How to Make an Arduino MIDI Footswitch

[@jagtone]

Nice project. You don't need separate ground leads for every footswitch, just wire them all together with a single ground lead to the board. Significantly reduces the spaghetti.

[@jasonbrooks62]

This project is something I was looking to do for myself because I'm cheap, but when you started channeling Pink Floyd in your demo, I was hooked.

[@KanePat]

Nice Pink Floyd/David Gilmour inspired playing at the end of your video. Nice job !

[@malzbiervonaldi]

YES finally!!!! I was trying to build something like this and couldn’t find that much information. THANK YOU!

[@hackershack]

That’s awesome. Glad I can help :)

[@Dan_f9]

love your projects, really wish i had the creativity you do :D
really good inspiration

[@kaiwheeler64]

Thanks for that, mine is working fine. Now I need to figure out how to plug in an analogue expression pedal.

[@ZackC]

You can read it as if it’s a potentiometer (since it is) - just wire the Arduino to a 1/4” jack where you’d otherwise connect to the pot. Expression pedals can use 1/4 cables in different ways, though, so worth testing to make sure you’re getting the expected readings.

[@Seansquatch7]

So i found your channel because i started studying how to do this on my own. And of course there is a nerd world for this!! I think i found the area of expertise i wanna level up in. I’d love to make something just like your board. My controller is simple, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Melo Audio MIDI Commander by now, well, that thing has pcb switches.. but they’re the plastic flat button, and they’re pressed by the spring switch that looks more like the switches you have there, but it was quite deceiving.. anyway, i might just gut that thing and use the box.. but then again, I’d like a project box like yours.. man this is amazing.. I’m gonna use your video for reference 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎃

[@louizou12]

Nice project !!
Teensy boards are fantastic for Audio and Midi

[@mykeadelic]

This is rad but I'm pricing it out and it's way more than $50 bucks! More like 150 from the links off the hackster post.

[@lacrapcutata]

Damn, love your project, thank you for this amazing lesson :D

[@Hakucho64]

Tip: at 7:35, if you don't have a special clamp to hold the PCB still while you're soldering things onto it, just use some blobs of Blu-Tack to hold it still.

[@slowgaffle]

Blu-Tack is pretty miraculous. Also, a glue stick and a lighter is pretty awesome too.

[@Just_lift_anyone]

Many thanks, very helpful video!
This works great for me with Live 10 but I cannot for the life of me get it to work with Reaper, or Bias FX 2 standalone.. nothing at all to do with the code or anything, I think it's the DAW and the VST being a funny buggar !

[@TehSyneS]

thanks for this!!

[@ocow5735]

Love your channel and projects; I made the drink cooler myself!

[@davidbollman5760]

love this, will be using this to convert a 2 octave organ pedal board to midi; it may make a better foot controller 4 u 2 :D

[@AGVersace100]

That's very nice!!!
Is it possible to substitute the buttons with female jacks so that I can insert my favourite sustain pedal?
What would be the process of inserting an expression pedal input?

[@daneguitarist1]

you seem like a really caring dude :) thanks for that
hopefully i can get this midi controller going since.... its a year later and we are in wave 2... unfortunately

[@minkorrh]

I specifically click this video because it said how to make an Arduino midi footswitch not a Teensy MIDI footswitch. Arduino Nanos are a couple of bucks each while those teensy boards are 35 or 40

[@Dante-420]

That sucks! But it's not too uncommon for people to use "Arduino" interchangeably with any MCU or even any general SBC projects

[@whoopsie-vf8ib]

Nice :D
You really good playing it 👍

[@andolivo]

Can you add an expression pedal to the programing tutorial, plz?

[@Hakucho64]

If you don't have access to a 3D printer, or just want a cheaper solution, simply buy 4 PCB standoffs, which are like little plastic shafts with a screw in each end. Attach them to the four corners of your PCB, remove the screws from the other end, put some super glue (or epoxy glue) on the ends of each shaft, and glue the assembly to your case where you want it. If you need to remove the PCB later, you can simply unscrew the four screws holding the PCB to each shaft.

[@ricardobarreira5665]

Pretty cool man!

[@Deebz270]

Not bad for a rush job... Though I could see with the spacing of those footswitches you were lining yourself up for a miss-stomp... I would have mounted with wider spacing and used a long peddle-board chassis instead.
But does the Arduino/Teensy have an actual MIDI out/thru port, for direct operation - without requirement for a DAW - of other MIDI compliant signal processors?

[@wesley00s]

Man, thank you so much ! really helped me

[@8stringwrshpleader]

This is exactly what I've been looking for!!! Do you think there would be a good way to integrate an expression pedal into the build? I've been wanting to buy a midi controller to use Ableton VSTs as a live guitar rig for practicing and use at church. I was also thinking about adding LEDs or maybe even small backlit LCDs to indicate what position the switches are and even what effect they're tied to. It would probably take some coding but it would be an awesome project. Your build is giving me a ton of ideas!!!

