Let’s make a touch controlled synth with an arpeggiator. Using the MPR121 touch sensor to trigger notes. Working with Arduino and C++ classes to structure our code and design a professional touch synthesizer.
Case study: a simple touch controlled synthesizer
We'll design an arpeggiator and program a touch interface. We’ll be able to play different note sequences, change scale, arpeggiator modes, randomization, tempo, note length and latch control.
Programming the MPR121 touch sensor
How do we connect a touch sensor like the MPR121 to the Daisy Seed microcontroller? How do we program it as a controller for our synthesizer?
The Arpeggiator
In an early workshop we learned how to design and program an arpeggiator. In this workshop, we'll expand this project and add touch control capabilities.
Organizing the program code into modules/classes and communicating between them.
As the complexity of an instrument grows we use classes to organize and structure our code. As always, we will learn some C++ tricks for writing better programs.
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.
