Simple Examples of Sending MIDI Data from Arduino to Computer

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Simple Examples of Sending MIDI Data from Arduino to Computer

It’s easy to send data from just one sensor or button on the Arduino to Max/MSP for further processing and routing to music applications. Take the following example, which reads a potentiometer from Arduino analog input pin 0 and sends this data to Max/MSP as a serial stream of bytes. This stream of bytes has a data range of 0 – 127, perfect for MIDI control applications.

Once the data has been received in Max/MSP, it can be routed to a ctlout object, thus allowing control of any parameter in any application that accepts MIDI continuous controller inputs.


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1 Comment

  1. A very informative little demo! It convinced me to check out Max/MSP (I’ve heard a lot of good things about it). Unfortunately, I found it a little less intuitive to use than I was hoping. That combined with the fact that it’s paid software turned me off, so I decided to write a little Processing sketch instead…

    “Lyrasynth” takes MIDI control messages from an Arduino (though not necessarily one that’s been hacked for “class compliant” USB MIDI) and generates audio directly, circumventing the need for MIDI drivers or expensive, cumbersome DAW software. 😀

    The program is in its infancy (I wrote it in about half an hour!) so it only does a monophonic sine wave at the moment, but I plan to open source it and maybe the community will take it over and turn it into something more useful. I just strongly feel that such a program needs to exist, to make it 1,000x easier to create music on an Arduino.

    When I release the package, it will be at:

    http://www.lyrasynth.com

    Thanks for giving me the idea! ;?)

    ~ Peter

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