces, samplers, synths and so much more.

After giving this list a go, you’ll be creating so many beats on your DS that people are going to start calling you Fatboy Slim. It’s probably due to your addiction to cheese puffs, though; not because you’re producing good music.

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I stumbled upon the greatest hack/mod/sandwich for the Nintendo DS. It’s called Midify and as any dork or musician could guess, it’s MIDI-related. This little board adds MIDI ports to your DS, allowing Electroplankton to shine at its full potential. Apparently the interface is very easy to work with and mapping triggers shouldn’t be a problem.

At $35, DS enthusiasts will be very happy with this mod. Lots of options are available and the ability to us a DS (with a touchscreen) as a MIDI controller opens all kinds of possibilities.

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This project kit is only meant to help get you started but it’s not short on features. If you’ve wanted to create your own SynthAxe-like percussion instrument, just like Futureman from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones did, then this is a great place to start. You’ll need to add your own piezo sensors to use as triggers and can even use audio input to control it.

How does it all work? Glad you asked:

The Tapdrum kit coverts 8 analog inputs to assignable MIDI notes via an Atmel 89S8252. The inputs are intended to be used with piezo sensors (optional with kit) but could foreseeably use a number of different sensor input types, even audio as Deviantsynth suggests.

From the video, this looks like an absolute blast. Don’t feel like building your own? Use a software-based drum machine.

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