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.
Mark Dalzell brought a Thingamakit over to the dark side and came back with the above seen Thingamakill. It appears the transformation brought a few additional features, including what appears to be control inputs for each oscillator, master pitch and power starve pots. The original LEDicles seem to have survived the journey intact. [via MatrixSynth] […]
From the MAKE Flickr pool Trust in Dust brings us these elegantly simple piezo contact microphone earrings. It’s refreshingly cool to see functional electronics used for jewelry. Those with sensitive lobes would be wise to avoid hooking up bulky plugs while wearing ;)
Why let a cramped design ruin a good instrument? James Haskin writes in with his recipe for a highly playable Kaossila-tar Last christmas my girlfriend got me a Korg Kaossiltor. The only thing I wasn’t in love with was the button layout. I had to cross hands to record and arpeggiater was a paint to […]
My friend Thomas Edwards writes: Everyone seems to be using OpenSound Control (OSC), so I figured I’d try controlling pd (aka Pure Data) on my MacBook from my iPhone using the TouchOSC app. He shows you how he set it up on his blog. Tech Art Blog
The first annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech brought out some amazing work by sound makers. Jaime Oliver’s Silent Drum(seen above) took home the $5,000 first prize, but after viewing some of the competition, it’s plain to see the judges had their work cut out for them. Eric Singer’s GuitarBot, uses automated moving […]
From the MAKE Flickr pool Flickr member Aud1073cH created this rather hot hybrid of guitar and Weird Sound Generator – This is a synth guitar I built from a second hand First Act mini electric guitar that I stripped down, and rebuilt using Ray Wilson’s WSG synth schematics. With only one Wacky/Weird/Zany voice, and without […]
With spring in full swing and the sun shining longer every day, we’ve got solar on the mind. A great summertime project is a flashback from MAKE Volume 12: the Solar Xylophone! How does it work? A regular xylophone fits inside a solar-powered player box that holds a mallet over each of its 8 chime […]
