So, this setup is pretty much the same as in the other videos, only instead of routing the midi through my arduinoboy, I’m just using the QuadraSID VST inside Ableton Live. I had also modified the software a little bit since last time, meaning that the scale which the wii guitar plays is now determined by the midi notes being recieved by the software.

Windows

OSX

Linux

It should work on all platforms, and the controls are arrow keys, and z and x for the A/B buttons.

This does:

Anyway, here’s a quick vid of it in action. Doesn’t really show much, but whatever…

I might take it apart and rebuild it again, photographing each step. When I build it “for real”, I’ll definitely be doing that.

More soon!

But, why should you care? Well, because now you can make and use an ArduinoBoy with no soldering at all! In the picture to the right, you can see the wires coming from the Gameboy link cable into my breadboard, with jumper wires linking this to my Arduino. You could just as easily put the wires straight into your Arduino, though. Then, a couple of quick changes to the ArduinoBoy code to force it into “LSDJ Master Sync” mode (all at the top of the main file, and with very friendly names) and you’re set. Plug everything in, launch my serial2midi app, and bingo!

Heres a vid of it in action:

Here are the downloads (including source) for the serial2midi app…

serial2midi-win

serial2midi-osx

serial2midi-linux

(Only tested under OSX)

And finally, some more images:

UPDATE:

There are some things which I forgot to mention when I originally posted this. Midi over USB is not as fast as using real Midi. If you’re using LSDJ master sync mode on an ArduinoBoy for example, on my computer I start to get some noticeable latency around the 130bpm mark. Having said that, if this were being used only to route note data, there should be no problem at all.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that this version of the app is running at a fixed baud rate of 38400. Soon I’ll make it selectable, as faster baud rates should give lower latencies. Still, the latencies you get with this thing are not as low as you would get over real Midi – but I think for ease of use (ie no need to build any Midi circuitry) this is still a pretty handy app.

From the youtube vid description:

LSDJ is running in “master” mode, and is sending clock data out which the Arduino then sends over usb. This is then picked up by a little processing app which I wrote which acts as an interface between midi and usb using the RWMidi lib (which I had to hack a little).

The song is just something I wrote quickly. Three channels running in LSDJ (PU2, wav, and noise), then some drums and QuadraSID from Ableton Live.

Sorry the sound quality sucks

So there we have it! Maybe I’ll put something up showing how I made this if anyone is interested – the nicest thing about it is that it required no soldering whatsoever! The only piece of equipment I used to make this was a pair of small scissors to cut the link cable and strip the wires. Not that I’d recommend using scissors to strip wire, but I was impatient and it worked

Anyway, feel free to leave any comments or questions, and cheers to Trash80 for all the help!

These tracks are contained in a release which I have named Adventures In The Dark. It’s a collection of downtempo electronica inspired by Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin – although it doesn’t sound particularly like either of them. These tracks span from the very beginning of when I started making music up until about a year ago, and I love them all. There’s no album art, and no track numbers. It’s just a collection of music which I’ve made and love, and which I want to share.

Adventures In The Dark

Maybe it’s something nice to listen to when you’re hung over on the first day of 2009.

Maybe not.

Awesome schematic

I’m pretty sure most resistor values would work alright in place of the 10Ks, but if I’m wrong, then… tough. They’re just acting as pulldown resistors anyway. The value for the resistors marked with a question mark depends on the current required by your LEDs.

Code

Here is the code which needs to go on your Arduino board, and also the code for the Processing app which converts the serial data to midi. The Processing app requires the rwmidi library, which you can get here.

Arduino code

Processing code

Enjoy!

That being said, just running the midi file through your vst of choice will likely sound like crap, as will copying straight from the guitar tab. That’s why I’ve decided to write this:

A beginners guide to cheating (pt 1)

Intro

In this part, I will be showing some nice tricks on how to go from guitar tab to chiptune – and hopefully make it sound decent. Firstly, you need to know what you’re working with and the differences between guitar/bass, and LSDJ:

Guitar:

Just one instrument in a band
6 strings = 6 notes at once
Effects such as distortion, reverb, etc
Goes all the way up to 11

LSDJ:

Has to play ALL the notes of the song
4 channels = 3 notes at once (and noise)
Goes all the way up to FF (which is EE more than a guitar)

Bass tab or guitar tab?

That all depends. Sometimes it will be guitar, sometimes bass, sometimes both. You need to listen to the song and figure out what makes it sound the way it does.

Chords:

Chords are two or more notes played at the same time, easy. From guitar tab, you know something is a chord when the notes are stacked on top of each other. The most important thing about the chord is the notes in it, and the order in which they are. For example, an E minor chord:

|-0-
|-0-
|-0-
|-2-
|-2-
|-0-

Firstly, the root note of the chord. This is the lowest note – both the lowest sounding, and the lowest on the screen. In this case, it is an E. Next, we need to get the other notes. Second fret on the A string gives us a B, second on D gives us another E, then there are the G, B, and E strings open. Collect them up, and this chord has three separate notes in it – E, B, and G. An E major chord, on the other hand, contains an E, B, and G#.

The next stage is to calculate the number of steps between each note and the root note. Basically, you get your old crappy keyboard out, and you put your finger on the root note of your chord. Then, you move up to the next note, and count how many steps this is. You can try to count with your fingers or on paper, but I’d recommend doing it in your head. Do this for each note in the chord.

For an E minor, this should give you 0, 7, 3. For an E major, this should give you 0, 7, 4. Funnily enough, this is the difference in steps for any minor and major chord. Weird.

Putting this into LSDJ

Two ways. C command or a table containing an awesome arp. C command is for chords with two individual notes, eg Smoke On The Water intro. Arps can sound more badass and can have more than one note.

C Command

The chords in the smoke in the water intro have 5 steps between the lower note and the higher note. Place the lower note in your phrase, and give it the command C-05 (ie, a chord with 5 steps between the lower note and the upper note). Easy!

D-4  C05
-
F-4  C05
-
G-4  C05
-

Arps in tables

Minor chord. Steps are 0, 3, 7. Table transpose column:

0 -
3 -
7 -
0 H00

Of course, there’s no reason why you cant do:

0 -
7 -
3 -
0 H00

But, the most important thing is that the first step has 0 transpose – this is the root note and it has to come first!

To make a fuller arp, try going up and then back down, or up more than one octave, or both, or neither, or something totally different!

Then, where you need to place your minor chord in your phrase, you place the root note along with the A command and the number of your table:

E-4 A01
-
-

Minor chord arp, hooray!

Thats all for now, more later… I promise!

hngggg