Turn your Nintendo DS into a wireless MIDI controller

Music on the DS has just taken a giant leap beyond musical games like Electroplankton, thanks to the efforts of German programmer and musician Tob. Previously, using MIDI with the DS required getting geeky with a soldering iron - now the DS's internal WiFi card can be used to wirelessly send/receive MIDI to and from a "server" running on a PC.

The included applications are an on-screen keyboard with pitch-bend, an X/Y MIDI controller (think Korg KAOSS Pad) and a synth - but what's really special here is that Tob has released the MIDI/WiFi code that powers these applications as an open-source library, ready for other homebrew DS developers to incorporate into their own software. This is a generous offering that will hopefully lead to a whole host of innovative MIDI applications.

At the time of writing, DSMIDIWiFi is on the front page of both Kotaku and Engadget, and judging from the buzz, it seems I'm not the only one who thinks it is more than worth the purchase price of a Nintendo DS. I'll put it out there - Nintendo should hire this guy.

Unfortunately you'll need some specialist equipment to use the software - and it's not the kind of thing you can walk into any store and buy, as the devices can be used for piracy. Tob suggests searching Google to find more information.

You can download DSMIDIWiFi here.

via Music Thing