Build an Auduino Step Sequencer

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Contributors: Nick Poole
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"You Spelled Arduino Wrong"

Synthy Goodness

Kids these days, with their techno musics... am I right? Back in my day a synthesizer took up a whole room. Nowadays you can download one on your computerphone and be dubstepping by lunchtime.

Okay, I kind of am one of those kids. I can't get enough 'bleeps' and 'bloops'. So, when I came across the Auduino project, a grain synthesizer for Arduino, I was excited to put one together. And I did! And it was great! But that's not what this tutorial is about, because there are plenty of well documented builds on the Auduino site already. No, today we're going to take Auduino to the next level with the help of an Arduino Mega and a little code modification.

The original Auduino is a simple grain synthesizer: You twiddle the knobs and it makes a sound. Don't get me wrong, you can spend hours doing that... there's just not much composition in it. We'll be turning this basic synthesizer into a step sequencer, allowing us to program 8 different sounds and play them in a repeated loop.

Before we start changing things up, let's make sure we understand what Auduino looks like when you download it.

Suggested Reading

This project builds upon a few other concepts and skills. Feel free to read up on any with which you are unfamiliar.

Parts I Used