PiPedal Grants Guitar Effects, Amp Emulation, And More

November 4, 2026 by Donald Papp 15 Comments

Back in the day, if one wanted a particular guitar effect one would purchase an effects pedal or “stomp box”, and even a modest collection of them could be an eye-watering investment. A guitar amp chosen for a specific sound could be another huge purchase (and who stops at one?) But if you’ve got a Raspberry Pi kicking around and a bit of free time, PiPedal provides configurable effects, guitar amp emulation, and more.

The audio engine runs on a Raspberry Pi, with configuration and control accessed by mobile device or web browser.

Things have come a long way in terms of audio processing, and PiPedal is no straightforward application of simple digital filters. We indirectly learned about it from a fellow who used it to experiment with a range of equipment he could in no reality actually afford. He shared his experience in a blog post that left him thinking he might as well sell all his pedals and build the stomp box of his dreams around PiPedal.

PiPedal’s impressive audio engine runs on a Raspberry Pi (or comparable single-board Linux computer) with control and configuration accessed from a mobile device or web browser. It’s expressly designed to seamlessly work whether one is at home, on stage, or in a studio.

The GitHub repository has code and documentation, so check it out. And if you use it as the basis of a project of your own, don’t keep it to yourself! Drop us a note on the tips line because we absolutely want to know all about it.

Beautiful Laser Harp Hides Some Neat Tricks

November 4, 2026 by Tyler August 12 Comments

Laser harps aren’t quite a right of passage, in that not everyone builds them, but it’s likely everyone at least contemplates building one at one time or another. We’re lucky that [Derrick] a.k.a. [DJ Baja Blast] didn’t stop at contemplating, and even luckier that he put together a full write-up for his tricked out laser harp — because this is a fascinating build, with features we’ve never seen in one place before.

First of all, the harp! Lasers, photodiodes, done, right? Not here! [DJ Baja Blast] kept it analog with photoresistors so that he could measure the rise and fall of the voltage as the laser light is occluded by the player’s hands — thus you can moderate the volume via faster, louder and quieter, slower plucks. More unique is the inclusion of an accelerometer. What can you do with an accelerometer in a harp? Well, here it’s being used as a tilt sensor, with the tilt acting as a control to ‘bend’ the note as it sounds, tuning it flat or sharp or altering it any other way you choose to define in software. There’s also an ultrasonic distance sensor so you can do the same thing — or any other thing, there’s no shortage of effects to chose from — theremin-style, and an encoder wheel sits on the side, so that’s five extra inputs beyond selecting a note by blocking a laser diode. Unless you count the optional looper pedal input, or the aux in.

It probably has a *teensy* learning curve, but looks like a baja blast to play.

All these inputs are driving a Teensy 4.1 microcontroller, which has the grunt for just about any synthesis or sampling, though right now [DJ Baja Blast] is sticking with the Karplus-Strong string synthesis algorithm. The Teensy can drive an onboard speaker but also offers MIDI out. Eventually he does intend to add more. Last but not least, we cannot forget that he’s plumbed this instrument to hook to a fog machine. Which makes for a visually engaging performance, and probably helps a lot when you’re learning where the laser ‘strings’ are.

The whole thing is handsomely put together with cherry and walnut. Does it sound as good as it looks? Listen to it in action in the demo video below, and judge for yourself! If you want to build your own you can grab the files on GitHub.

This is hardly the first laser harp we’ve seen, or even the first to use a Teensy, but it’s certainly got the most options to spice up a performance. It’s got to be a baja blast to play.

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Using An Unmodded GBA As A Music Synth

October 23, 2026 by Bryan Cockfield 5 Comments

The style and sound of older video games is unique enough that they’re still copied in relatively modern games like Undertale, Celeste, or Shovel Knight. There’s also a vibrant chiptune community making music on the older hardware directly. Often this involves hardware modding or otherwise finding chips from older gaming systems to replicate that unique retro gaming sound authentically. But disassembling older systems is not always necessary. Take a look at this Game Boy Advance synthesizer which uses the GBA hardware with no modifications at all.

The key to making this work is the GBA’s multiboot feature, which allowed these systems to send executable code over a link cable to other consoles which didn’t have cartridges. This meant that friends could play multiplayer games without each one needing their own cartridge, but it also means that nowadays people can send their own custom software directly to the console’s RAM without much extra effort. To run the synthesizer software, the GBA is connected to a computer, the software is started, and then when the GBA is powered on the snythesizer is automatically loaded into its RAM. The audio output is played over the headphone jack, and various controls are available on the computer and on the console.

In the video linked below, [Andy] is using the GBA with some other musical hardware and the sounds he’s getting from the unmodified console are impressive. It could certainly be a go-to for anyone interested in getting started in this style of music or who doesn’t want to do something like take apart an original Sega Genesis for the audio circuitry.

