In a curious historical twist, the “Twelve days of Christmas” are actually the days of revelry that followed the 25th. The preceding period, Advent, was traditionally a fast, not unlike Lent. When and why a fast became an excuse for chocolate calendars we cannot say, but this historical information is presented to explain that this great hack by [Kevin], making a vintage speech synthesizer chip sing the classic carol will remain relevant at least until January 5th — or perhaps even the 19th, for the Orthodox amongst us.

The chip in question is an SP0256A-AL2, which you may remember from various speech projects for 8-bit computers back in the day. It can talk, after a fashion, by reproducing 56 “allophones” — the sounds that make up English speech — from ROM. Singing, though? We cannot recall much of that back in the day, but then, a talking computer was impressive enough.

As it turns out this is building on an earlier hack [Kevin] did in which he used an Arduino to make the venerable speech chip MIDI controllable. In that project’s write-up it is revealed that a Si5351 programmable clock module is used to give a variable pitch signal to the speech synthesizer. In this way he’s able to get about an octave an a half, which is good enough when the carol in question only spans one octave.

Of course the pitch signal needs to be varied by something and for that the venerable Arduino once again takes the place of an 8-bit computer. In this case it’s pre-programmed, but can also be set up for MIDI control.Of course nothing says you can’t use true retro hardware or a more-capable RP2040 instead of the Amtel chip.

It’s sad to think how much compute power has been wasted this year on AI-generated novelty carols when a little bit of 1980s silicon and some ingenuity can do nearly as good — or better, depending on your tastes.

There are a wide variety of ways to create electronic music. For a capable machine that fits in the palm of your hand and is loud enough to use outdoors, however, it’s hard to imagine a battery-powered device cooler than Bitty from Curious Sound Objects. 

The pocket-sized drum machine and synthesizer, currently on Kickstarter, was prototyped using an Arduino Nano and will be fully Arduino-compatible when released. This means that in addition to changing the sound and interface around with readily-available sound packs—which include Theremin Bitty, Techno Bitty, Basement Bitty, Trap Bitty, Lofi Bitty, and Beach Bitty—it can be programmed with the Arduino IDE. The device can even run sound software written for other Arduino boards.

Bitty features four sample trigger buttons, a pair of knobs, and a speaker. Designed for entry-level EDM enthusiasts and studio musicians alike, you can play the drums and melodies manually, as well as trigger patterns to produce dance music or hip hop beats. These can be chosen via the left knob, while the right knob handles pitch, note selection, and arpeggiation.

Check it out in action below!

If you like electronic music, you’ve certainly admired Daft Punk’s glowing electronic helmets. While the originals are amazing, as shown in this Electronoobs tutorial, you can now make a very good replica for around $20 and 30 hours of print time.

Print files for the helmet itself are based on this Thomas Bangalter build by the Ruiz Brothers, and similar to that one, a good amount of sanding and finishing was needed to give it a metallic look. 

Electronoobs’ helmet features seven WS2812 RGB LED strips, all connected to an Arduino Nano. Everything is controlled over Bluetooth by a custom Android app made with the MIT App Inventor, along with a microphone that allows the visor to react to music.

While the environment is important for any musical performance, generally it’s not an active part of the show. Adrien Kaeser, though, has come up with a device called the “Weather Thingy“ that integrates weather directly into electronic music performances. It’s able to sense wind direction and speed, light intensity, and rain, translating this data into MIDI inputs.

The system, which was created at ECAL, consists of two parts: a compact weather station on top of a portable stand, as well as a small console with buttons and knobs to select and modify environmental effects on the music. 

Hardware for the project includes an Arduino Mega and Leonardo, a small TFT screen to display the element under control and its characteristics, an ESP32 module, a SparkFun ESP32 Thing Environment Sensor Shield, a SparkFun MIDI Shield, high speed optocouplers, rotary encoder knobs, and some buttons.

Be sure to see the demo in the video below, preferably with the sound on!