void setup()

Analog, meet Digital.

So I've spent the last year and half learning about and building analog devices. How to build fuzzes and overdrives and delays and whatnot. Very interesting, but purely analog. In my day job, I'm a software guy--I've been writing software since I was 16 and have been through the birth of the PC up to today's webified/connectified world. Two very different worlds--analog stompboxes steeped in tradition with untold variations on untold themes, and the power to create anything in software with nothing more than a keyboard.

I'm also an avid reader of Make magazine. Make is not focused on audio projects, and has almost no coverage about stompboxes, but it is one of the best sources of new ideas for me. It turns out that there are thousands and thousands of inventive people out there hacking and building in areas that, on the surface, appear to have nothing to do with stompboxes or music.

But there is a connection.

Enter the humble microcontroller. I've played around with MCU's over the years doing piddly things like flipping relays or lighting up LEDs. The utility seemed to evade me because it all appeared to be about industrial control, or building robots, or adjusting your room lights or other non-interesting applications. And many of the early microcontrollers had arcane language support and memory support so small, assembly language was the only way to go. Nothing to see here folks, move along.

lightbulb (on)

But in recent trawling expeditions across the web, I've learned that microcontrollers can be bridged to the analog world in ways that are truly interesting to stompboxology. The recent groundswell in DIY electronics, especially in the MCU arena has been staggering. There are thousands of projects and hackers out there, and they are welding digital controllers into art and music, and well, you name it. So I've been digging in, learning everything I can find. The first eye-openers were realizations like: I can control lattices of relays to reconfigure analog circuit arrangements, and save settings. I can route even the most complex switching matrix with fairly simple code.  I can build digital oscillators that react in real time to sampled analog inputs. I can build a super-flexible step sequencer with just a handful of parts. I can design effects in code, test them, debug them, tweak them, morph them....

Ciao Arduino!

Now that I had a giant hack-boner for microcontrollers, it was time to search out a cheap, well-supported and flexible platform. From my addiction to Make magazine and more specifically, makezine.com/blog, I had seen many tantalizing projects executed with a cheap board called the Arudino. Arduino is the creation of some clever and friendly people from Italy-- an inexpensive open-source microcontroller platform that is easy to use, and widely support across the web.

There are lots and lots of microcontroller solutions out there, but the open-source nature of Arduino, and the fact that it was attracting a lot of very inventive people who love to share solutions and hacks meant that it was a no-brainer to try. 35 bucks for a board and I was ready to go.

First Steps

Getting up and running was painless. Install the free software from the Arduino site, connect the Arduino board to the computer with a USB cable. Stick and LED in the appropriate sockets in the board, open and sample program and upload it to the board. Done. LED blinks, wow. From there, I started connecting potentiometers and LEDs and speakers to various ports and writing little snippets of code that would light up, make noises, whatever.

Now It's Your Turn

It is really easy to get started with microcontrollers. You don't have to go the Arduino route, but it is certainly an inexpensive and fun way to get your feet wet. Here are some Arduino links to get you started.

What's Next

It seems that the possibilities are endless for interesting things to do with microcontroller/music hybrids. I've got a list of ideas to start whacking on over the coming weeks. I'll update this page as some get completed.

digital projects