[@thewalrusdragon9579]

Yes. It’s definitely possible. I’m learning that exact thing myself right now. This video inspired me to learn to build these. I’ll try to remember if I ever get it figured out to come back and let you know…

[@adinwalls]

Hey there have you figured out how to add banks to this?

[@zapz2101]

hello sr, nice biuld, one question, did you ever try to control vst pluggings,like guitar rig, bias fx etc? im wondering if building something like your midi pedal will work for controlling my ipads apps likebias fx, dreamfoot, ableton live on my computer as well as sunday guitar on mainstage.

[@carlosclaptrix]

Thanks for the tutorial. But I was expecting a footswitch that sends ProgramChange messages. I am a musician and the Arduino is very interesting to use für USB MIDI footswitches which control patches on some hardware. Strangely I do not find any newer tutorials on devices that send PC messages.

[@cgonzt5636]

Wow you’re soldering skill, so clean. What’s the wattage of your soldering iron? I have 60w melts my wires 😆

[@steveforwarduk]

about to tackle this. I need to make 10 but have 4 on top and bottom with the end two acting as different things, bank up/down. How would I add in LED's so I can have red LEDs and then say Green LEDs for the end two?

[@flapjacksmike]

FYI, Project Housing and PCB project boards are the same links in the description.

[@hackershack]

Thanks, I’ll switch it

[@LuizFelipe-wu4es]

Hi! Im doing this exact project (just with less buttons, teensy 2.0 and a led) and I’m struggling with some problems:
- first of all when I press a button, it sends multiple midi messages at once (I tried messing with the debounce time but it doesn’t seem to help)
- second, when I press one button, my daw is receiving multiple notes ( I figured when I only press one, its like pressing 3/4 buttons at once)
-and last my led isn’t lighting up (I want it always on), does this mean I cant use led while programming in midi??
Can you please help?? Great video by the way!!!

[@hevc_h265]

Hi! Can I use you code with ESP32? I have a problem - exit status 1
Bounce.h: No such file or directory

[@arschi6554]

You must install Bounce in Arduino IDE.

[@BallooII]

Great project is possible to add a wah or expression pedal to this project

[@WilsonALO]

great toturial, why do you think that my controller is sending multiple notes per press? Im using the Teensy LC

[@yourcurtainsareugly]

I wonder what the PCB board looks like that I use to enter my PIN number into the ATM machine. Maybe I can find a PDF format diagram to look at on my LCD display.

[@TheAwesomeGuy101]

Hello, what do you mean by header pins exactly? doing this project now and I'm confuse, you said to solder to each adjacent pins except what? or all? Apologies not much familiar with electronics, just a hobby, so what pins do I not need to solder adjacently? the Ground pins and 5V??

[@massanig2292]

VERY COOL... This is going to help me make a midi controller for my Avid Eleven Rack effects processor so i can use it live in a compact design instead of the large bulky ones you can buy for big money. I would like to add an lcd to mirror what is on the Eleven racks display. How much more difficult would that be to do? What other parts would i need? Does the midi send the display info i could get an encoder to connect to a lcd? i have more to learn about the interface part but familiar with soldering and fabricating. Great video. Please keep them coming !!!!!!!!!!!!

[@brylidan]

will this work with multieffects like nux mg300 or its just a pc controller ?

[@johnmalcolm9980]

Good man

[@roiyosipovich7807]

AWESOME!
Can this be used to send MIDI via a MIDI connector to a guitar effecrs pedal? (In my case: Boss gt1000 core)
I can manage whatever HW modifications, but I don't know what interface is required..
Thanks!!

[@g43s]

ActitioN is the only brand that makes an affordable footswitch pedal, but this, this makes it look so easy, i think i might try to do it myself. the only thing thats bugging me is that i dont know if i'll be able to recreate some Launchkey controls i need, like changing Audio lanes on ableton, or basic play pause and record controls, i wanna have that baked into the controller and not setting it up everytime i change devices. any idea how you could do this?

[@samuniv987]

Awesome project. But I couldn't find teensy locally so can I use an arduino instead?

[@Just_lift_anyone]

as long as it's either a Arduino Pro Micro or Leonardo you should be fine as they support HID natively.

[@Deebz270]

4:54 - You didn't have ANY lubrication at your place? What no cooking oil? Baby oil? ... KY jelly?
Any of which would be sufficient to save the cutting edge of your drill bit.

[@bulletsandpencils]

Can you share the code with us?

[@gmsstore3105]

GREAT!! it works with a vst in reaper?

