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.
This 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.
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.
Yes, it is possible to broadcast music, MP3’s, Podcasts, etc. from your itunes, computer cd or whatever. Don’t limit yourself to a boring microphone… share your music! Link.
Arimaa is the first game designed specifically to be hard for computers to play, while easy for people. With its billions of combinations and push-me-pull-you gameplay conditional value strategy, it’s too much for brute force computing. And yet, it’s simple enough for a child to play [via] Link.
Dave Matthews Band encouraging fans to bypass DRM restrictions on new album (and, funny enough, petitioning Apple to ignore DRM restrictions in iTunes). Their HOW TO suggests burning a CD, then importing it in to iTunes, that’s wrong. Just hold down the shift key and/or disable autorun (here’s how). [via] Link.
NPR_Nut writes “A group of musicians took centuries-old instruments from the forests of Congo, brought them into the city – and plugged in! Their do-it-yourself amplification devices conjure up garage bands. African punk music from Konono Number One.” Link (WindowsMedia audio). Wow, this is really great- they also talk how they made the DIY pick ups.
Master chip musician Gijs Gieskes has outdone himself this time: his second Walkman tape sequencer controls the Game Boy music cartridge LSDJ via various knobs and circuitry. In other words, the sequencer he built controls both a Walkman tape deck and a Game Boy. Check out this audio sample or this one to hear what all this sounds like. The effect is quite brilliant: a madcap tape deck scratch system with Game Boy music. Forget records and turntables. Tape is the future, man. Link.
