Thanks for your kind comments - much appreciated.

Hi - thanks for your kind comments - very glad you found it useful.

Hi Jerry, I guess you would have to send serial information to the board using a microcontroller to control the mp3 player and what it plays, just as the PC is doing at the moment - I haven't really looked into this. I have just bought an ESP32 module and busy writing code for a Moog type polyphonic synth - this chip is very fast, very powerful and extremely cheap - I think the module was around £7 in the UK including postage! Good luck with your endeavours.

Hi Kris, thank you for your interest and kind comments - I'm very glad the video helped.

Hi there, thanks for the feedback and glad to hear you succeeded - also thanks for the nice comments.

Thanks Wesley.

Thanks for the feedback - good to hear of people's success.

Thanks very much!

Many thanks philphi.

Not sure quite how to take that ...... thanks, I think!

@@mikerainbow One of the greatest actors and movies ever. So yes a compliment!

@@mikelee1906 This isn't Anthony Hopkins you nutter, he does have that same fine smooth tone to his voice though.

Thanks very much.

Many thanks Alexander.

Thanks very much for your comments - the schematic with component values is at the link above but as this was just a one off project on stripboard I'm afraid there are no other construction details. There is enough info to construct the project but I can understand that it might be a bit difficult for someone with no previous experience.

Hi - thanks for your comments - yes, a few people had done this before me but I thought I would document it anyway to help others.

Hi - sorry I don't know anything about the ALC850 audio codec chip - never used them. Regards, Mike.

@@mikerainbow thx and have a good time !

Thanks for looking.

The VS1053 accepts all standard MIDI messages sent to it from another device such as a MIDI keyboard or PC.To select any of the 128 instruments you have to send an instrument change message and instrument number. You will have to read up on MIDI messages and how to send them.

Hi - these are still the only reasonably priced modules and you can't connect usb directly to these boards - would have to do it through a usb compatible PIC or an arduino nano/uno etc.

@@mikerainbow hi thanks, you mentioned sam2195, do they have better sound quality, and are they still general midi?.

The sam2195/2695 have much better instrument sounds and are GM but I encourage you to do your own research - there is loads of info on line. @@100roberthenry

Hi Andy - yes, thanks for that - it is indeed an error which I picked up and corrected on the schematic in the link above - I also added a note above in the title comments. Sorry about this.

@@mikerainbow Sorry, I should have clicked on 'Show More' before commenting. I have the green board VS1053, presumably I still need to connect the MIDI input directly to pin 26?

@@andyfraser5876 I'm pretty sure the green board you have is the same as the blue board which I made a comment on below to Roberto Lonoce - hope this helps.

Hi Steve, thanks for your comments - I mentioned the option of tying these pins to ground but as I was trying to keep the mods as simple as possible, and as there appeared to be no adverse affects, I decided to leave them floating in my application.

Actually the data sheet also suggest to set the EarSpeaker configuration to "extreme" to improve generated sounds. That should apply to the midi player, I guess??

Hi - thanks for your interest. Sorry, I'm not sure I understand your question.

i actually just want inputs from a colour sensor to be read as midi and sent to my computer,, do you think its possible? im really new to this 🥺

Hi Jesus, thanks for your kind comment - as far as I know sf2 files are not possible - I have looked through the manual and it looks like only the built-in instrument wave files are accessible. The VS1053 is a very low budget chip and these extra facilities are just not available - wish they were because the built-in wave files are not all that great but for the price they are still pretty good.

Thanks!

Hi Chris, thanks very much for the comment. I would really try and avoid attaching to pin 25 as it is a general purpose IO as well as part of the I2S DAC interface. If it is configured as an output on power up then this would drag down the MIDI messages coming in to pin 26. On the other hand configured as an input may be OK but I wouldn't take the chance. Hope this is helpful.

Hi - sorry, I haven't looked into playing mp3 files on this chip, so don't know much about it except what is available in the data sheet.

@mikerainbow thank you so much for you

@mikerainbow can tell me any library use it #include "any.h"

The module has MIDI input so all (most) MIDI messages are recognised and acted upon - MIDI note on/off messages from a MIDI keyboard, controller, sequencer or other device plays notes - and to change instruments you have to send instrument change messages from another device to select one of the 128 MIDI instruments or drum sounds. I used the MIDI keyboard shown in the video to change instruments. In other videos I use a microcontroller to do this. Hope this answers your question.

Hi alexis1911, thanks for the positive feedback, much appreciated. I'm not sure what you mean by "midi recording". If you mean receiving and processing midi messages then most pic's with a serial port will do so with ease. Whether it's an 8, 16 or 32 bit device it just has to be able to receive serial input at 31250 baud. It also depends on what you want to do with the midi messages once you have received them. Hope this is helpful.

