When programming Arduinos, the output of the tone() command leaves a lot to be desired! It’s OK for basic beeps and boops, but making more musical sounds with an Arduino can be surprisingly difficult. While it’s possible to make stand-alone synthesizers, effects, and other musical inventions with Arudinos, there unique challenges.

For the last year, I’ve been working directly with Arduino to think through how they might better support audio on their platform with new products and software. Those don’t exist yet, but in this session, I’ll share some of the research I’ve done as part of that work. I’ll help you understand the specific challenges to doing real-time audio on microcontrollers, and look at some next-level libraries that can add more musical options to your projects. We’ll also look at some non-Arduino alternatives that are good for sound.

This session will be a relatively high-level overview of the Arduino audio space. Folks with no prior experience will get a head start adding sound to their projects; experienced audiophiles might learn some new options and can share their expertise with the group.