Arduino and LadyAda Wave Shield

I’ve been messing around with my fantastic Arduino board.  The whole Arduino thing is without question an Italian masterpiece of our generation.  I could spend 24 hours a day just messing with it.  The software side is as elegant as the hardware side – the idea you can add C++ and Java libs is stunningly brilliant.

Anyways – I wanted to do something with it – and I decided I wanted to build a simple SFX box for my little rock band.  We use sequencers and MIDI – but I wanted to do AC/DC’s For those about to rock.  The song has some nice cannon fire effects and this really has to be in the mix for a live performance.  So I thought that if the Arduino can be used.  I’ll be doing a more complex project later using Arduino to drive MIDI for live performance.

So I bought a kit for a the Wave Shield from AdaFruit – very very good business that – and sampled some effects.  I then put together a new app based on  the supplied player code on the AdaFruit site – hooked up a couple of footswitches on the Arduino and thats it – super fast special effects in WAV format – for the AC/DC song – some nice real cannon fires.  Hook it all up to the PA and boom.. nice.

This is the Arduino with a Wave Shield all hooked up in test

Footswitch found in dump… RS good quality – works well on stage

Buy the Arduino at RS Components and get the Wave Shield and info at www.adafruit.com/waveshield.  Get the footswitch at your local tip/dump/junkyard/scrapyard