@@mikerainbow Hi Mike, thank you so much for taking time to answer. I'm trying to build a real time multitrack midi recording device. All music tracks messages should be recorded track by track. It meens that the device has to be able to play recorded tracks in the same time that it records the new one. So, I wonder if a pic is adapted to that project. (sorry for my poor english, I'm french). Thanks a lot. Alex

@@alexis1911 Hi Alex, your English is excellent. If you are receiving a single midi stream containing multiple midi instrument tracks, which is normally the case, then it is fairly straight forward to analyse the midi stream and separate the midi data for each track and then do something with it - for instance save the data to SD card. The trick is in writing some decent software to do this. It is also possible to simultaneously re-send some or all the midi data on a serial TX pin. I think you could actually achieve all this on an 8 bit device running at 20MHz or higher. If you are into any of the 32 bit range then the process becomes a lot easier although all of these things depends on your ability to program the device in C. Likewise the speed you need on an 8 bit PIC requires programming in assembly or C. The trouble with PIC's is the vast range of devices available.

@@mikerainbow Thank you so much for your answer Mike. I guess I'll go for a 32 bit with a maximum of memory in order to acheave the process consisting on recording a single instrument track and, in the same time, playing the previously recorded ones. I guess that using memory then recording the all "song" on a SD will be more efficient than trying to read and write in the same time on a SD...

Thanks Roberto, as far as I remember pin 34, which goes to a 100k resistor on the red pcb, is tied to the 3v supply rail on the blue module - so it is necessary to cut the print, make sure the pin is isolated and then attach a 100k resistor as described for the red module. The print to pin 26 must still be cut and connected as on the red module and pins 9 and 10 must be pulled low - sorry to be a bit vague but I have misplaced my blue module and relying on memory.

theDaftman Hi, yes it will play whatever is sent to it with the correct midi instruments and drum track. The demo on my video of "Whiter shade of pale" was sent from my pc as a normal midi file directly into the module. Hope this helps.

Hi Alban, thanks for the nice comments. The waveform samples of 128 instrument/drum sounds are stored within the chip in ROM and can't be changed. I think the SD card can be used to store mp3 files for playback although I didn't use this facility. Also there are limited capabilities to change effects like reverb, pan, sustain etc. The best thing would be to do a search for the VS1053b datasheet which gives loads of info. Also search for VS1053 chinese module schematics because this info is available though there doesn't seem to be any details on how to use these modules. Hope this is helpful.

@@mikerainbow It's really helpful, thank you ! First I'll go through the dac process with manual sine waves (+some harmonics) for personal education purpose, but I may use a VS1053 or similar solution because the generation of the sound itself is not the main goal of my project (it's recognizing musical hook patterns and improvise on it based on simple music harmony rules). Thanks for the pointers :)

@UC4Dbvg8rrcuBwUPrwDJY6Zg also about VS1053, there are patent/proprietary issues as described in the license chapter of this document www.vlsi.fi/fileadmin/datasheets/vs1053.pdf. I would like to avoid dealing with them, my project shall be the more free (as in freedom) possible :)

Hi, I don't know where you are located but here in the UK several FM synth IC's are available on Ebay - YM2413, YM2612/3438, YM2151(which needs a DAC) and a few others. They cost around £5 including postage and are even cheaper direct from China including postage. They are NOS but there are still loads of them available.

@@mikerainbow Got it working with a YM2413. Thank you Mike!

@@siniorgolazo Very pleased to hear that you were successful!

Hi, thanks for the nice comments. I've been working on just such a project because as you rightly say, there is no reasonably priced solution. I've been developing a program using the ESP32 module which is very cheap and very powerful. Lots of projects on YT using this device and even a sampling midi project but it is quite complicated and difficult to implement. So I will publish my project when finished, which, hopefully, will be cheap, effective and simple to build.

@@mikerainbow Excellent work sir, thanks for your reply, I look forward to seeing any future projects you have on this subject. 🍻

Hi Marius, if you use a 5 pin din midi input you must use the opto-isolator circuit but if using 5 volt ttl levels you must use a suitable resistor divider to ensure no more than 3.3 volts goes to pin 26 of the VS1053. You should still use a 220 ohm resistor in series to pin 26 if using 3.3 volt ttl levels - hope this helps.

Hi - thanks for viewing - I haven't looked at these chips for some years so probably best to google it.

