Back in the old days, it took external guitar effects pedals to modify a guitar’s sound. As computer processing power has been growing at an exponential rate, software-based effects modelers have been becoming more common. [Matthew]’s dad is running Guitar Rig 5 modeling software on his Lenovo tablet. Although it works well, it is a hassle to change effects and amp models while playing. That’s where [Matthew] comes in. He’s built a foot pedal controller so his old man can change up those sweet sounds on the fly.
Guitar Rig 5 has the ability to change presets with key presses. Even so, it would still be a hassle tapping a keyboard while playing, whether it be physical or on-screen. Since an Arduino-compatible board with an ATMEGA32U4 chip can be used to simulate an HID device, [Matthew] decided to use one as the basis for his project. Standard push buttons mounted in a project box indicate to the microcontroller which keyboard commands to send to the tablet. There are 4 buttons for 4 presets on this build but any number can be used. When a button is pushed, the associated keyboard command is sent to the tablet via a USB cable and Guitar Rig 5 responds to that command by changing the preset. And just so you know where you are, an indicator light adjacent to each button shows which preset is current.
If this is something you’d be interested in building for yourself, [Matthew] made the Arduino code available at the above link.
Good, but put the stomp switches on a thinner wedge shaped stomp proof box. A hollowed out piece of wood would be safe. It’s too much to lift your foot that high while standing. You could even make the switches from thin leaf contacts and make a thin stomp surface!
Those switches won’t last much anyway.
If you make a second revision, using the Teensy 3.x and MIDI would be a more versatile solution.
On second thoughts, I would look at a STM32 F4 and MIOS32 from http://www.midibox.org.
Good platform but way overkill for the task.
Ohhh………its a leftie!
Go get an old ART X-15 foot controller off eBay and make a MIDI transponder to USB HID Keyboard. That would be interesting…
http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/x15art_mod.html
cool mod, but I agree, the switches will be gone in no time…
I did a similar project a while ago (never cleaned it up, so it’s just a box with a few buttons, and a pcb, connected by a long cable ;) )
I used some atmega32U4 based devboard (arduino based actually), and used the MocoLufa libs (Lufa is quite a nice USB framework, MocoLufa adds MIDI to it), messed around with the samples, modified them, and there it was… a USB midi stompbox, that even worked:D
Noooooo!
Somebody beat me to it!
Oh well mine’s going to have more buttons.
And lights.
And switches.
Muahaha.
I may be missing something, but why go the arduino route at all? I have a similar app on my iPad for lyrics that allows you to send keystrokes to control events. I just used the circuit board from a bluetooth keyboard and wired 4 analog foot pedals to the board. Viola, I press a foot pedal and it sends a ‘p’ (or whatever I choose).
BTW, total cost for my set up was 44 bucks off amazon. 14 dollars for the keyboard and 4 pedals @ 6.95 each. Not too bad. :)
Yes, but you don’t get any visual feedback of what preset you are on. Plus, this box can cost lest than $20 if you price it out right.
Yes, but without some kind of microcontroller you cant get any visual feedback of what preset you are using. Besides, this method lets you make a box for less than 20$!
Can you program it using the old guitar rig pedal that now does not work with current software of mac?
Anyone have this project wiring schematic? Please post it if you have it. Anyone?