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When beep, boop, beep just won’t do

BEST OF BREED

ONLYTHE

BEST

ometimes your project would be

better, or at least more fun, if you

could just add some audio feedback

that’s a little more sophisticated

than just a beeping piezo or small

speaker. We’re not talking about

building your own audio amplifier, because

we know that would just be a topic

on which we would all end up

debating best practices

for decades, if not

longer. We’re talking about adding a little audio flair

to your project by playing back pre-recorded audio.

You might think that playing an MP3 audio file

is easy, but as soon as you start looking into the

actual requirements of encoding and decoding

WAV, MP3, or other audio file formats, you’ll soon

come to the conclusion that many times it’s just

easier to pick up a shield or board to handle all the

heavy lifting. In this Best of Breed article, We’ll be

looking at a range of solutions for adding simple

tones, recorded messages, or even full HD audio

playback to your next project.

There are so many options out there,

as we quickly found out when doing

a deep dive into the seemingly never-

ending abyss of audio add-on boards

available online for this review.

Even several of the boards we’ve

selected to review include multiple

variants that feature different

capabilities or board compatibility,

so be sure to head on over to the

manufacturer’s website for even

more options before making a

selection. Hopefully these reviews

will inspire you to add a little

more than just a simple beep,

boop, beep in your next project.

Don’t get me wrong, we happen

to love the sounds of R2-D2, but

sometimes C-3PO is a little easier

to understand.

S

Adding high quality audio feedback to your next project

By Marc de Vinck @devinck

When beep, boop, beep

just won’t do

Credit

Marc de Vinck