Zeppelin Design Labs MACCHIATO, Owner'S Manual, Page: 5 / 21

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REFERENCE MANUAL
INTRODUCTION
The Macchiato Mini Synth by Zeppelin Design Labs is a versatile little synthesizer you can build and
mod yourself. This guide contains detailed information about each of its many features, and instructions
for modding the source code or uploading software updates.
The Macchiato’s brain is a little computer chip, called a microcontroller. It is an ATmega644PA by
Atmel. On the printed circuit board, just to the right of the serial number is a little port into which you
can plug a special cable. This allows your computer to communicate with your Macchiato. We wrote
the Macchiato’s software in the Arduino development environment. If you are familiar with Arduino
programming, you can re-write the source code and customize the performance of your synth.
Arduino does not deal well with audio, and neither does the ATmega micro! To harness the tremendous
computing power of microcontrollers, and take advantage of Arduino’s ease-of-use, Tim Barrass
developed the
Mozzi Sound Synthesis Library for Arduino . This is a free, open-source collection of
software tools that you add to your Arduino installation. It uses “wave-table” technology and pulse-
width modulation to produce fabulous 8-bit waveforms.
The software in the Macchiato was developed by Zeppelin Design Labs. It incorporates elements of
the Mozzi library by Tim Barrass. Both are covered by the Creative Commons Share and Share Alike
license. You are free to modify and redistribute the Macchiato code, as long as you give attribution to
its creators.