Build a simple drum machine with Arduino Format Kindle

Arduino is easy but making a music projects with Arduino is not so easy. You need to install, configure and dominate Mozzi library, you need to learn other programming techniques to interact with Mozzi updateControls, you need specific hardware connections and external software like Audacity to convert audio formats. You can find small tutorials here and there covering some parts of music projects like this one, but no complete material, with these kind of explanations. This book includes Arduino programming reference and step by step instructions to make a fully functional drum machine from scratch. The best part? No complex hardware. Only Arduino Uno, 5 knobs, 4 leds and a push button. Even enclosure files can be requested so your drum machine looks professional. One chapter also includes all the information to add your own sounds, ideal for Chiptune and retro music.

From the same author as Fun Projects with Arduino #1 and #2.

Steadman Thompson Editorial.

INTRODUCTION

When I was a kid I used to purchase electronics magazines, which I’ve almost never understood. I’ve also unmounted devices and programmed personal computers. My projects were big but I had few resources to accomplish them. I remember that I’ve made audio rhythm lights with leds, a guitar amplifier and FM micro stations. I remember the smell of soldering in summer days. I remember watching electronic magazines in the street. Bottom line: I was a nerd.

With this kind of background it is not complicated to understand what it means to me something like Arduino. Being now a grown man, with a solid career in the software industry, I bought my first Arduino Uno board and I left there, over the desk, without touching it for over a month. What was the reason? Was the Arduino too intimidating or complex? Not at all. It was a lacking of documentation? Nope. Did I need other parts hard to find? Of course tons of parts were available. I did not touch the board for one simple reason: there were so many things I could do that I was not able to decide for anything in particular.

But of course that I’ve started. It wasn’t a big project but the contrary: something quite simple with the idea of getting familiar with the board. I just wanted to know how to program it and how to interface with a switches, leds and sensors. Then I’ve made hundreds of projects for schools and companies and I’ve wrote 2 Arduino project books.

In collaboration with a musician and writer from Argentina named Roni Bandini I’ve been involved in the development of this drum machine, which is a very interesting project that requires much more than a simple tutorial.

So let’s start right away. Rodrigo S. A.