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.
From the MAKE Flickr pool Fridgebuzzzzz’s MK 1 MIDI controller reminds me of my Dad’s old Gretsch Tennessean … but yaknow, in an elegant, future-y kind of way. the MK1 prototype is a user programmable midi controller featuring 32 LED pushbutton switches and 6 touch sensitive copper plate switches. an example user mapping would have […]
Looking for a fun, functional, low-cost project to knock out during the holidays? Check out this clever repurposing piece from the pages of MAKE Volume 10, offered up by David Battino with help from George ‘the Fat Man’ Sanger. The Sweet Sound of Particleboard Beef up the tone of open-back amps with a little thrift […]
Ooo, this music table looks like fun! I think I would like a counter-top version though, so I could prepare my xylophone and lunch at the same time.
Inspired by the CGI video series Animusic, Stefan “g000ze” of Lets Make Robots and his sons built this Marblephone. Using a bunch of marbles, some solenoids, and bars from a xylophone, he built an electromechanical instrument to play out tunes by dropping marbles onto the xylophone bars.
First up is Dan Hemingson’s “ambisonic” (Wikipedia) recording work. Shown above is the tetrahedral microphone array Dan uses to record his soundscapes, three of which he played back on the ACTlab’s surround-sound system. The tetrahedral microphone arrangement makes it possible to mathematically derive any number or spatial arrangement of surround-sound channels from the raw audio. Professional ambisonic microphones cost thousands of dollars; Dan put his together for nine bucks. He played amazing recordings of a babbling river, a clowder of feeding cats, and a pipe organ recital at UT’s Bass Concert Hall, while the audience milled about the room to experience the spatial simulation of sound. The realism was absolutely uncanny.
Sebastian Thielke’s PongThatBeat! sequencer was created using Max/MSP and Processing – and it looks like fun!
MAKE contributor Larry Cotton outfitted his Player Marimba (as seen in MAKE Volume 4, page 20) with MIDI control via two MD24 decoders from Highly Liquid. Nice – wouldn’t mind hearing a bit of the instrument play solo. [via Highly Liquid]
