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.

Dipping duck orchestra lays down the beats

In this “Dipping Duck Orchestra”, music is randomly generated by 8 dipping ducks or drinking birds where the circuit is completed when the duck’s bill hits the water. The project resembles a keyboard of sorts, where each duck plays a different note when triggered. Check out the video above for the full effect. Dipping Duck […]

In-hoodie speakers

In-hoodie speakers

Core77 writes: Tim Dubitsky has just prototyped “hood.e“, a super-cozy solution to bringing music to your ears without blocking everything else out. The product has a great genesis: Tim originally created the design as a present for his nephew–who walks a dangerous route to school crossing busy thoroughfares–and wanted to make it safer for him […]

Controlling a speech IC via Arduino

This project uses a chip that was common in video games of the 1980’s. I really like the sounds it produces. Unfortunately there isn’t any how-to, or schematics, for this project. This video shows a hardware (“real”) SP0256 IC sequencer from Ableton Live via internal MIDI routing and a serial connection over USB. Learn more […]

Looping Musical Robot

This musical robot analyzes the incoming audio and tries to mimic it using a series of servos and solenoids attached to different objects. In this example it is trying to reproduce a clip from Citizen Kane. Simple automatic instruments are constructed from local materials and objects on site. The system learns the sounds it can […]

Random music box

Anonymous writes – I was real interested in music theory and how to computationally create something aurally pleasing. Though the square waves may not be aurally pleasing (for most), I was able to make a PIC-based organ that played random chord progressions. The resulting cardboard music box makes sings a pretty sweet tune – dig […]

DIY: Inexpensive PVC flute

DIY: Inexpensive PVC flute

This website has a lot of useful information on making a PVC flute. What makes this site unique is all the information on different pipe sizes and materials. There is even a link to software that will help you tune your finished flute. DIY PVC Flute Related: DIY: Pennywhistle in the key of D More […]