The reliable guitarist
This busker from Bath, England built his own bandmate, a mechanical guitar player, strummed and fretted by foot-control. An elegant solution for sure … but who’s gonna take turns driving the van?
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.
Handlebars as wind instrument
Musician Mark Growden plays many instruments, but here he demonstrates a particularly unusual one – bicycle handlebars. Note there are no holes or other modification added to the tube – the voice is controlled simply by hand and mouth. With some dedication to practice, the handlebars could be a choice instrument for the bicycling busker […]
Listen to the money talk…
Jeff made a fun Flash app that lets you listen to the price of a stock, he writes… So, my boy Mike Nathanson and I wore our brains on our sleeves at Flashcamp this weekend. We dreamed up a sweet idea of listening to stock prices, which we dubbed MoneyTalks. It uses the new SampleDataEvent […]
707 beat bending
Here’s a sweet example of a circuit-bent TR707 drum machine. Perhaps ‘modified’ is a more appropriate term as the added pitch controls seem more practical than exploratory. [via Matrixsynth]
Opto-synth bleep-alike
Alex built this optical square wave synth inspired by the work have Bleep labs. Nice removable LED tentacles! – opto_synth
Installation uses the sound of old record players to make noise
This installation, entitled “Without Records” by Japanese experimental musicians Otomo Yoshihide and Yasutomo Aoyama employs over 100 record-free turntables to create a sound piece dedicated to the result of the dissappearing technology of LPs. Each turntable is augmented with some form of object to create a different effect on the needle arm as it passes […]
Homebrew parametric speaker
If you’re familiar with the audio spotlight, then you now how very awesome narrow beam ultrasonic speaker devices can be. They can project a sound efficiently over long distances without spreading like common speakers. One can essentially walk into the ultrasonic line-of-fire and begin to hear sound abruptly – certainly an interesting effect. Though not […]