DIY MPD32 MIDI Controller with Reactive Control Pads | #MusicMonday
Stumbled onto this video by YouTube user dshay showing a custom MIDI controller, modeled after the Akai MPD32 – the rubber pads were sourced from MPCStuff and the harder you tap on the pads the louder they output! An early image of the breadboard build appears to show a pair of ItsyBitsy 32u4 boards, although the YouTube video description mentions Arduino Leonardo. Either way it looks and sounds great. The circuit board appears to use the solid copper sheet as the ground plane – I always like that look.
This is a Velocity Sensitive MIDI Interface I designed and Built. The rubber pads are aftermarket upgrades for Akai from MPCStuff.com. The sensors are repair sensors for the MPC500. The enclosure is laser cut acrylic and the circuit board is custom milled, the original prototype was an Arduino Leonardo platform, that version’s enclosure was 3D printed.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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