A stompbox is a rustic wooden box with piezo pickups that guitar players tap their foot on to get some thumpy rhythm backing sounds. The StompByte uses rustic 8-bit energy to play some surprisingly hefty kickdrum sounds, plus handclaps, a tambourine, some video game sounds, and even simple rhythm patterns. Runs off a 9-Volt battery or AC adapter.
Stomping the button triggers a sound. Holding the button for two seconds switches to the next sound/pattern. Patterns play a step with each press and release of the button. There are 10 samples and 3 patterns:
- muted kick
- rock kick
- tr808 kick
- woodblock
- cross stick
- tambourine
- handclap
- 8bit bump
- 8bit fireball
- 8bit jump
- pattern: rock kick – woodblock – tambourine – woodblock
- pattern: tr808 kick – tambourine – handclap – tambourine
- pattern: 8bit bonk – 8bit fireball – 8bit jump – 8bit fireball
The sound is produced by an ATMega328p microcontroller, the same MCU as the Arduino Uno. The audio signal from the pins goes directly to the TRS audio jack - all the rest of the components are just power and timing for the MCU. To change the sounds or patterns, modify the code and re-flash the MCU. One method for flashing using a Raspberry Pi is described in the github repository.
