Gizmo Arpeggiator etc

I recently aquired a Yamaha DX7 that needed a tiny bit of maint to bring back to working order...It cost me $1 to fix.   I got really lucky with a really nice keyboard. (the backup battery powers all the ROMS...you can replace it with a holder and coin cell battery)

So I am fiddling around with voices (or patches or specifically Sysex files).   But I am not getting enough...

Randomly I see a YouTube video about Arpeggiators...and specifically DX7 Arpeggiators.

BTW, I am not a pro musician, and I do not understand the math behind this...

So I start searching for an Arpeggiator.  I stumble upon a device that tickles my hardware hacker cockles... Gizmo.

"Gizmo is the codename for an open source MIDI utility device which targets the Arduino Uno or Mega."

Gizmo was done (as far as I can tell) as a music theory thesis.   The documentation is the thesis, so it is a bit hard to wade through...but it is all there.

It is an Arduino, with some code and a MIDI hat on top.   The code utilizes the MIDI hat switches and rheostats to control the software.

The code seems correct..but it is very challenging to wade through, so I am only going to demo the Arpeggiator function.

(I am using a Mega and the MIDI hat)

The short version is the software utilizes the midi functions of the keyboard to manipulate other keys...giving a more complex sound than would normally be generated.

So in my case (DX7), the MIDI-OUT from the keyboard goes into the MIDI-IN on the MIDI shield, and likewise the MIDI-OUT from the shield, goes to the MIDI-IN of the keyboard. (it seems to be a Yamaha thing...my MIDI USB card is wired up the same way.)

I followed the instructions...but I kept having a compiling error...I fought it for days, then realized that I had two temp files that were fouling up the process.

(wire.cpp and wire.h)

Specifically, the instructions to run the code require two edits to standard  wires files.   My solution was to search for those two files on my computer and delete the ones that weren't  the primary files.  (It will make sense when you follow the instructions).

Anyway, this is the demo...not sure why the video was suddenly so dark...but at least the audio was ok...you will notice first I do the audio without the Arpeggiator running, then with it running.