DIY: littleBits Arduino Lo-Fi Beat Box

[pjd37]

Hi --

Here's a project for the DIY'ers in the Forum -- the Arduino Beat Box. It shows what's possible by combining a Korg synth kit with the littleBits Arduino Coding Kit.

The Beat Box is a lo-fi drum machine with sixteen grungy TR-808-like samples and a handful of classic 80's rhythm patterns. The Arduino uses the high resolution timer (TIMER1) to generate a PWM bit stream that is converted to an audio signal by a passive low pass filter. Waveforms are 22,050Hz, 8-bit signed mono for true bit-crunchiness.

Here is a link to the MP3 demo:

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/wp-content ... oxDemo.mp3

In the demo, the Beat Box is further enhanced by littleBits filter and delay modules.

I built the Beat Box using the littleBits Arduino coding kit, Proto module and Synth Speaker module. The design and code are easily ported to standard Arduino boards (e.g., UNO, Leonardo, Mega). No soldering required.

Here is a link to the design and source code:

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/arduino/ar ... -beat-box/

Hey, hey, have fun!

-- pj