Mega2560 Midi

Projects General Guidance
1

Hey

I bought the arduino Mega2560 some time ago, and now i got the idea to use it to make a midi controller.
I wanted to use it with traktor (dj software that works with midi devices).
The problem is... i dont know what's the best approach to use my arduino as a midi device (wich can also receive data so i can let my led's react to it)
i've found some methods but i don't know which one will have the least amount of latency

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,56488.0.html (will this work with the atmega2560 chip? or is there another way to make it work with the atmega2560 chip? )
Serial_MIDI

Thanks!

2

electabuzz:
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,56488.0.html (will this work with the atmega2560 chip? or is there another way to make it work with the atmega2560 chip? )

Bear in mind that the USB MIDI firmware is not running on the main atmega2560; it is runing on the atmega8u2 which is used to control the USB port. This is the same for Uno and Mega (although latest revisions are in fact running atmega16u2, which has more memory).

A drawback is that, having flashed to the USB MIDI firmware, you can't upload new programs over USB any more. Until you re-fllash it back, that is. However, since the Arduino Mega2560 has four hardware serial ports (compared to just one on the UNO) an option is to use a second USB-to-serial converter, with an 8U2 (like this one), to run the MIDI firmware and keep the original USB one for programming the Arduino.