How do we program a sampler or looper on a microcontroller like the Daisy Seed? In this workshop we'll dive into the topic, and program a small sampler/looper with a few controls.
The Simple kit has 80 footprints for knobs, switches and sockets. You can design and build your own unique layout within a couple of hours. And, we're using the Daisy Seed microcontroller, which allows lots of sound design flexibility. It's so immediate, you'll have a sounding instrument in the first workshop day!
Let’s make a micro looper, and learn how to use buffers for recording, playing and manipulating sounds in real time on the Daisy Seed microcontroller.
Case study: Build looper with controllable loop start / length / pitch shift
In this workshop we will build a sampler/looper on the Daisy Seed microcontroller. We will be working in Arduino, using the Daisyduino, but we'll also touch on C/C++ programming topics. You can already check the code out here > Synthux Github - Daisy Sampler / Looper.
Understanding the Daisy Seed buffer
The Daisy Seed has a 64MB SDRAM chip built-in. This chip can be used to record and play our samples in real time. We'll learn how to set up the buffer and understand circular buffer basics.
Tweaking knob behaviour and mapping
How should our knobs behave? We'll learn how to define the range of the knobs, define the curve response, directional or bidirectional and more.
All you need is a computer. If you have the Daisy Seed you can install the toolchain on your machine beforehand. You can also check out the code we will be working with on this Github page.
Vlad is software engineer with over 15 years of experience. Designing software for mobile devices by day and quirky sound machines by night. Vlad is the engineer behind the Spotykach generative looper we have released at Superbooth 2023.
We will be using the synth DIY kits below during the workshop. These are not mandatory, but they make your life easier. They also allow you to build more instruments and follow other workshops in the future.