World’s SMALLEST MIDI Controller | Made with Teensy & Arduino

Today, we're building the world's SMALLEST MIDI controller using Teensy and Arduino while discussing a common struggle among musicians—the fear of missing out on the latest gear. All the parts are listed below. Regarding the FOMO part, I came across the EP-133 K.O. II, and I really wanted that thing BAD! After a few days, I decided to get a new Teensy instead. No shade on anyone who picked up the K.O. II; that thing looks amazing! But what truly excites me is creating things. Thanks for joining me on this journey!

Reminder: Please avoid touching the wires together. That part was purely for demonstration purposes. I don’t want anyone accidentally frying their board or worse.

Building Steps:
1. Download & install Teensyduino from PJRC’s website. (Use Arduino IDE for Arduino boards)
2. Download & install Teensy Loader that should be running while uploading sketches. (Teensy only)
3. Download & install the Control Surfaces & MIDI USB Libraries from GitHub.
4. Add the Libraries in Teensyduino/Arduino under Sketch - Include Library - Add ZIP Library.
5. Download the sketch for this project on GitHub.
6. Select your Board (mine is Teensy 4.0) and USB Type (MIDI) under the Tools menu.
7. Upload the sketch to your device.

The code for this project:

Helpful Links:
How to make a simple MIDI Controller with Arduino that works on iOS

Which boards are supported

Equipment:
Teensy 4.0 (with Pins)

Breadboards

Also jumper wires and buttons used

Software You Need (Teensyduino or Arduino IDE and 2 Libraries):
Arduino IDE

Teensyduino IDE

Control Surface MIDI Library:

MIDIUSB

Thanks for watching!
Nick
Moby Pixel

[mobypixel]

I still want the K.O. II, and a Juno 106, and a DX7, and a...

Thanks for watching! Links to everything in the description.

[unreal]

I love creator content that encourages us NOT to give into fomo and ever increasing Gear Acquisition Syndrome, great vid

[JakobHaq]

Great video!




Nice touch with the Lego flowers 😍

[sketchaudio]

The irony for me is that I started developing apps as a side hustle to help me pay for music gear, but now I just spend all my time coding! 😂😂😂

[LiveLoopers]

This is just the way way coolest. That teensy solo at the end should go in the book of records prossibly.

The piece of gear I have desired for quite a while is a KORG nano key studio. Which I could get used for about $90 maybe. I imagine I could prossibly make some great music with it, but lately I've been having so much fun with no controller at all.

The TE line of plastic gizmos seem so extra to me and always has.

[frodjim]

This is really cool. Might give it a try. I am looking for a way to use inno fader as a midi controller. Actually, three inno faders sending midi cc values through usb. In a reddit post someone said it was easy to do it with Teensy.

[jvburnes]

Ended up here, because I'm a musician and a software engineer. I was just going to punt and grab a MidiHub, but they do everything but implement SYSEX messages which is strange. So I'll probably build a Teensy MIDI router and *just* implement SYSEX lol. Then I'll patch a MidiHub into it -- either that or MidiHub will get off their lazy butts and allow you to send SYSEX messages to do automation.

[eross]

very cool, now can you up this build and add a way to change each button to any midi note you want? maybe an encoder for each button? so lets say i want to change the right button to a d3 midi note. i could rotate clockwise, or turn counter clockwise to move to a lower midi note? i’m not sure how. but it would be cool.

[williamsrdan]

Could an older electric keyboard, without midi outputs, be modified to be a USB midi controller? I have a Casio SA-77. The sounds on it are horrible except the wood block and laser beam... LOL.

[GreyDintZ]

2 more volcas, maybe three roland boutiques, and upgrade my td3 to MO. But seriously though, getting the S1 roland. Just cant afford the other dozen machines I want.