[sdiy] potentially dumb question - MIDI chord pedals??

[Simon Brouwer]

Hi Dave,

At 18:42 3-8-2005, you wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>
>I am wondering if there exists a pedal board that one could program to 
>send out MIDI data for playing three or four note chords, one chord per 
>pedal.  It would be laid out like a guitarist's effects pedal board, but 
>each pedal 'button' would sound a user-programmed chord via MIDI.  The use 
>would be similar to those chord buttons one finds on little Casio 
>keyboards, or on a accordion, to allow someone who is standing up playing 
>a bass or guitar to play padding chords with the feet.
>
>Does such a thing a thing exist, or would it be hard to make one (PIC, etc.) ?

You could build one using a PIC16F628 which is a popular and inexpensive PIC.
It has a hardware UART which makes implementing MIDI easy, and sufficient 
I/O pins to connect a number of pedal switches. It also has flash ROM so 
you can erase and reprogram it during development. Relatively few 
additional parts would be needed, and you could easily build it on breadboard.

The software would not have to be very complicated. Basically, it has to 
scan the buttons; when one is pressed it should send the note on commands 
for the notes in the corresponding chord, and when that key has been 
released it should send the note off commands for those notes.

I think that whether it is hard to make such a device mostly depends on 
your experience with software (PIC) programming, and how full-featured you 
want the device to be (for instance, you should think about a user friendly 
method to program the chords).


Vriendelijke groet,
Simon Brouwer.

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