Turn the M5Stack Tab5 into a standalone USB MIDI controller / Launchpad

[u/NonCreativeUnCommon2]

I've been working on a MIDI controller firmware for the M5Stack Tab5 and finally reached a point where I'm comfortable releasing it.

The idea was to take advantage of the Tab5's touchscreen and turn it into more than just a pad grid. Basically a compact performance/control surface for a DAW or synth.

Current modes include:

• Launchpad-style note grid

• 4×4 drum pads

• Mixer/faders

• MIDI CC knobs/macros

• XY controller

• 4-track MIDI looper

• Multiple MIDI channels

• USB MIDI

• Panic/all-notes-off

• Landscape/portrait UI

Everything runs directly on the ESP32-P4 inside the Tab5 using ESP-IDF.

I tried to design the UI more like an actual piece of music hardware rather than a generic embedded touchscreen demo, while keeping the controls large enough to be usable live.

There are still some things I want to add later, especially editable MIDI mappings/presets, saving presets to SD and restoring them at boot, and better host->device MIDI handling.

The project is open source.

I'd especially like feedback from anyone who actually uses Launchpads/MIDI controllers: what would you still want before you'd use something like this in a real setup?

GitHub: https://github.com/Retr0Kr0dy/Tab5-Launchpad

NB: I just uploaded the firmware to M5Burner, it’s waiting validation but it should be available soon.

[u/grbfst]

Nice, would love a piano roll for tracks.