IM-UH 3116 — NYU Abu Dhabi
An introduction to building custom musical instruments and controllers. Students design and build hardware devices that generate sound and communicate with software over MIDI, using microcontrollers, sensors, and physical interfaces.
The class kit includes an Adafruit ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Feather, a NeoKey 1x4 button pad, and a NeoSlider — programmed in CircuitPython and connected to the browser or a DAW over USB MIDI.
Four browser-based examples showing how to receive MIDI in the browser with WebMIDI.js and visualize it with p5.js — from a basic MIDI monitor to a particle system driven by notes and control changes. Includes tips on using AI to generate similar projects.
A CircuitPython firmware that turns the class kit into a custom MIDI clip launcher for Loopy Pro. Buttons trigger clips, the slider sends a CC, and the LEDs follow what Loopy Pro is actually playing — with bidirectional MIDI feedback.