MIDI to Speakers

1

(not sure how to ask the question because I am looking for something that I cannot name)

I have a spare MIDI controller (Korg Microkey 61) that I would like to plug to this something (maybe the Pisound) that will act like a sound generator and then go into speakers. I would prefer to have piano like samples but the quality of the sound would not matter.

I would like this setup a computer-less one (apart from the one time I need to configure the samples on this something)

Is it possible in this world?
Thanks

2

Hi,

there are several options. You can use sound generators (e.g. LV2 plugins), fluidsynth, linuxsampler, tmidity, … - but I think that there is no option for ready2go sd card images. You have to make some work by yourself.

Do you checked the sd card image of the pisound guys?

Another option is http://zynthian.org - but until the new hw revision is out, it is not working with pisound.

I made an optional mod-ui image (about 5 month old) If you want to try it, let me know!

Regards, Holger

3

Hey @C0d3man !

Thank you for your very detailed reply.

So there is a way to place a rasberry Pi between the controller and the speaker. Nice! I also found this project http://www.samplerbox.org/ (maybe too expensive)

The Zynthian looks very very interesting but quite challenging to set it all up. I am sure I would need help.

I will start by buying the rasberry pi 3 and try linuxsampler.

To be clear, I don’t need an extra sound card? I can directly use raspberry’s Audio OUT

Best,
Radu

4

You should be able to use the Raspberry’s Audio OUT, as long as you’re happy with the quality it provides. :slight_smile: You can hear some artifacts on lower software volume levels, but I think you could definitely start your project with that and upgrade your setup with an audio card later on.

5

Sorry, I have misunderstood your question a little bit, but gladly my answer matched :slight_smile:

For experimenting the onboard sound is ok, perhaps also for LoFi sounds :slight_smile:. But AFAIK it is only 12bit PWM. Note that USB MIDI may also cause some additional latency.

With a soundcard you get HiFi quality - stage compatible. (AD ON)With PiSound you get low latency MIDI and also low latency high quality audio in one card.(AD OFF)

Regards, Holger

P.S.: At Zythian we hope to create some easier to create PCBs with less cables… and then also PiSound compatible.

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