When you’re livestreaming, it can be tempting to fire off all kinds of wacky sound effects like you’re a morning radio DJ back in the heady days of 1995. If that’s who you want to be, you might like this soundboard project from [Biker Glen].
The build is based around an RP2040 microcontroller. It’s paired with an I2S digital-to-analog converter for sound output, which in turn feeds a small amplifier hooked up to a speaker or a line output. The RP2040 is programmed to respond to MIDI commands by playing various sounds in response, which are loaded off a microSD card. It’s able to act as a USB MIDI host, which allows it to work seamlessly with all sorts of off-the-shelf MIDI controllers like the MIDI Fighter or the Novation Launchpad.
It’s an interesting hardware solution to a problem that you could probably also solve with software on your streaming machine, especially if you’ve already got a USB MIDI controller. However, there’s something to be said for lightening the load when your streaming computer is already doing lots of hard work to truck video up to the cloud already. Files are on Github if you’re eager to replicate the build.
Soundboards are just fun, which is why we’ve featured them before. Meanwhile, if you’re whipping up your own streaming accessories at home, be sure to let us know on the tipsline!
I was thinking ‘the big computer should do this’ but then i remembered the yamaha ‘finger drum pad’, which is remarkable for having the synth (and speaker) built into it so you can use it without a big computer. The big advantage in my mind is just that you can pick up the device and play with it, without playing with a computer. I may someday just buy the yamaha but if i built something like this, i’d be inclined to permanently attach it to the button pad so that it’s more like a single device.
That’s a good idea! I may rework one of the 3D printed stands to have a space underneath the MIDI controller to hold the line out version.
Why doesn’t he simply supply a damn .uf2
Which hardware config are you interested in? Pico or QT Py RP2040? 0, 1, or 3 status LEDs? I should be able to post some builds.
This seems like great fun!
I’m wondering what it would take to implement a “bridge” device that would connect the USB MIDI controller to a, say, keyboard that has USB MIDI and use this setup for finger drumming without a computer (or even use the controller to change patches, volume etc.). A microcontroller is obviously capable of forwarding MIDI signals between two devices (come to think of it, devices themselves can communicate directly via a MIDI cable), yet everything I was able to find online puts some kind of a computer between them, like the Raspberry Pi. The only catch I see here would be configuring the microcontroller to translate MIDI messages properly – which for finger drumming shouldn’t be a problem, at least my Presonus Atom seems to have a default setup that uses the right MIDI channel and notes for drums.
Anyone know if someone has ever done something similar?