purplechirin

I'm trying to build this simple music instrument - something like a recorder - that takes in 8 inputs (probably push buttons) and an output - a speaker.

Are there any particular microcontrollers that I could use? Would attiny26 do or is there any other that would better fit the project?

blueroomelectronics

Any general purpose micro should work.

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Hank Fletcher

I don't know much about Atmel products, but at first glance it looks like the attiny26 would suffice. I see, however, that Atmel lists the attiny26 as "Not recommended for new designs."

Use eight input pins with eight push buttons to give yourself an 8-bit (256 different notes) input. Other than the mcu and a speaker, you'll need some sort of air pressure sensor if you're thinking a recorder-like breath controller. I've seem some surplus at Electronics Goldmine, but I don't know enough about what they have available to say that it would be good for the purpose. The cheapest alternative to that I can think of would be to modify one of Yamaha's breath controllers. The attiny26 has ample A/D input capabilities for reading an air pressure sensor.

Did you already have some sort of breath control/tone production in mind? I imagine, like PICs, the attiny26 might be capable of sound synthesis, but perhaps some other electronic means of tone production might be in order (i.e. that can be more accurately tuned)?