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| Stand-Alone BuzzKill Board | BuzzKill Mounted on Arduino Uno |
BuzzKill is an open-source sound effects generator board. It can create complex sounds, play music, and even emulate human speech.
Please note: this is not an audio playback board. Although it can easily be used to play pre-made sounds, it operates by dynamically creating sounds according to specified parameters. If you are looking for a board that stores audio files or plays .WAV or .MP3 files, this is not the board for you.
BuzzKill is most useful as a peripheral for a microcontroller. Using either an I2C or SPI interface, a controller can send commands to produce an infinite variety of sounds. Essentially, BuzzKill acts as a compact musical instrument producing sounds on demand. It contains a full-featured additive synthesizer, capable of emulating an assortment of instrument sounds or creating totally new ones.
BuzzKill contains:
- 4 audible oscillators
- 4 modulation oscillators
- 7 pre-defined waveforms
- Custom waveform for arbitrary shapes
- 4 ADSR envelope generators
- Patch system for dynamically-changing sounds
- A rudimentary speech synthesizer
- Built-in amplifier with direct speaker outputs
| Short Demo Medley | Detailed Prototype Intro | More Prototype Details |
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BuzzKill can interact with virtually any controlling device using either an SPI or I2C interface. It can even mount directly onto many Arduino models, with no soldering required.
BuzzKill is designed to be extremely cost-effective, with a cost only slight higher than a simple amplifier board would be. Total cost of parts (PCB and components) should be less than $10 USD, even in single quantities. Of course this doesn't include certain general supplies and tooling, most importantly an AVR-compatible UPDI programmer.
If we are able to partner with an open-source hardware manufacturer/supplier, we may be able to make a fully-assembled version available for $10 or less!
- Hardware Guide -- Quick guide for proper hardware connections
- User Guide -- Detailed guide to complete operations
Constructing a BuzzKill board for yourself consists of three phases:
- Fabricating the PCB. You can upload the provided Gerber files to any number of board fabrication houses.
- Assembling the PCB. The board is fairly simple to reflow solder with no special equipment.
- Flashing the firmware. You can directly use the provided binary file or assemble your own from source.
For more details, please read the Hardware Notes and Firmware Notes.
A complete Arduino library is available at BuzzKill-Arduino-Library.
Copyright (c) 2025 Todd E. Stidham
Shared under MIT license. See LICENSE for additional details.