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Making One Fender From Another

October 17, 2026 by Jenny List 11 Comments

There’s a tendency among cherished brands to licence their name and logo onto all sorts of novelty items in order to make a quick buck. Joining this trend is the guitar maker Fender, who have lent their name to a chopping board in the shape of their famous Telecaster. The existence of such a product seems to have been a direct challenge to [Not A Luthier], who promptly bought one and turned it into a real guitar. It’s a genuine Fender, but is it a genuine Fender guitar? Not really, but it’s an entertaining build.

The chopping board isn’t made of great material, instead it’s a set of strips of wood, we’re guessing probably bamboo or rubberwood, glued together. It’s robust, but noticeably thinner than the guitar whose shape it takes, and with a not-great finish. The build is not too different from any other electric guitar build we’ve seen, with the main challenge being that the bridge and pickups need spacers underneath them to compensate for the reduced thickness of the wood.

The video is below the break and makes for a soothing watch as an in-depth guitar build, complete with a moment of drilling all the way through the board and fabricating a plug to hide the evidence. The final guitar seems to sound alright, but we’re not guitarists so maybe a more practiced ear should judge. The genuine Fender logo is still proudly on it so it’s a Fender of sorts, but just like with the chopping board, it’s best value is in novelty.

Meanwhile if guitar builds are a thing, we’ve had a few in the past.

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2026 Retrocomputing Challenge: USBSID-Pico Has Two SIDs, Many Inputs

October 13, 2026 by Tyler August 14 Comments

We’ll give you three guesses what the most important bits of silicon in [LouD]’s USBSID-Pico are, and two don’t count. Yes, there’s a Raspberry Pi Pico, and a pair of the unforgettable SID chips from MOS– the sound chip of the C64, the die that launched a thousand chiptunes. Well, unless you build it with a hardware SID replacement, but the goal of this device is to get SIDs hooked up to modern hardware.

To that end, USBSID-Pico can be controlled via USB– obviously– in the form of CDC/WebUSB/WebSerial but also MIDI, and even ASID, which is a specific protocol for streaming SID register data over MIDI. You might be wondering the point, since surely you can get cycle-accurate SID emulation on an RP2040, right? Well, not everyone agrees that cycle-accurate emulation is accurate enough; like the people who swear by the subtle distortions tube amplifiers introduce into the sound, some say the chip’s own inaccuracies give the sound out of the physical device a unique vibe emulators don’t match. That’s a fight for others to litigate; we just appreciate the work that went into getting these old sound chips talking to modern hardware, and getting the project certified as Open Source Hardware.

This combination of old sound and new microcontroller makes the USBSID-Pico a good entry for our ongoing retrocomputing contest, particularly the retro-modern category. Just be aware of PAL and NTSC differences with these old chips, or your beeps and boops might be out of tune. They haven’t made them in decades, but there are more than a few modern replacements for the MOS 6581.

Drum Machina Go! As A New Music Tool For The Game Boy

October 1, 2026 by Zoe Skyforest 7 Comments

The Nintendo Game Boy is quite possibly the most popular console in the international chiptune community. You might have seen musicians cranking out tunes with LSDJ or Nanoloop, but now there’s a new option for writing bangers on the DMG. It’s Drum Machina Go!, put together by [audiowanderer].

The original Game Boy has a four-bit audio engine with two pulse channels, one waveform channel, and a noise channel. To that end, DMGo! gives you those four channels to play with, each with a 16-step sequencer. There’s also an FX section, ADSR controls, and various filtering options to make your sound juicier, richer, or grainier, depending on your taste.

There are also helpful sync options via the link port, such as for use with other Game Boys, or you can use PULSE OUT sync to hook up to your Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators or KORG Volcas if you have them. There are also fun features like the MANGLING FX which lets you decay and destroy your musical creations live by playing with the D-pad and buttons.

If you’re eager to try a new way to compose on the Game Boy, you can throw it on a flash cart or in an emulator and start tinkering away. We’ve featured other fun Game Boy music hacks before, too, like this nifty project that turns it into a MIDI sequencer.

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Standalone DJ System Runs On ESP32

September 24, 2026 by Zoe Skyforest 25 Comments

There are plenty of ways to DJ with a laptop and various controller setups. However, if you find hauling around an entire computer can be a bit much, you might like this lighter system from [Daniel Vučinović].

It’s called Pajoniiir, and it’s intended to replace a laptop in the DJ booth. In its place stands an ESP32-P4 microcontroller, hooked up to a 4.3-inch touchscreen display in an off-the-shelf combo from Guition. The ESP32’s twin USB interfaces are hooked up in turn to a Pioneer DDJ-FLX4 controller, and a USB stick carrying a Rekordbox music library. The microcontroller is then also hooked up to a PCM5102A DAC module for audio output.

The ESP32 reads and plays tracks in MP3, WAV, and FLAC formats, responds to commands from the DJ controller, and displays the waveforms and other controls on the touchscreen. It’s doing most of what a laptop would do in this case, only it costs $50 and won’t get stuck in a bootloop for a Windows update 10 minutes before you’re due to go on.

We’ve featured a few good DJ controller hacks over the years, like this Hercules rig that was modded for better scratching.

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