Whilst Open Sound Control (OSC) and other protocols occasionally come along to threaten MIDI as the de facto glue for music technology equipment, it’s fair to say MIDI is here to stay. This Arduino MIDI shield from Man Cave UK allows the tiny Arduino Nano to quickly be utilised for MIDI based experiments and builds.
Supplied as a kit, the contents include the PCB and components but you’ll have to supply an Arduino Nano yourself. The kit is all through hole type components which means it’s pretty friendly for those new to soldering. Once assembled you have the classic 5 pin DIN MIDI connectors for MIDI in and out as well as a collection of the Arduino GPIO pins broken out for your experiments.
You can power the kit via USB or you can directly wire in a 5V supply. In the linked documentation there are some build instructions and also links to some example sketches to get you up and running. There’s an example of a straightforward “send a MIDI note on a certain channel” sketch, but there’s also a more interesting example of a sketch that filters MIDI channels.
As a basis for MIDI experiments this kit should be easy to assemble and, due to using the Arduino Nano, won’t take up much desk space in your burgeoning MIDI studio. If you’re into digital music-making, check this nifty kit out!
