The ArduTouch is a new Arduino-compatible music synth kit. It’s fully open source – everything you need to put this together is available on the ArduTouch GitHub.
The ArduTouch is similar to the Arduino, but instead of just some headers and pins for connecting wires (boring), it also adds a PCB touch keyboard for playing notes, some extra buttons and pots so you can control sounds. The synth also features an all-important amp and speaker, so you can hear the results on just the board. (You’ll obviously want to plug into external amplification for more power and loudness.)
You don’t have to code. Just put this together, and you can start making music.
That’s already pretty cool, but the real magic comes in the form of two additional ingredients:
Software. ArduTouch has a new library that enables the synthesis capabilities of the board. This means you can also customize synth functionality (like adding additional control or modifying the sound), or create your own synths.
Tutorials. When you want to go deeper, the other side of this is a set of documentation to teach you the basics of DSP (digital signal processing) using the board and library.
In other words, what you’ve got is an all-hardware course on DSP coding, on a $30 board. And that’s just fabulous. I’ve always thought working on a low-level with hardware is a great way to get into the basics, especially for those with no previous coding background. More information on the ArduTouch library can be found here.
Build Document – ArduTouch Assembly Guide
Features
- Easy-to-play touch keyboard, with knobs and switches for lots of tweakability
- Comes pre-programmed with an awesome synthesizer
- Easily re-program new synths with many examples available
- Arduino-compatible — free Arduino software works with MacOS, Windows, and Linux
- If you like, you can read our documentation to learn how to make sound and music and noise with computers chips!
To program your ArduTouch music synthesizer, you can use any FTDI-compatible cable