FPGA MIDI Music Synthesizer -- Episode 388

The sound module can't play sound effects that way, at least not without reprogramming it. It can only do periodic waveforms. If you want to go with actual hardware, you could try a sampler or rompler, but I think a lot of people today use VST plug-ins instead.

If you do get interested in trying FM synthesis, this blog by Shabaz is worth a read.

Sound Synthesis and the Billion Dollar Paper

Absolutely, yes! If you are in the US like me, you can order the parts in the Bill of Materials above from newark.com. Otherwise farnell.com.

Adafruit parts can be ordered directly from their site or elsewhere. The MIDI board can be found at ubld.it.

There are a couple of additional parts I forgot to add: male-to-female jumper wires and a MIDI cable. And of course you'll need a MIDI instrument or sequencer or something. And speakers / headphones.

If you have any questions problems, please feel free to ask and I'll try to help.

Andy, to play around with the project, are the parts needed available on element 14??

And to add to that would i be able to get it direct from e14 or would I need to see if a retailer stocks the required parts?

Just getting back into helping local amateur dramatics society with lighting and sound. Aim to build one of these, Midi keyboard ideal for sound effects, i.e. gunshot, breaking glass, door creaking etc. Assigning a sound effect to each key and you can deliver it precisely on cue.  

Cheers

Steve

Very cool project.

I have always wondered about MIDI formats and use, so I found this episode very interesting.

Well done.

DAB

I'm no expert so it's hard to say, but it looks like you'd need to add a filter, maybe using an FFT or similar? FM synthesis (and most of the other types) were too complicated for this project, at least for me.

I’ve always wanted to learn how to understand the midi specification, considering I prefer the old school way of making music using hardware synths over soft synths.

Personally if I had the time, I would work on my own variation using older style FM synthesis or MT-32 style LA synthesis.  Actually with the current wave table how hard would it be to do LA synthesis on the same lines as a MT-32?

Yeah, there's lots of things I'd like to add. Polyphony, pitch bending, velocity, and so many cool effects are possible. Oh, and ADSR envelopes, definitely.

celcius1 how would you expand it?