UNO R4 Stars: Meet Gustavo Silveira

The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it's also a time to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their brilliant ideas, radiant enthusiasm and brilliant insight.

That's how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to spotlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others do whatever they want.

We invite you to explore each profile, hoping that you might find a Pole Star to navigate an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

Officially a composer and multimedia artist, Gustavo Silveira has called himself a "nerd musician" since discovering the technological tools to build his own instruments. His most iconic project to date is the XT Synth - a mix of guitar, violin and MIDI controller with a slightly psychedelic look that he is particularly proud of.

What motivates him in his work is the possibility of creating objects that did not exist before, of making art in completely new ways. After all, for Silveira, creation is a form of creativity: when he started "playing with Arduino", he immediately felt that he could express himself artistically, not only through the results of his projects, but also through the process itself.

Sharing his work came naturally, as a way to give back: "I've learned everything I know from the community, so today being able to teach - making videos for YouTube, writing the blog, posting on Instagram - for me is really, really cool."

We asked Silveira, "What's your favorite part of UNO R4?"

This new version is now HID, so it can be recognized as a USB device. So you basically have a plug-and-play, class-compatible MIDI tool to create all your next “music nerd” projects. It is equipped with a very fast processor and already has a DAC and an amplifier: as a musician or sound designer, this means that you can test, prototype, then listen on location on the UNO R4 and do audio synthesis or processing. It can replace any UNO project, but also opens up new creative possibilities that simply didn't exist with previous versions.

Discover Silveira on his website and follow him on YouTube or Instagram. You can also check out the XT Synth project in detail here, or explore his playlist on MIDI programming with Arduino.