Start: 9:45

• The Music instrument shield for Arduino (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10587) came today.
• It uses two digital pins so it should be possible to control multiple midi shields with one arduino.
• The demos for the shield, use the NewSoftSerial library.  This class allows for easy serial communication through any of the digital pins instead of just certain ones.
• Once it was wired, I hooked it up directly to the high watt amplifier.  The signal is a bit weak and I had to turn up the amplifier very high to get an audible sound.  The sound that was produced was very clear.
• Hooking it to the 1W pre-amp should help with the volume issue as well as adding decoupling capcitors between teh amp and the midi board should eliminate the static hum.
• The midi board produces stereo sound.  Since each finger only requires mono it may be possible to control each channel individually and use one board for two fingers.
• Volume control may be better controlled at the midi chip with the pre-amp giving it a steady amplification.  I will have to try it once everything is set up to work with the pre-amp.

End: 6:00