HackSpace Magazine Issue 74 discusses modular synthesizers and this month specifically Pico synthesizer MIDI input.
MIDI is a very simple protocol for controlling musical instruments. It does have its own style of cables and connections, but to get started, we’re going to use MIDI over USB, which will let us control our synthesizer from software on a computer.
Fortunately, MIDI is well supported on CircuitPython, which runs on Pico, so getting the messages in is fairly straightforward.
Taking a quick look at the available hardware, there are two DACs that we might want to consider: the MCP4725 and MCP4728. The first of these is a single-channel 12-bit DAC, and the latter is the same but with four channels. They’re a bit fiddly to work
with on their own, but Adafruit has modules with them broken out for $4.95 and $7.50, respectively. We’ve tried with both of these and have code that works.
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: A New Arduino MicroPython Package Manager, How-Tos and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey