Scratch boom-box

Step 1: Make it

What is it?

Make your own sound machine using the micro:bit’s buttons and accelerometer.

How it works

• Like the Scratch theremin project this uses the accelerometer to measure the angle of tilt to make sounds lower and higher in pitch.
• Instead of using a ‘forever’ loop to play a constant sound, this project plays two different beatbox sounds on your computer’s audio output when you press micro:bit input button A or button B.

What you need

• micro:bit and optional battery pack
• a suitable computer with Scratch link installed. See https://scratch.mit.edu/microbit for details on how to get Scratch working with micro:bit

Step 2: Code it

Scratch

Open in Scratch

Download project

Step 3: Improve it

• Change the boom-box sounds or add others from Scratch’s sound library.
• Record your own sounds, trigger them with button presses and change their pitch by tilting.
• Use sequences of notes to play different tunes when you press different buttons.