Arduino based drum sequencer

I'm building a matrix sequencer with Arduino and Sparkfun button pads. This is my girlfriend having her first try with the device. Currently the sequencer is fixed to four notes with 16 steps and sends them through MIDI (the sounds come from Propellerheads Reason). The note values and velocities can be changed through a button controlled LCD screen.

I got some requests for sharing the code and design behind this device. The code is currently not very clean yet since I'm going to reimplement the user interface which will make it possible to create polyrhythmic patterns. Also currently only the first row blinks the position in the pattern.

The code is available publicly on my svn repository at http://kaverit.org/svn-pub/arduino/project/ledmatrix/

After designing the proto board containing 595 and 165, I noticed that it's not neccessary to connect CE from 165 to D6, just connect it to ground unless you need multiple 165 chips. 8x8 is fine with only one. I don't have the proto board for MIDI and DIN sync ready yet (have to make sure the optocouplers work properly), but you can figure out how to connect MIDI out to arduino by searching any tutorial with MIDI out (basically you need serial out, +5 V with an 220 ohm resistor and ground sent to the connector). You can change the notes each output will send by connecting three momentary buttons to analog inputs 0, 1 and 2 (decrement, increment, next row).

I'm planning to implement a phrase sampler besides the device so it'll be two modules which communicate through midi.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• arduino
• sequencer
• drum
• pattern
• matrix
• reason
• midi
• electronics
• hackerspace
• music