Take your creations beyond the workshop and onto the stage with diy music instruments! Let us show you how these creations range from simple, basic setups that produce beautiful sounds to more complex projects that require a greater level of engineering knowledge. With these tutorials and examples, we’ll guide you on this journey to make your own musical instrument for experimental, artistic or everyday use – so whether you’re starting out new or a seasoned sound creator, come explore the wonderful world of making your own music.
If you stopped by our table at the Maker Faire, you got to play around with our big drum demo of the Tactile Metronome. Lots of people had questions about how we drove the solenoid for the drum striker, so we decided to write it up once we got back home.
A while back Schenectady Museum curator Chris Hunter came across some old pallophotophone recordings from radio station WGY. “What’s a pallophotophone?”, you might ask. Also known as the RCA Photophone, it’s an early recording device developed by GE researcher Charles Hoxie. GE Engineer Russ DeMuth, recreates a pallophotophone from Hoxie’s original design and manages to extract some rather interesting recordings.
I’m glad to see Jeri is back to doing her quick n’ dirty “Short Circuit” videos, where she shoots, edits, and uploads a benchtop tutorial video in record time. Sure they’re funky, but they get their point across. In this video, she shows you how to make a simple audio direct digital synthesizer (DDS) using […]
Over at Make: Español, Marisol found this nifty homebrew xylophone, built by Lovisa Ekelund and Bernardo Flores.
Austin band ArcAttack! performs with musical tesla coils (in a chain maille “Faraday suit”) and a robotic drummer. From their Maker Faire profile: ArcAttack! employs a unique DJ set up of their own creation to generate an ‘electrifying’ audio visual performance. The HVDJ pumps music through a PA system while two specially designed DRSSTC’s (Dual-Resonant […]
One of my favorite drummers, Brian Viglione of Dresden Dolls, posted this brief video tour on his Facebook page of a drum kit he built from junk. He was kind enough to post it to YouTube so that I could share it here on Make:. This was the kit that he used on the tracks […]
Sweet Child O’ Mine (Swing Version) by plamere White Rabbit – The Swing Version by plamere Tristan Jehan‘s Swinger does a heckuva good job adding a convincing swing to prerecorded music. Written in Python, the code uses the Echo Nest Remix API to time-stretch half of each beat while condensing the remainder. Check out more […]
