Choosing a midi in, sound out synth chip

[Max Power]

I'm looking for a midi synth chip to add to my (picbasic) cap sensor piano project. Anybody have a favorite that is readily available? So far, I've found:
CS9236
Vs1103
And the
ATSAM2195

The vs1103 from spark fun seems to be the current front runner due to it's availability, but maybe someone know something I don't..

[Max Power]

Hello. Here is an update.

I bought the VS1103 breakout board from sparkfun. I hooked up power, ground, and the Midi Uart data going into the chip. and...nothing. then the project sat, and sat, for just about a year. Then, earlier this week I put some time into it and I finally got it working as a midi synth. (!!!!)

I was using AnalogVDD to pullup the GPIO, instead of DigitalVDD, and I had neglected the reset pin and the chip select pin. And I had my headphone ground tied to circuit ground, instead of the pin that is should be tied to. Once all those things were fixed, it started producing tones.

now, here is my current dilemma, maybe someone with more midi experience than me can help. the datasheet shows a table full of all sorts of instruments:
"VS1103b Melodic Intruments (GM1)" and they go from 1 - 128
then there is another table
"VS1103b Percussion Intruments (GM1+GM2)" and they go from 27 - 87

but I've only been able to play piano notes with an instrument channel of 144:
hserout [144,64,90] (plays piano note E)
and I've got some different percussion sounds when the instrument channel is 153
hserout [153,64,90]

I have a program that spits out the notes for jingle bells, and then at the end, before it loops back, it increments the instrument channel. I was expecting to hear a different instrument, but I just hear the piano over and over, until it gets to the percussion, here are my notes:
'150 = piano
'151 = piano
'152 = piano
'153 = purcussion
'154 = piano
'155 = piano
'156 = piano
'157 = piano

How do I figure out what instrument channel to specify to hear all the instruments in the tables?

[Ioannis]

Complicated chip. Have you seen this http://www.vlsi.fi/fileadmin/software/VS10XX/karaokedemo.zip

Ioannis

[Max Power]

No I have not seen that before. from what I can see, and I didn't read it all, it looks like example code to make the chip play mp3s.

oh well, at least I can make piano tones at the moment. time to push ahead with my buried-in-the-floor foot piano project. my daughter has been patiently waiting all year for this thing to come together.

[Sherbrook]

If the chip works the same way as a computer MIDI soundcard, to change the instrument you have to send a 'Program change' MIDI message.
Have a look at http://www.midi.org/aboutmidi/tut_midimusicsynth.php
The site also has a list of all the MIDI control codes. It's a bit hard going at first but all should become clear.

Phil

[Max Power]

Thank you for the link. Looks like I've got some reading to do.