The Beat707 Arduino Shield

YouTube by beat707videos
http://www.beat707.com
Playlist:
The Beat707 Arduino Shield
Beat707 Showcasing
Beat707 File Mode
Beat707 Pattern Mode
Beat707 Tutorial

"Beat707 is an Arduino Shield that adds several neat features to your musical arsenal. You get a 32 step machine, with 16 step buttons and leds, LCD screen and navigation keys. It's like the classic Roland TR707 but with some twists, as it actually has 32 x 1/32 or 32 x 1/64 steps. Plus, the 2 note-step sequence feature allows you to do bass and/or synth lines -- it's a MIDI groove-box all in one ! The unit doesn't produce any sound, it's all MIDI based, so you can use any MIDI compatible device.

Beat707 is an Arduino Shield that adds several neat features to your musical arsenal. You get a 32 step machine, with 16 step buttons and leds, LCD screen and navigation keys. It's like the classic Roland TR707 but with some twists, as it actually has 32 x 1/32 or 32 x 1/64 steps. Plus, the 2 note-step sequence feature allows you to do bass and/or synth lines -- it's a MIDI groove-box all in one ! The unit doesn't produce any sound, it's all MIDI based, so you can use any MIDI compatible device.

This project is a joint collaboration between Wusik.com and Rugged Circuits. We've made a proper Arduino shield that plugs in on top of an Arduino Uno, Duemilanove, or Mega/Mega2560 (not included). The software performs all the drum machine functions, but you can always tweak it to do whatever you want (with the source code purchase). We've added EEPROM, FLASH, and expandability options and connectors.

And it's not just a drum machine: the hardware is a general-purpose MIDI development platform and playground. The awesome software from Wusik.com is what provides the drum machine functionality, but you can run any software you want on your Arduino to make use of the hardware.

Here are the project specs:
Arduino shield that plugs on top of an Arduino Uno, Duemilanove, Mega, or Mega2560
512 kbytes of FLASH (beyond what's on the Arduino)
32kbytes of EEPROM (beyond what's on the Arduino), expandable to 128kbytes by adding more EEPROM chips (total of 4 EEPROM slots)
16 buttons with LED for each button
8 buttons for control functions (intended for up, down, left, right, shift, play, stop, record)
16x2 LCD with backlight
MIDI IN and MIDI OUT interfaces
System operation at 5V or 3.3V
Designed to be compatible with Arduinos as well as Netduino and FEZ Panda

The Wusik.com drum machine software provides:
14 Drum Tracks + 2 Accent Tracks (a total of 3 MIDI-note velocities can be sent from each step)
2 Step-Sequence Tracks (each step has its own Note selection, Velocity is set by the accent tracks)
Multi Pattern and Song Mode
Number of Patterns and Songs depends on the total amount of system EEPROM -- the base system provision of 32kbytes of EEPROM has enough for 94 patterns and 99 songs positions. The included Flash Nand memory can hold up to 42 songs. (see more below)
Each pattern has 32 x 1/32 or 32 x 1/64 steps and 14 tracks + 2 accent tracks
Each track has a note-number and MIDI-channel number, so you can also use tracks to output regular notes (one note fixed per track)
Optional MIDI echo (set during compilation and uploading of the Sketch)
File Mode for storing up to 42 songs into the internal Flash. With options to Load, Save, Dump to SySex MIDI and Erase"