Arduino Audioterror is a DIY synthesizer consisting of a 4-track step sequencer for samples and an FM synthesizer module. It was developed in collaboration with Daniel Fontes as part of a study work on the course “Interaction” by Professor Thomas Rist at the HS Augsburg.
The main focus of the work are hardware-related programming and sound design, as well as electrotechnical experiments. The “Audioterror” project is devoted to exploiting the possibilities of the Arduino prototyping board to the fullest extent and to explore its limitations with regard to usability for audio projects.
To realize a moderate audio output quality, we built a 8-bit DAC through a R-2R resistor ladder. Samples were downsampled to a mono 22kHz resolution and mapped to 8-bit integer values which saves space on Arduino’s small memory. The values are realtime processed to float for the DAC output.