[@tritonpro7240]

Can i control in realtime a korg keyboard (expression , pitchbend etc.) by midi control change message with arduino midi footswitch and potentiometers? for example...i have a korg arranger keyboard and i want to use interface by midi CC# (control change message) to control some parameters oscilators in realtime.

[@sanyagupta4125]

hi, i’m working on building a version of one of your previous projects (the smart mirror) and just wanted to let you know that darksky is no longer accepting new members and the api will be shut down in 2021. i was just wondering how i could go about changing the code to fit another api such as openweathermap or weatherbit and what you think would be best? thanks so much, a fellow coder

[@hackershack]

I haven’t looked at either, but you could experiment with the apis to see what’s best. The code for the smart mirror is module based so you could create two modules, one for each api, to experiment

[@sanyagupta4125]

@@hackershack Thanks! I was able to implement it using OpenWeatherMap.

[@paulperold640]

Must i use Teensy bord

[@sonicallyretarded9647]

Great video! Can I mạke this controller with a Teensy 2.0?

[@nomad100hd]

How is it a midi foot switch without a midi out?

[@vijaybadgujargmail]

you better think about giving some space between those switches.

[@wilsonquevedo456]

could you do the switch pages option?

[@tpdoficial]

I need one of those. Help me.

[@manday_13]

Is this possible with arduino uno?

[@mateusabds]

where can i find this box?

[@kartman74usa]

what about to put a display?

[@jannesvanderveen2611]

Cool project. Quick question: can you use it with bias fx?

[@hackershack]

It’s standard midi interface, so should work with anything that uses midi devices

[@jannesvanderveen2611]

@@hackershack thanks. I think I'm gonna build something like this than. I was waiting for someone to make a midi footswitch that isn't like 300$ or is 50$ and only has 2 buttons.

[@JimbobZip1977Lob]

I made something quite close to this to work with guitar rig and it worked fine, but for some reason bias and THU wouldn't let me use it has it used note on/off events rather than proper midi changes. Wish I code it to change from note on/off to other usable midi changes, but can't get my head around it.

[@Just_lift_anyone]

for the life of me I cannot get any midi automation to work with bias fx or reaper for that matter

[@jakejuntilla1752]

is this possible with the teensy 2.0?

[@breakingthroughinside]

Is much easier to buy a cheap pc joystick or use a broken one, there is tutorial online

[@aditagrawal]

love your vids,
btw my name is adit and i am from india.

[@hackershack]

Thanks Adit!

[@roscius6204]

I'm late to the party here.
Can this be configured to send PC messages too

[@azmanahmad2820]

Hi i made this kind of controller too for my guitar multieffect, but how do you connect it to a non midi input laptop?? any ideas?

[@hackershack]

This project connects to a laptop through usb and can be used as a midi device

[@azmanahmad2820]

@@hackershack thanks mate

[@kirillprasolov8317]

hi bro. I ve made this project. But how to turn on/off leds for every button when pushed?

[@Just_lift_anyone]

Do you mean have an led show when the button is pressed and then go off when the button is depressed or have it stay on and off as a toggle ?

[@kirillprasolov8317]

@@Just_lift_anyone on and off as toggle. I mean first push down up is led on, second push down up led is off.

[@kirillprasolov8317]

@@Just_lift_anyone like in this video: th-cam.com/video/aMato4olzi8/w-d-xo.html

[@eugenbesson4211]

​ @Hacker Shack Will it works on Teensy 2.0?

[@hackershack]

It should

[@eugenbesson4211]

@Hacker Shack I wonder if it's possible to connect led to make sure the switch if it's on or off. How to connect such led and what I have to add to your code?

[@stephendinella2123]

CAN YOU GUYS MAKE A GOLF LAUNCH MONITOR OR A GOLF SIMULATOR PLEASE!!!

[@rigrentals5297]

Feed me more beatz

[@prat2609]

Hello... Nice video. I am having a bit of an issue with my project. I am using an Arduino Nano. Whenever I am uploading the program MIDI data is flowing continuously. I would like it to send Note Value instead of CC data. Can you please suggest where I am going wrong?
This is where you can find the code: www.mediafire.com/file/zeqyj52g87yq431/MIDI_Controller.rar/file
Any help would be very nice!

[@felipecaceres7791]

hi i was wondering if this pedal can be configured to send pc commands and work properly with archetype plini (neural dsp plugin). I am about to buy the materials but I also have the option of making a similar pedal. can you tell me if this works?. or how to modify it?.
here the link to thr plugin 14 days free:
neuraldsp.com/products/archetype-plini/

[@balmvioletsem]

Hello. Did you have a chance to build the pedal and experience it with the neural plugin? I'm thinking of doing the same and using it with the Neural plugin. Does it work with the plugin?

[@felipecaceres7791]

@@balmvioletsem Hi, i didn’t build it, i bought the Behringer FCB 1010 instead