Playing a MIDI keyboard in node-red

While likely not originally designed for typical IoT platforms, it is possible to play a MIDI keyboard in node-red via the GUI dashboard using a relatively simple setup.

For this somewhat unusual exercise, you will need:

- A Rasbperry Pi (can do this on a desktop platform, but whats the fun in that?)
- A USB-MIDI capable Keyboard. (You can use a USB-MIDI adapter with an older MIDI keyboard without USB of course)
- Install of the most recent node-red, with the dashboard. The only additional node you'll need is node-red-midi.

For further details check out the detailed writeup here.

Here's what it looks like in action. The computer monitor shows the flow as well as dashboard UI. Excuse my rats nest under the desk.

Some neat features:

- Works on any platform in the browser

- Allows concurrent connections, so more than one person can play with it at the same time on different devices 

Some obvious limits I can think of:

- limited UI from node-red-dashboard for this purpose; a row of buttons is not a great interface for an instrument

- multi-touch

- not tested for performance (latency, etc).

Next step: hooking up some music to the plant moisture sensor!

Jeux d’orgues on iPad with Yamaha CP33

Jeux d'orgues is a neat application that contains a number of French organ samples (link here). There's also an iOS version and Android version (called Opus 1). Using a class compliant USB-MIDI adapter or alternatively directly connecting to the USB-MIDI port, it is possible to play the instrument using external controllers.

Here we see it in action with my Yamaha CP-33. The neat thing is the app supports MIDI CC/PC mappings to trigger different stops, which means I can change them using the built in patch keys of the keyboard!