It is theoretically possible to use a small speaker but the earphone output is designed for an impedance of 30 ohms and 16 ohms absolute minimum - so you need to bear this in mind. I would be happier to feed the earphone output into a small stereo amp module which is designed to drive proper speakers, small or otherwise. Also you could use a small battery powered guitar practice amp - you know the ones that clip on the guitar or on your belt. Hope this is helpful.

@@mikerainbow Thanks. Yeah I figured about the impedance. I could connect my smoothhound wireless I guess. It's mono and 1/4", so I would need to replace the 3.5mm for a bigger socket.

Hi Sanjeev, thanks very much - the same MIDI messages that are sent to the module to play different notes are used to select different instruments or effects. Any midi keyboard, controller or instrument can be used to select different instrument sounds as well as play notes.

@@mikerainbow Thanks Mike. I've ordered a couple and will have a go at this.

Hi Dave, thank you for your kind comment - as I'm well into retirement now I'm not really making stuff anymore and it's not really economical to build something like this project for someone else - besides you would probably be better off buying something like the Midiplus sound module off ebay which is very reasonably priced. But thank you for your interest. Mike

@@mikerainbow Thank you for you reply I appreciate your comments and fully understand. Enjoy your retirement as I am (76) and look after yourself in these uncertain times.

haha - I don't know if that's a good enough reason but thanks anyway.

Hi, no, there is no discernible delay. I ordered my modules on ebay here in the UK and they arrived within 2 or 3 weeks, which is about normal here. I guess it depends on who you order through and how good the postal system is between source and destination.

Hi there, thanks for the nice comment - there is no code - it was all done with hardware mods to the VS1053 board.

@@mikerainbow Oh,really?Mike,that's okay.Appreciate your work.Keep on!

@@mikerainbow If so ,can you teach me how to switch the tone with hardware mods?

@@kwongfaiyeung760 Sorry, I haven't done much with this board apart from getting it to work with MIDI so I haven't really looked into hardware mods and hacks - I think the VS1053 datasheet would tell you everything you need to know.

@@mikerainbow Alright,thanks a lot again for your patient reply!Good luck!

Thanks - there's no perceptible latency.

Hi Rene, yes it is quite feasible to program the firmware and send midi messages via the SPI interface on the VS1053 but then you would have to use a microcontroller to translate the standard MIDI signal (UART 31250Hz) to SPI data and you're back to square one with complexity. I wanted a simple low-cost circuit that would accept standard MIDI signals from a keyboard or other device via 5 pin din lead without the need for a PC or other interface. Hope this answers your question.

I was able to make that "red" module work with Arduino even without hardware hacks with this program: gist.githubusercontent.com/microtherion/2636608/raw/8158bd473fd51322adb59a208fade25caa7b8d26/MP3_Shield_RealtimeMIDI.ino. Just do the full wiring as mentioned in the sketch (including SPI) and set USE_GPIO_INIT to 0 and USE_SPI_MIDI to 1.

Hi - sorry, I'm not sure I understand your question - what files are you talking about?

audio file @@mikerainbow

These VS1053 modules can stream mp3 and wav audio files from an sd card and the number depends on the size of the sd card. I haven't tried this so don't know much about it. I have only used the modules for accessing the on-board midi instruments. @@rathannaik1220

Ok thanks for your kind information 😌😌

Hi, thanks for your interest and for posting your solution - yes there are a few different ways of doing this but I decided to try and keep to the recommendations in the VS1053b data sheet.

All the instrument sounds as well as notes, effects etc are selected in the normal midi way by sending midi instrument change messages to the module using a midi keyboard or controller of some sort. Hope this answers your question.

wow.. I get it, it looks really great! Thank you very much🙏 You could give me please your contact, I need a hand for the development of my project

@@oneKazama I would be happy to help you with any questions but I am hesitant to post my email details here - I'm not sure you are allowed to?

@@mikerainbow thank you so much Mike! I send you a friend request on fb

Hi Martin, thanks for your comments - I was trying to avoid using another micro such as the arduino and SPI to get this working as a completely stand-alone unit - hence the hardware hacks.

Been trying all sorts on my 2x white ElecFreaks/Freeduino boards. Your tip of reversing the commands values finally produced sound! Many Thanks. Have a great Christmas and New Year :)

Yes - I think the clue is in the description on their website: "Do you like rough, low end midi chip sound ? Do you feel adventurous ? Do you like cheap and quirky, both in sound and in price ? Here's the McFly board, back from the future of the 80's. This board uses the VS1053 chip, which has limited general midi capabilities. Expect imperfection and artefacts, and unexpected sounds !"