SamplerBox is a pocket-sized sound module based on Raspberry Pi for use with MIDI devices in your bedroom, studio, or on the stage. It is completely open-source which means it is forever evolving, making it a formidable alternative to other commercial MIDI samplers and expanders on the market.

SamplerBox uses MIDI messages from a connected MIDI keyboard or device to trigger digital audio samples (wave files) which are then converted to an analogue audio signal. The software has been designed to run on Raspberry Pi single-board computers. A single-board computer is a tiny computer that contains a CPU processor, GPU, ROM, RAM, Ethernet, USB and HDMI ports. They can be programmed to do almost anything: run an operating system, operate a security system, navigate aircraft, take over the world. In the case of SamplerBox its sole purpose is to play music!

Once SamplerBox is running, it will find sample-set directories on a connected USB drive and add them to a setlist. SamplerBox will then attempt to load sample files based on a file naming convention or filenames and rules defined in a definition.txt file.

This is a rework of the original samplerbox with the best of the best of the best and... + user-Interface can be connected over serial cable (5V, GND, sda, scl, INT) - don't forget the level-shifter

• the 16x2 LCD can be connected via i2c (PCF8574)
• the buttons ban be connected via i2c + INT-pin (PCF8574)

• samples are located on a third partition mounted at /samples or on USB-flash-drive mounted at /media
• configuration is done in boot-partition
• it is possible to create multi-sample-sets with different samples/voices for each channel (see example definitions.txt)

• midi over OSC
• translated to python3

• testet and running on pi zero-w(1.1) with i2s-soundcard and usb-midi

More in-depth documentation can be found here.

Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0