#Free drum step sequencer how to
#Free drum step sequencer mods
#Free drum step sequencer code
#Free drum step sequencer plus

btnTrigChannelX are 5 more input buttons, these are for triggering the drum sounds when you wish (a feature that IвЂ™ve not yet implemented in the code, but itвЂ™s not that tricky to work out.

I am planning in the future to replace this with a rotary switch, but this works well as it is for now.

btnChannelSelect this is the button to scroll through the different channels.

These buttons are the 8 buttons on the interface and the main part of how this sequencer works.

btnStepX are the input buttons to activate/deactivate steps on the channel selected.

A step being active means the drum sound will trigger on that step.

ledStepX is the set of red LEDs on the faceplate, these indicate which steps are active for the channel selected.

ledTrigChannelX is mimicking the OutTrigChannelX but for the LED rather than the drum trigger, just for a visual indication.

Each channel number specifying a different drum sound.

вЂ‹OutTrigChannelX is the output for when a drum sound is to be triggered.

All this is doing is sorting the inputs & outputs needed for the front panel interfacing.

Below are the schematics for all the hardware and interfacing for this project. Now for the more interesting partвЂ¦ How it all works. The 5 vertical LEDs are just standard 3mm green LEDs, but the 8 horizontal LEDs are 3mm bi-colour (red/blue) so that you can see both the step number and programmed sequence of the selected channel at a glance.ДЄfter settling on what interfacing I needed, this is the panel I made: Rhythm Stick 55 Front Panel

#Free drum step sequencer plus

More than enough for what you need to make an 8 step sequencer with 5 channels (using 1 channel for each drum sound, plus trigger LEDs, input buttons and sequencing LEDs).ДЄll the switches IвЂ™ve used are momentary switches. So I decided to use the Arduino Nano along with a couple of MCP23017 chips, this will increase the number of IO pins by 32. To begin with, I knew IвЂ™d need some I/O expander ICs as there just arenвЂ™t enough pins on the Arduino Nano, but the price for an Arduino with the right amount of pins is just ridiculous.

#Free drum step sequencer code

IвЂ™m a very very novice Arduino programmer, so the code I make does work, although to someone more experience its probably horrific.

#Free drum step sequencer how to

My choice to power the sequencer was an Arduino NanoвЂ¦ I just had to work out how to do it. Once youвЂ™re happy with the drum sounds all triggering nicely, itвЂ™s time to start on the sequencer. Once youвЂ™ve built it, itвЂ™s a good idea to test it here before you go any furtherВ вЂ“ all youвЂ™ll need is a 5v source to trigger the sound, and something to listen to the output on (you can hook the output up to a guitar amp or similar) just be careful to put the volume pretty low when you first power it upвЂ¦ Just in case thereвЂ™s a fault somewhere on the board, it might send a DC signal (or another loud noise) to the amp. IвЂ™m based in the UK so I got the parts from RS, Farnell & the rest from my stash of components! ThereвЂ™s a pretty good build guide for the PCB that Circuit Benders made so that makes it very simple to build вЂ“ the only problem is that youвЂ™ll need to source the components yourself as it doesnвЂ™t come in kit form.

#Free drum step sequencer mods

There are a couple of mods you can do to play with decay/tuning, which I havenвЂ™t got round to doing yetвЂ¦ One day! This is the one I got! And I have to say, I love the sound it makes. A few days of research later & it turns out a company called .ukВ make a replica PCB for the synthesizer part of this drum machine, they call it the CB-55 вЂ“ you can get it here on eBay. But that wasnвЂ™t an issue for me, seeing as I was planning to build an arduino powered sequencer (more on that in a bit). I wanted something a bit more interesting than the (in my probably controversial opinion) overused and quite bland 808 sound.ДЄfter going through eBay looking at vintage drum machines for inspiration, I found the Boss DR-55вЂ¦ Apparently reknowned for itвЂ™s hard-to-use built in sequencer. Trawling through hours and hours of YouTube videos and websites with incomplete schematics, I found it hard to find one that fitted my needs. IвЂ™d been looking for a good sounding drum synthesizer schematic for a while with not much luck.