Le Bidule is an open source firmware for Arduino, with ideas and schematics for a versatile electronic wind instrument :

synthesizer with three tunable oscillators, vibrato, portamento, mixable square, pwm, pulse & noise waves, and some behaviour options.

usb midi thanks to a Systole modified MocoLUFA firmware for Arduino UNO. For other devices, a Serial-to-Midi utility is available on Linux, MacOS, Windows and Android. It can also drive Bluetooth Serial or MIDI emitters.

power by usb, dc jack, battery, solar panel...

sure [systole universal remote] is a robust protocol which gives you access to all the settings via your web browser.

it's easy to build and enhance

tactile keys up to 13, made of simple wires or any metal piece like drawing pins. Make your own fingering, customize midi note and cent pitch for each combination. Use switches instead of tactile keys if you want, and adapt to real instruments or mechanical parts for example.

speaker output that can drive directly loudspeakers, piezos, spring reverb, even contact speaker on the instrument to feel the music's vibration. No other component needed.

breath control is an option, added with a single component, but you can play "Le Bidule" directly without blowing, as with a bag pipe.

line output for any amp, fx pedal, or FM emitter. It just needs a germanium diode and an audio jack plug for the basic output. Then add a potentiometer for the volume, or a condenser for filtering.

hardware midi out with two resistors and a Midi socket.

enveloppe & volume control with a led and a photoresistor.

give a second life to an old smartphone pluging it to "Le Bidule" and using it as

- a battery
- a virtual synthesizer
- a digital stompbox
- a Bluetooth MIDI emitter
- a Bluetooth Audio emitter
- a preset editor
- a playback device to play over your favorite tracks...

the original Bidule prototype

There are a lot of commercial midi controllers all over the world nowadays, but we, at the Systole Company, think that electronic tools should be built and modified easily, with few parts, few plastic, at low cost, and be open source to ensure some sustainability. Thus, there will be no problem to repair it in a few years, more comprehension of your instrument and how synthesis and MIDI work, less reliance on music industry... The purpose is also for you to understand better electronic music and to keep your money to buy hand made acoustic instruments or achieve any projects.

"I play Le Bidule a lot with Rhizottome, since my good old Casio DH100 left me. I begun with rebuilding the electronic inside with an Arduino, and cutted the mouthpiece and the speaker in order to put it easily in my touring bag. As it has been totally broken, I decided to build one from scratch. I had to move from switches, which are the more efficient but much more complex to install, to capacitive keys and auto-calibrating keyboard with very few parts needed : some drawing pins. No expensive card, nothing to solder if you want a simple e-bagpipe, just some pins, wires and the naked Arduino which has become a great standard as MIDI did.
It gives us a very responsive and quick-to-build tool : Le Bidule." - Matthieu Metzger

I wanna build my Bidule !

Download (firmware & software)
Build instructions
User Manual

... not yet but soon ...

I wanna get a Bidule !

... brand new Bidule, or five minutes kit ...
not yet, unfortunately

getting started & user manual