Arduino Saves You A Bundle When It Comes To Guitar Pedal Effects

[Deadbird] wanted to recreate some guitar pedal effects that he heard on a music video. The thing is, you can end up spending a bundle on hardware unless you’re crafty like he was. He grabbed a Whammy 4 pedal, but decided to forego using a $125 MIDI controller and sourced an Arduino to perform MIDI-based alterations instead.

The Whammy 4 was chosen for its ability to perform the sound processing he desired, but also because it can be MIDI controller. By hooking up the Arduino to that port (as seen in the diagram above) he’s able to program changes that would be difficult or impossible with just the pedal. For instance, [Deadbird] illustrates a command which jumps from the lowest to highest setting of an effect without hitting any of the values in the middle. With that under his belt he goes about programming loops of changes with delays in between them. The best part is, you’re only limited by your ability to craft the MIDI commands as Arduino code.

10 thoughts on “Arduino Saves You A Bundle When It Comes To Guitar Pedal Effects

  1. You can do this with software. I created a midi controller specifically for the whammy 4. There are free programs that let you send midi out usually through a midi to usb cable..

    Just a note: when trying to get it to do what I wanted I discovered that the manual has wong values for the midi program #s which correspond to the harmonic/pitch settings on the pedal

      1. Hi Brad,
        If you already have an arduino you can do this way cheaper by just using the atmega328 standalone with a crystal and a few ceramic caps.

        There’s no need to get an entire arduino if you’re going to use it for a standalone project with enclosure :) google breadboarduino. The official arduino page afaik has a great tutorial too :)

        Just program the Atmega328 in the arduino and pull out the chip from the socket.

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