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.
From the MAKE Flickr pool Member J.P. Banjos shares some great build pics from his workshop. Here is the banjo, fit together. The top two are self-explanatory. In the bottom two images, I am gluing the neck onto the dowel stick. To do this, I clamp a straight edge to the plane of the neck. […]
Hmm, you’ll want to check which switches seem unresponsive before you jump into the enclosure design process. Otherwise – fun mod if you use Ableton Live. Gamepads can be procured quite cheaply. (Thanks, Johan!) – Link Related: Portable consoles as musical instruments… – Link MIDI ControlBox – Link
MFOS has a very interesting and somewhat complicated guitar synth project available – The SUB-COMMANDER is a great project for the advanced electronics hobbyist/guitar player. I think there are quite a few of us out there. Obviously you can buy this functionality in a “Digi-Tech” stomp box with no soldering, troubleshooting, or swearing involved but […]
The Minthesizer is a low voltage, low power, analog synthesizer. The board is almost entirely made from surface-mount components, so you better have a steady soldering hand if you try and make one for yourself. Check out the link for more information about the build, including the schematics. – Link Related: Matchbox Synthesizer – Link
Ben sent in his tremolo effects pedal that he made out of a couple of 4066 IC’s. The circuit has its limitations, since it is based on an LED chaser, but the overall effect is pretty cool. Ben is a long time reader, and a first time submitter to the MAKE blog. Let’s hope he […]
Care for the wide variety and uniquely plastic-sounding voices a general midi synth? This forum thread on electro-music.com details how you can make your own from an old Soundblaster daughter board – This is a very simple project that will allow you to add a GM Midi Module to your sound creation arsenal. It can […]
You can explain to a child that listening to music at a high volume can cause hearing loss, but that doesn’t mean they will listen. Then again, you could make this neat little device and make them use it. The only problem? How do you get them to keep it plugged in? – Link
