Raspberry pi pico projects?

[patricks]

I've just found myself in possession of two Pi pico units, and I'm wondering what to do with them. I've looked up a few web pages and found projects for an oscilloscope using an old phone, and a stream deck for OBS, and those are at the top of the list so far but I'm wondering if anyone here has used them for music/music diy projects?

Could they be used for a multi component tester similar to the lce-t4 and lce-tc1 meters, for a MIDI to CV converter, or even a mini synth?
In the box containing the pi units there was also two DFRobot mini mp3 players, and I'm wondering whether these could be used as some sort of delay project, or even a dinky little FM or wavetable synth

[Ksander]

I have some laying around too. They have pretty good specs and may indeed work well for delay/chorus/pitch shifting/... My issues with them are that the datasheet, while extensive, is difficult to understand; programming in Python is not sufficiently precise for audio, and programming in C instead/getting VS code set-up is quite a pain too.

You can find some projects if you Google for them, but last I looked there wasn't too much documentation on them.

I would be interested to see projects here!

[patricks]

The delay/chorus/pitch shift idea sounds fun.
I haven't looked at the spec sheets yet, and don't have a lot of time to learn code enough to write from scratch (most of my projects involving code are copy-paste-modify efforts) though, so that's where it might fall down for me

[FiveseveN]

getting VS code set-up is quite a pain too

Are you not using PlatformIO?

[patricks]

A few responses from the Synth DIY Facebook group -
MIDI to USB host
PicoCore, a lofi bear mangler
EuroPi, a programmable euro rack module with multiple ins and outs
MIDI to CV keyboard
6 voice paraphonic synth
PicoSynth, a polyphonic wavetable synth

Now, what to build first? 

[ElectricDruid]

PicoCore, a lofi bear mangler

Poor bears! What did they ever do to you?!? 

[patricks]

Oh no! I love bears! 
*beat mangler

[Knobby]

That 'bear mangler' looks and sounds like fun from the demo video.

On my list of things to look at some day is using a pico to control a zoom multistomp pedal, maybe with the option of an expression pedal input to allow a selected parameter to be controlled.

[mark2]

I'm using some RP2040 modules to drive OLED screens that I'm putting into a bunch of tap tempo pedals because... no good reason. I have way too many of these screens, so it's just for amusement.

A while back I tried using them in audio pedals, but gave up eventually because the noise was too hard to tame. Maybe someday I'll go back to it, but for now I'll stick them in utility pedals.

Thanks for following up with that list of links. The pikocore and picosynth look like a lot fun!

[garcho]

Could they be used for a multi component tester similar to the lce-t4 and lce-tc1 meters, for a MIDI to CV converter, or even a mini synth?

I know it's an old thread, but just in case someone looks for this, Mozzi is an option.

[patricks]

That's a cool project! Does it work with raspberry pi as well as arduiuno?

[garcho]

Does it work with raspberry pi as well as arduiuno?

It works with the Raspberry Pi Pico board, using the Arduino platform/framework, and if you so choose, the Arduino IDE.

[garcho]

Mozzi is a little... opaque? It can be a dense forest to try and peer in to. But you can make super cool sounds!

[patricks]

Sweet, thanks! Sounds fun!

[Mick Bailey]

How does the audio compare with mozzi running in hi-fi mode on an Arduino Nano?