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.

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 […]

Handheld synth-strument trio

Handheld synth-strument trio

From the MAKE: Flickr pool Farnea’s “last drones” are quite nicely built mini-synths, representing 3 very popular DIY electronic instruments – the last drones built for my friends, playing with me in Elisha Gray band. on the left FESTER, the optical theremin. on the top Ag0 LOLLOSO, the weird sound generator. on the right WHAT […]

Elaborate Mini-Theremin casemod

Elaborate Mini-Theremin casemod

James “Dr. Krazy X” McCracken III sent us pictures of his steampunk-y take on the Gakken Mini-Theremin kit build. Mini-Theremin The theremin, invented in 1919 by Russian scientist Leon Theremin, is one of the world’s earliest fully electronic instruments, and is also unique in that it was the first musical instrument designed to be played […]