Hi. I play bass with a Minimoog Voyager (synth) and on stage I'd like it if there was some way to have lights respond to what I'm playing on the keyboard. The Voyager has MIDI out. I have only heard about Arduino and I'm completely new to programming, although I have done quite a bit of soldering and dealt with basic analog electronics (low current). When I've heard about Arduino before I've always been tempted to learn and this might be a perfect time.
So. What I would like to be able to do is having quite a few (10-50) LEDs or other lamps lighting up for a second as I play my keyboard. And I'd also like to be able to switch between programs/settings so that in one song red lights light up as I hit any key and in another some keys activate white light and other activate blue light.
Could this be done with basic/beginner skills using Arduino? And what would be a good starting point? I guess purchasing the Starter Kit might be the first step, from there (and using what's in that kit, apart from lamps and MIDI ports) would it be a good first project to create what I aim to do?
I don't think there's need for starter kit. Your idea is really simple actually, and I already have a project which is very similiar to that (MIDI controller which reads MIDI notes and turns LEDs on according to note/velocity). You'll need MIDI library, circuit to pass MIDI out from your synth to RX pin to Arduino and of course, circuit and code for LED control.
Watched the link to your project but didn't really get it. Though you describe it exactly as I'd like it. Please tell me more about how it works!
The thing with the Starter Kit is that I wouldn't know where to start if just bought the stuff I need (as you describe) and downloaded the programs. Maybe the Starter Kit will, at least, help me understand how programming and these kind of curcuits work. If I'd get it would I, after performing the excercises, would I have the components I need for my project? Apart from LEDs, DIN-sockets and such. All help is much appreciated!
martinblom:
Watched the link to your project but didn't really get it. Though you describe it exactly as I'd like it. Please tell me more about how it works!
I am not turning the LEDs on directly in controller firmware, as in "when button x is pressed, turn on LED y". Instead, I am sending commands to Traktor (software I'm using for DJing). That part is irrelevant for you. However, upon selecting some of the options in Traktor, Traktor then sends MIDI data to controller, and only then I'm processing them. So it's like "upon receiving note X, turn on LED Y", instead of "turn on LED when button is pressed". That's what you want to do. The only difference is, in my case, the software is sending MIDI via USB, and your synth does the same thing via MIDI connector, so you only need to interface MIDI out from your synth to Arduino TX pin, and then parse input data (MIDI library does that for you).
I suggest you also take a look at "Arduino Basic Connections" book, you can find it online for free.