The Auto Adlib for Lonely Rappers

My objective for this project was to make a simple sample pad that I could attach to my mic when I perform.

I started this project by making sure I could get the buttons to work. I used the Arduino button patcher found here to get me started. Next, since I'm much more comfortable in Max, I wanted to make the buttons trigger something in Max. I worked off of Gary Scavone's arduino_midiin patch, and was able to make the buttons trigger MIDI notes in Arduino. Since I didn't want a midi note, I just wanted samples, I took out the midiout object and replaced it with a some if statements. The numbers for the if statements are somewhat arbitrary as they just correspond to MIDI messages that are easily changeable. If I were to work more on this project, I would make the Arduino to Max connection more graceful.

Below is my code for both the Max and Arduino sections of my project. As you can see, there were 4 buttons when I started, but one of the buttons was faulty so I took it out, but I kept the code in just in case I find a button that works.

Here is a picture of my final Arduino. If I were to make one again, I'd probably buy some better buttons and make a box for them so I could get to the buttons without going through a forest of wires. I'd also like to solder the wires because the auto-adlib is very hard to use without pushing a wire out of place.

Here is a video of the Auto Adlib in action!

I achieved my goal of making a sample pad, but there are still improvements to be made. I'd like to make it:

  • easier to load samples
  • more compatible for different samples
  • easier to transport
  • connect with Ableton
  • have more buttons