Music

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.

Bent videomixer

Stefan sent in this circuit bent video mixer. I really like the effects it generates, I only wish there was more information on how it was made. [Thanks Stefan] This is a DIY videoprocessor with Audio In which reacts to Audio in via RCA or through the build in microphone. Build into an old TI-99 […]

Arduino solenoid drummer

Arduino solenoid drummer

From the MAKE: Flickr pool Greg’s using Arduino to create an auto-drummer – Yesterday, I got my drum playing robot working with chop sticks screwed into rotary solenoids. It’s powered by two 9v batteries wired in series and controlled by the arduino through transistors. I showed this off at the UrHo Talks 2 event last […]

Handmade music night – photos!

Handmade music night – photos!

Part party, part mixer, part Science Fair, and part performance, Handmade music was an informal gathering for geeksters and the geek-curious to come together, relax, and discover new sounds. The evening consisted of a gathering of inventors of circuit-bent toys, custom software and patches, interactive digital & visual instruments, custom electronics, electricity-powered noisemakers, DIY robots […]

DIY vocal monitor

DIY vocal monitor

If you’ve performed kive with a band, you likely know how important monitor speakers are. Without a vocal monitor, things can go awry quite quickly – and to make matters worse, many small venues don’t have them. To keep tabs on sonic output, Mark took matters into his own hands and built this “Wedgehorn” monitor […]

Texas-sized MP3 belt buckle

Texas-sized MP3 belt buckle

If you were at Maker Faire Austin, you may have seen this honky-tonky belt buckle Ryan from SparkFun built which incorporates an MP3 player. It even has an MMA7260 Triple Axis Accelerometer on it to create a hip-thruster interface (i.e. you change songs by thrusting your hips). Oh, THAT’s not going to look embarrassing on […]