While you may know on some level that an Arduino can help you make music, you probably haven’t seen as good an implementation as this MIDI controller by Switch & Lever. 

The device features a numeric pad for note input, which can also be used as a drum pad, and a variety of knobs and even a joystick for modifying the beats. Controls are housed inside a beautiful laser-cut, glued, and finished wooden enclosure.

An Arduino Mega (with its 54 digital IO and 16 analog pins) is used to accommodate the inputs, and data is passed on to a digital audio workstation, or DAW, to produce actual sound. 

Code and circuit diagrams are available here if you want to build one, though your setup can be customized however you like!

A keyboard and mouse is a great user interface system for general computing tasks, but in other situations custom knobs, sliders, and lights would certainly be more fun. If you enjoy making digital music, then you should check out this low-cost, Arduino-based MIDI controller by Nerd Musician.

The Traktorino gives you access to a plethora of knobs and sliders, as well as LEDs for custom feedback in a laser-cut package. Internally, the device acts as an Arduino Uno shield, and is designed to control Traktor DJ software by default. It also supports other MIDI programs, and perhaps could even be adapted to work with other applications as well.

The Traktorino is a MIDI class compliant device, designed for controlling Traktor. It has several features and custom made mappings, so you can take the most of the software. However, it can do much more than that. The Traktorino can control any software that accepts MIDI, like Ableton Live, Serato, FL Studio, Logic, etc.

More information and build files can be found here and on GitHub. You can see it in action in the video below!

Electronic music seems to be ripe for hacking, as a new device can be fun as well as quite useful. Imgur user “fatcookies” decided to create a small DJ controller using an Arduino Nano, six push buttons, three potentiometers, and four configurable LEDs.

In this setup, each input is fed into the Arduino, then sent to a computer over USB to be used as a MIDI interface (with the help of a couple pieces of intermediate software). A neat build for sure, but what really sets this tiny beast apart is that it’s about the size of a notebook’s trackpad.

The electronics are all stored inside a transparent nuts and bolts storage box, while fatcookies rounded out the design with some arcade buttons and brushed aluminium knobs on two of the pots.

You can check out how to make one of these mini devices for yourself on the project’s Imgur page.

If guitar effects pedals aren’t really your thing, perhaps Evan Kale’s touchless MIDI controller will fit the bill.

Using an Arduino, along with a Colpitts oscillator and some other electronics, Kale has come up with a rather unique interface for his guitar. Instead of using a foot pedal, he put a strip of aluminum foil inside of a fingerless glove, then attached a homemade metal detector coil and circuit to the back.

This allows him to strum the guitar, then change the sound by moving his hand away and toward the strings as a MIDI input. Very clever, and as always, Kale outlines everything in his own zany video style!

You can find the code for this project here and check out the schematic on Imgur. On the other hand, if this looks slightly familiar, he uses the same type of circuit for this MIDI controller as the metal detector previously covered on our blog.

If guitar effects pedals aren’t really your thing, perhaps Evan Kale’s touchless MIDI controller will fit the bill.

Using an Arduino, along with a Colpitts oscillator and some other electronics, Kale has come up with a rather unique interface for his guitar. Instead of using a foot pedal, he put a strip of aluminum foil inside of a fingerless glove, then attached a homemade metal detector coil and circuit to the back.

This allows him to strum the guitar, then change the sound by moving his hand away and toward the strings as a MIDI input. Very clever, and as always, Kale outlines everything in his own zany video style!

You can find the code for this project here and check out the schematic on Imgur. On the other hand, if this looks slightly familiar, he uses the same type of circuit for this MIDI controller as the metal detector previously covered on our blog.

Developed as part of a semester project, BINARY IO is a nifty little MIDI controller capable of counting from one to 15 using only four buttons. The device, which uses binary code as an input mechanism, is powered by an Arduino Uno and Max/MSP.

With a little practice, BINARY IO becomes quite intuitive and fun to play. As demonstrated by its creators Benjamin Weber and Jeremy Ondrey, users can piece together new music with sounds ranging from the piano to the xylophone to the drums.