Intro
This project in the Pi-Fest music technology Design Challenge aimed to create a MIDI synthesizer based on a Raspberry Pi PICO. The previous blogs covered the design build and demo of the system. (see links below) This blog is a summary, conclusion and discussion of the project. The project as published went pretty well and I am happy with the result, because the unpublished side of the project was all kinds of crazy. Crazy shipping delays (some still in transit), causing crazy morphing of project scope, crazy external events hijacking the project efforts, crazy inability to solve relatively simple problems, and generally a crazy schedule to the project. Maybe it is just me, I'm crazy...
Pico Synthesizer Project Summary
Anyway this section is a brief summary of the project that actually happened, hopefully with an abundance of pictures rather than text.
It starts with a block diagram of the system:
Followed by component selection and electronic design, and of course some firmware to get things running:
Then on to mechanical design of the enclosure:
I also spent a lot of time looking for unencumbered audio material to demonstrate the synthesizer.
Mystery Melody Medley 5
This is the final demo of the synthesizer in action - the fifth Mystery Melody Medley identification video:
Discussion
I am on a journey to bootstrap my capability to create music and audio for my blogs. This journey will involve developing several electronic audio systems, so as mentioned, cost is a factor and having a low-cost Raspberry Pi Pico in my CAD library is going to come in very handy in future projects. I am starting from a pretty basic level, which means every project involves a huge learning curve. To do this project I researched a wide range of topics, most of which have little to do with this specific build, but will be useful as I progress. As crazy as this project has been and all that I learned, I haven't even scratched the surface of music knowledge, but that is part of the attraction. That said, I am very happy with what I have learned so far and very happy to complete a working system along that road.
I would like to thank element14 and the Raspberry Pi foundation for helping me along my journey.
Relevant Links:
Blog 1 - Introduction and circuit schematic description
Blog 2 - PCB layout and manufacturing
Blog 3 - Firmware and issues
Blog 4 - Mechanical enclosure design and features
Blog 5 - Project summary and discussion
Pi-Fest Music Contest page
AY-3-8910 Datasheet
Dual Synth link
