Small keyboard project, need advise

[dennis1a4]

Hello, I want to build a small piano keyboard using the WVR. I was thinking of using some shift registers to read the keys and some GPIO for a small display and buttons. I would like to use a rotary encoder to change octaves and/or MIDI channels. 

Could I do all this with the WVR by itself, or would it make more sense to use a Arduino Uno or Teensy to handle all the keys, buttons, display, and encoder and just send MIDI commands to the WVR? Could I have a full 88 keys setup on a MIDI channel and then select one octave (the small keyboard will have limited keys) to use at a time with a rotary encoder? Maybe use an up/down button to switch between MIDI channels.

I know of MIDI but have never really used it. I've done many electronics projects so I'm not worried about the hardware part.

I found out about this cool board from Sparkfun's news letter. Really want to buy one but I want to make sure it will fit my needs first.

[WVR Audio]

This is really exactly what WVR was designed for, so you are definitely in the right place!

I would say yes, it is possible to accomplish all this with WVR.

however...

I think it would be much easier to accomplish if you were to handle the screen and other peripherals with an Uno, and use WVR just for the audio, by sending it MIDI data.

WVR is highly optimized for Audio, so the more work it does on other tasks, the less it is able to devote to processing all those 18 voices of polyphony.

There is also a learning curve with programming for ESP32, even with Arduino, with freeRTOS tasks, setting up FTDI and entering bootloader mode, getting the stack traces and logs working well, etc.. 

If you are comfortable with teensy or Uno, this is a fool proof solution, where WVR can use its stock firmware, and be very reliable.

Using midi in Arduino is not hard to learn, there are fantastic libraries to make it very intuitive.

[Dennis Letkeman]

Thanks for the quick reply. I use an ESP32 to control my chicken barn but it's all basic stuff, no OS. I'd rather let the WVR do it's thing and then I focus on an interface panel and power management with a Teensy LC.

This project is just getting started but I'm sure I'll have more questions. And I'll try and post some pictures when it gets going if people are interested. 

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[WVR Audio]

No problem!

Very excited to see what you get up to with it!

Hit us up anytime.