Adafruit Holiday Gift Guide 2014: Music

Adafruit knows that adding music and sound to your electronics projects can take things to the next level creatively. Here’s a round up of some of our favorite Adafruit projects for the soundtrack to your electronics journey.


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Adafruit HELLA UNTZtrument! Open-Source 16×8 Grid Controller Kit – White LEDs: Build and customize your very own open-source button grid controller based on the Adafruit Trellis with the UNTZtrument kit HELLA UNTZtrument KIT! Designed by PaintYourDragon, this DIY kit comes with delicious translucent button pads, controller pads, diffused white LEDS and a custom laser cut enclosure. The result is a sturdy, BIG, and elegant but also super-hackable music or video (or something else???) controller device. Read more.


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Adafruit’s 1st Vinyl record – FREQUENCY: A black box arrives in the mail. It’s a Cupcade, from Adafruit and you’ve been anxiously waiting for it. You rush to your workbench, switch on your soldering iron, and take out your kit. But there’s something missing.

It’s not a component. Or a tool. Or a broken link in one of our tutorials. There’s no soundtrack.

No problem, you stroll over to the record player at the far side of the room. The case you’re looking for is on display, sitting on a shelf next to family portraits and 3D-printed gizmos. You take the case down, pull out the bright pink 150 gram 12″ vinyl disc, and place it on the player. Slowly, the whir of a spinning record joins your Hakko’s low hum as you flip your stereo’s switch. A fuzz fills the room. The tone builds to near climax as you raise the needle and place it on the record’s first ridge.

Anticipation yields. Ethereal beats fill the air. “It is not soldering,” you think, “without Bartlebeats.” Read more.


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Wolfson Audio Card: The Wolfson Audio Card, produced by Element14 in collaboration with Wolfson, offers Raspberry Pi® users similar flexibility to a PC sound-card to capture audio alongside their camera, and experiment with stereo digital capture and playback.

This audiophile-quality add-on is great for intense audio experimenters! If you just want to have higher-quality audio playback, check out our low cost USB audio card, it’s perfect for playing music, movie soundtracks, etc. and works well with the Pi. Read more.


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littleBits KORG Synth Kit: littleBits and Korg have demystified a traditional analog synthesizer, making it super easy for novices and experts alike to create music. Now you can get modular without needing tons of banana cables!

  • Audio out connects to speakers, computers and headphones
  • Can be used to make your own instruments
  • Fits into the littleBits modular system for infinite combos of audio, visual and sensory experiences

Read more.


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Music & sound add-on pack for Arduino – v1.1: Its a Wave shield party pack! Just add an Arduino to create your own iPod-killer, audio art, sound-effects box…

Comes with:

  • Latest Wave shield kit, works with more SD cards and with older NG Arduinos! Unassembled
  • 1 or 2 GB SD card (brand or size may change, but we test one of each kind to verify it works well)
  • Speaker – 3″ diameter (77mm), 8 ohm impedence, good response between 200Hz to 10KHz (10KHz is the max frequency the Wave shield can make). The speaker is rated for 1W so if you want you can even stick a small amp between the shield and the speaker to boost up the volume
  • Some wire for connecting up the speaker
  • The Wave Shield is not Mega or Leonardo compatible!

Read more.


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Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board + 2x2W Amp – WAV/OGG Trigger -16MB: Would you like to add audio/sound effects to your next project, without an Arduino+Shield? Or maybe you don’t even know how to use microcontrollers, you just want to make a sound play whenever you press a button. What about something that has to be small and portable? You are probably feeling a little frustrated: it’s been very hard to find a simple, low cost audio effects trigger that is easy to use and does not require any programming

UNTIL NOW!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the MP3 Music Maker shield, and our Wave Shield is a dependable classic. But you still need to get an Arduino involved. There’s all sorts of tricks with ISD chips or recordable greeting cards, but they never sound any good. So after a lot of engineering and tinkering we’ve come out with the Adafruit Sound Board, the fastest way to add audio effects to a project! We think this is the best sound board for props and costumes!

Best of all, this version even comes with a 2 x 2W stereo class D amplifier! If you don’t need an amplifier built in, check out the headphone-out version here. Read more.


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Drawdio kit – v1.1: Drawdio is an electronic pencil that lets you make music while you draw! It’s great project for beginners: An easy soldering kit with instant gratification. Essentially, its a very simple musical synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of pencil graphite to create different sounds. The result is a fun toy that lets you draw musical instruments on any piece of paper. Read more.


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Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit – v1.1: Adding quality audio to an electronic project is surprisingly difficult. Here is a shield for Arduinos that solves this problem. It can play up to 22KHz, 12bit uncompressed audio files of any length. It’s low cost, available as an easy-to-make kit. It has an onboard DAC, filter and op-amp for high quality output. Audio files are read off of an SD/MMC card, which are available at nearly any store. Volume can be controlled with the onboard thumbwheel potentiometer.

This shield is a kit, and comes with all parts you need to build it.

Arduino, SD card, tools, speaker and headphones are not included. It is fairly easy to construct and anyone with a successful soldering project under their belt should be able to build it. Read more.


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Mini Electric Guitar Kit from Gakken: Shredders unite! This handmade Mini Electric Guitar has a built-in amp and speaker. The strings on this 320mm guitar can be installed and tuned the same way as a normal sized guitar. The built-in amp and speaker output a powerful distortion sound, and an external amp can also be connected with a standard 1/4″ jack for clearer & better tones.

Even includes a pick that allows for easy playing! All that’s needed to assemble this kit is a Phillips screwdriver, everyday cellophane tape, pliers, and 2xAA batteries. Read more.


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Werkstatt-Ø1 Kit from Moog: The Werkstatt-Ø1: Kit from Moog is a patchable and compact, one oscillator analog synthesizer. It was originally created as a kit, to be the foundation for exclusive “Engineering VIP” workshops at Moogfest 2014. Due to a number of requests, Moog is now offering this no-soldering-required version and assembly is extremely simple! Werkstatt was created to be an educational tool, but it is also a formidable, compact analog synthesizer from Moog. A lifetime of experimentation, knob twisting, and sound design awaits. Read more.


Adafruit Holiday Shipping Deadlines 2014

Here are your 2014 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.

The Adafruit Shipping Department works hard to get your orders out as quickly as we can, but once they’re in the hands of our carriers they’re out of our control.

Carriers have been struggling to keep up with the sharp rise in online orders. Last year UPS, FedEX, and USPS all experienced delivery delays.

So all the Adafruit Shippers say: Please be sure you get your gifts early! Order as soon as you can! Once you place your order we’ll ship like the wind!

UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 12, 2014 – There is no guarantee that UPS Ground packages will arrive in time for Christmas.

UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 17, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014.

UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 18, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014.

UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 19, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014.

Please note: We do not offer Saturday or Sunday service for UPS or USPS.

Thursday, Dec. 25, 2014, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.

United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday– December 12, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner.

USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 21, 2014. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner, but not a trackable service and cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/14.

USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 5, 2015. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner.

Gift Certificates are always available at any time.

When in doubt contact us!


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