I'm working on using an Arduino Leonardo and a capacitive sensor as a midi controller. The Arduino sends data to FL studio based on my interaction with the sensor, and in return, the FL piano roll plays music.
The project works, however, I would like to make it portable. Does anyone know a cheap and small device that could read midi commands and play them instead of using a computer? I read about synthesizers and thought about downloading a virtual instrument on a raspberry pi, but I honestly don't know much about either method.
I guess that can be done probably with older software though. What are the specs of the PI ? I mean i would actually go for a hardware synth. Chances are you will run into latency issues with a software solution. Shouldn't be to hard to find a hardware synth on Ebay for a reasonable price.
The reason software synths are so good these days is that processing power, memory & disk speed have increased to such an extend that a multipurpose machine is easily good enough tp produce pretty much any sound. Hardware synths are nearly obsolete for studio purposes.
Hey, thanks for replying.
Seems like a hardware synth is the way to go, however, there are so many to choose from.
After reading about my project do you have any reccomandations for a synth or for what properties I should search in one?
I would like the option to download specific sounds to the synthesizer if such a thing exists...
Maybe a sampler of some kind. Most synths have a way of storing patches that you create but not many will allow you to upload waveforms.
There is still a soft synth option, but what will run on a Pi ?
Well there is one more thing i like to say. Now you are probably using the Serial USB of the Leonardo, but a hardware synth will use 5-pin midi connectors, so you will have to modify your program and hardware for that. (minor detail)