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.
A while back, we covered an early iteration of Paul Maddox’s GorF sequencer. Built on protoboard, the basic 8-step MIDI device was originally intended for testing homegrown synth projects. Since then Paul has refined GorF into an impressively compact kit complete with features we normally see only in commercial music gear. Above he explains some […]
MAKE contributor Michael Una shares his experience hacking the Bliptronic 5000 melody sequencer – First, I replaced the internal crystal with a Getlofi Precision Oscillator kit. That was easy, and it’s very responsive. […] I also found a spot on the audio IC that creates a rich harmonic drone. I should note here that this […]
The Maywa Denki collective makes instruments of mass whims.
Artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s installation features the avant-noise stylings of the seemingly mild-mannered zebra finch – For his installation in The Curve, Boursier-Mougenot creates a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other musical instruments. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various […]
Adam writes to us from Melbourne, Australia: This is seriously cool, open source, too (running Gentoo). Basically it’s a MIDI controller, built into a guitar, with a pressure-sensitive touch screen. Misa
Radio hacker and swing dancer Greg Charvot is at it again with his latest restoration, the Retro Boom Box. His local swing group was in need of a portable radio to use for impromptu Lindy Hopping, so he outfitted a 1940’s radio with modern batteries that they could use while on the run.
This recording was made and posted by German composer Andreas Bick at a frozen lake in the Berlin area over the winter of 2005. He explains:
Underwater microphones proved especially well-suited for these recordings: in a small hole drilled close beneath the surface of the water, the sounds emitted by the body of ice carry particularly well. The most striking thing about these recordings is the synthetic-sounding descending tones caused by the phenomenon of the dispersion of sound waves. The high frequencies of the popping and cracking noises are transmitted faster by the ice than the deeper frequencies, which reach the listener with a time lag as glissandi sinking to almost bottomless depths.
[via Boing Boing]
