“Introduction
In this project we will build a simple USB MIDI plug-and-play breath controller. It is designed using easy to find cheap components so that the total cost remains affordable and well below commercial equivalents. This is the basic version that only uses the air pressure sensor but the plan is to upgrade it to include a bite and nod/tilt sensor in the future.
The project assumes some very basic electronics and Arduino knowledge but even a beginner can build it as there is no soldering involved. Of course more advanced users can solder everything on a perma-protoboard. I am not covering installation of the IDE/libraries and instructions to upload code as there are excellent tutorials on the internet.
Oversampling is used to smooth out the sensor’s input with very good results. You can also adjust the range to your liking and even dial in custom curves to adjust the controller’s behavior.
Since the sensor can measure negative pressure too, there is a second stream of controller messages that is output when you draw in air instead of blowing. Both types of messages can be set by the user. For example you can set blow to pitch bend up and draw in to pitch bend down. By default both are set to controller no. 2.”