Which MCU for translating usb-midi to control LED lighting?

phrenetik

New Member
Hi, I hope this is the correct forum for this question. I've searched for days, not finding specific answers yet.

My project is to send midi notes & velocity data from my electronic drum kit's sound module, via USB, into a MCU, that will then translate those notes/velocity into on/off/brightness for UV LEDs I have installed in the drum shells. I need latency as low as possible, and I need to control 10 different LED units (1 for each drum), 4 of which are UV spotlights that don't have a data input (so I plan to use a relay for on/off signal from the MCU). This means I need at least 5 data pins outgoing, possibly as many as 10.

My limited experience in MCU has been using ESP32's to run LED effects (WLED) in my studio lighting. So I am hoping to use some of the ESP32s-wroom units I have lying about. But i've seen mentions that only S2 or S3 boards can run usb/midi, and i believe these wrooms are S1...not sure.

So, is there a way to do this, perhaps thru a ESP32-s3 with hairless midi or ?
Or should I ditch the ESPs and use a Teensy 3.6 or Arduino Nano33 BLE/Micro/Due or Pi Pico? Trying to keep costs down, but I can upgrade if it means a quality result.

Thanks for any tech advice, and if there's a better forum I should move this to, please lmk.
- another noob-in-need
 
If I buy expensive UV strip that can be segmented, then I need 5 pins: 4 pins for UV spotlights on cymbals, and 1 pin for the segmented led strip that runs through the other 6 drums.
If I use a cheaper 2-pin strip then I need 10 pins out.
 
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