MacroPad RP2040 MIDI

Introduction

You can buy MacroPad on the official Adafruit store.

Disclaimer

I do not earn anything from this post or from whether or not you buy anything from the Adafruit website. All the articles on my blog are written for the love of open source.

This blog post will allow you to make the MacroPad work as a MIDI device.

Code

Embedded📂 adafruit/macropad-rp2040/midi

00-note-on-off/code.py

code.py

"""
Note On & Note Off
macropad.NoteOn() and macropad.NoteOff() functions takes the follwing parameters:
- note: The note (key) number either as an int (0-127) or a string which is parsed, e.g. "C4" (middle C) is 60, "A4" is 69.
- velocity: The strike velocity, 0-127, 0 is equivalent to a Note Off, defaults to 127.
"""

import time
from adafruit_macropad import MacroPad

macropad = MacroPad()

while True:
    print("NoteOn/NoteOff MIDI using note number")
    macropad.midi.send(macropad.NoteOn(44, 127))
    time.sleep(0.5)
    macropad.midi.send(macropad.NoteOff(44, 0))
    time.sleep(1)

📂 adafruit/macropad-rp2040/midi/00-note-on-off/code.pyView on GitLab ↗

01-full-octave-pad/code.py

code.py

"""
Full Octave Pad
macropad.NoteOn() and macropad.NoteOff() functions takes the follwing parameters:
- note: The note (key) number either as an int (0-127) or a string which is parsed, e.g. "C4" (middle C) is 60, "A4" is 69.
- velocity: The strike velocity, 0-127, 0 is equivalent to a Note Off, defaults to 127.
"""
from adafruit_macropad import MacroPad

macropad = MacroPad()

# associate each key with this variable plus the key number (0 to 11)
START_NOTE = 48 # C3
first_key_note = START_NOTE

while True:
    key_event = macropad.keys.events.get()
    if key_event:
        note = first_key_note + key_event.key_number
        if key_event.pressed:
            print(f"{note} note on")
            macropad.midi.send(macropad.NoteOn(note, 127))
        elif key_event.released:
            print(f"{note} note off")
            macropad.midi.send(macropad.NoteOff(note, 0))

    # increase or dicrease octave based on encoder
    new_starting_value = START_NOTE + (macropad.encoder * 12)

    # this bound are set becase the first parameter of
    # macropad.NoteOn() and macropad.NoteOff() must be
    # an integer from 0 to 127
    if new_starting_value >= 0 and new_starting_value <= 115:
        first_key_note = new_starting_value

📂 adafruit/macropad-rp2040/midi/01-full-octave-pad/code.pyView on GitLab ↗

When using the MacroPad as MIDI device, please refer to the following midi documentation APIs.

Both the sub-project will send MIDI notes, so you need a software that is capable of receiving the incoming MIDI information: try online MIDI piano.