Codec Shield by Open Music Labs

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By David Cranor
Posted 2012/02/09 @ 9:00 pm
Category Arduino, Electronics, Music

The Audio Codec Shield by Open Music Labs is a way to add powerful digital signal processing capabilities to your next project. It is capable of sampling and reproducing up to 88kHz audio in 24-bit stereo. You can use it as a piece of test equipment, recording device, or even a custom real-time instrument effects processor. Libraries are available for both Arduino and Maple to help get you started. Happy audio hacking!

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2 Responses to Codec Shield by Open Music Labs

morgauxo on February 10th, 2012 at 5:58 am said:

I am confused, what exactly is this?

Seeing it called a ‘Codec’ shield I thought it was to en/decode some audio format like mp3, ogg, speex, etc… The video however shows it being used as a tone generator or to make different forms of distortion.

Going to the product site it says it uses the “Wolfson WM8731 codec”. So I thought codec meant an audio format, that Wolfson WM8731 must be an audio format similar to the 3 I mentioned though it sounds more like a chip. I clicked the link, sure enough it is a chip. The chip’s page says it is used for MP3. So this is a MP3 de/encoding board? But then the chip’s page talks about using it in CD and DAT recorders. I’m not sure what DAT uses but I know CDs don’t use any compression at all, certainly not MP3. So what is this thing?????

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guest on February 10th, 2012 at 9:26 am said:

the codecshield encodes/decodes in I2S format, which is what most CD players and such use. its a more useful format than MP3 if you want high quality, uncompressed audio, that you can manipulate. its good for making wavetable synthesizers or guitar pedals, where you want to digitally alter an audio stream. for strict playback, MP3 is usually better.

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