Bend all audio files to your will with the Adafruit Music Maker shield for Arduino! This powerful shield features the VS1053, an encoding/decoding (codec) chip that can decode a wide variety of audio formats such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, MIDI, FLAC, WAV (PCM and ADPCM). It can also be used to record audio in both PCM (WAV) and compressed Ogg Vorbis. You can do all sorts of stuff with the audio as well such as adjusting bass, treble, and volume digitally.

All this functionality is implemented in a light-weight SPI interface so that any Arduino can play audio from an SD card. There's also a special MIDI mode that you can boot the chip into that will read 'classic' 31250Kbaud MIDI data from an Arduino pin and act like a synth/drum machine - there are dozens of built-in drum and sample effects! But the chip is a pain to solder, and needs a lot of extras. That's why we spun up the best shield, perfect for use with any Metro, Arduino Uno, Leonardo or Mega. Not recommended for the newer Arduino UNO R4 Wifi.

We have two versions of the shield. One version comes with an onboard 3W stereo amplifier so you can play amplified music with just some speakers. Another version comes without the amplifier, for cost-conscious projects.

Both use the same code, are the same shape, and have Stereo Headphone/Line Out for connecting to a headset or amplifier.

We believe this is the best MP3 playing shield you can get, and at a great price too. Here are some specs:

• Features the VS1053B codec chip - decodes Ogg Vorbis, MP3/MP2/MP1, MP4, AAC, WMA, FLAC, WAV/PCM, MIDI. Encodes Ogg or WAV/PCM
• Stereo audio out with proper audio filter caps and ground reference so it can be safely connected directly to headphones, a stereo system or other powered speakers
• 7 extra GPIO's that can be written or read through the Arduino Library for reading buttons or lighting LEDs
• MicroSD card socket, for any FAT16/FAT32 formatted SD card from 64Mb or greater.
• Full 3.3/5V level shifting for SD and MP3 chipsets
• Works with Arduino Uno, Mega, or Leonardo
• Built in MIDI synth/drum machine with dozens of instruments
• Plenty of optional breakouts for pins like the card-detect and microphone input

Revision history:

• As of Aug 23, 2023 - we've updated this PCB with Adafruit Pinguin to make a lovely and legible silkscreen. We've also updated the music maker to use the 2x3 SPI header instead of pins 11/12/13  and the terminal blocks now come pre-soldered on.
• Aug 20, 2014: We updated the analog section to have more filtering, which should improve audio output quality (even more!) There are no wiring or code changes.