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.

The Future of The Body: The Soundtrack

The Future of The Body: The Soundtrack

Fb0905Sdtrk 170X120Popular Science commissioned contributing troubadour, Jonathan Coulton, to write and record a soundtrack to their current Future of the Body issue. Each of the five songs he has crafted accompanies a feature article in this issue and, using clever lyrics, catchy hooks and secret harmonic frequencies, unlocks powerful regions of your brain not normally used in the reading of magazines. There are five songs, each inspired by an article, and CD cover art for available for download… Link.

Modding iTunes…

Modding iTunes…

0-New-Itunes ...organize classical music such that the composer appears in the artist field and the artist/ensemble appears somewhere else. The obvious choice would be to use the now vacated composer slot, and I do exactly that. I’ve modified iTunes to support this new paradigm and am VERY happy with the change. The final result looks like this… Link.

HOW TO Make Your Own  Microphone Pop-Filter

HOW TO Make Your Own $6 Microphone Pop-Filter

Popfilter1This article will show you how to make your own microphone pop-filter. A pop-filter is a small screen that goes between a microphone and your mouth to prevent sharp popping sounds (known as plosives) like “P” and “B” words from overloading the mic level and distorting. Commercially available pop-filters are expensive and can often cost 20 dollars or more. The pop-filter you can build here will cost less than $6 dollars. Link.

Build a Better Music Interface: Railfans (as in Trains)

Build a Better Music Interface: Railfans (as in Trains)

Traincab Railfans are building life-size, full-scale railroad cabs that look and function like the real thing, then projecting scenery onto their wall. And for music, you can hack their USB controller to turn it into a music / video / VJ controller, using either the Windows SDK (for hard coding) or a Mac app called junXion (for simple MIDI, useful with Max/MSP/Jitter, audio and VJ apps etc.) Aside from the train controller interface, you could use their I/O box to build any controller you wanted. There are other I/O boxes that use USB, but theirs has an unusual number of ins and outs, saving you basic stamp programming. And it’s also comparatively cheap. They also make bunches of custom controllers, keyboards, everything… Link.