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.

PEZ MP3 almost all gone!

PEZ MP3 almost all gone!

Pezmp3HolPat writes in about his PEZ MP3 players, they’re almost gone! “There is still a chance to get a PEZ MP3 player in time for Christmas. I have several hundred of the little fellas in stock and ready to ship. After the recent appearance on Regis and Kelly they are selling quickly. So, if you haven’t bought one yet and you want to get in on this limited-run, first-edition, hop over to pezmp3.com. Once this batch sells out, I am not making any more of this version.” Link. See our review here.

Open DMX USB Interface

Open DMX USB Interface

Box ViewHere’s an excellent “open” hardware project for controlling lighting/effects systems – you can build your own, buy an assembled kit or improve the design and modify source code – “This DMX USB interface is based on the FTDI 232BM chip, it’s a USB to serial converter. Using a simple application on a PC you can send and receive DMX512.” Thanks Ladyada! Link.

LabVIEW as a Synthesizer?

LabVIEW as a Synthesizer?

LabviewPeter is looking for some Makers out there, he writes “Basically, the folks at National Instruments have added DSP (digital signal processing, useful for lots of audio applications — both industrial and musical), to LabVIEW, their high-end development platform for creating test / measurement / control applications. Here’s the cool part: they designed a free synth (as in musical synth) to run on the platform. Somewhere out there, there’s a scientist or engineer who’s going to love fiddling with this thing. It’s electronic music for Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. Know anyone in those communities (blogosphere or printosphere) who might be interested in this?” Link.

HOW TO – Install a touchscreen for Linux

HOW TO – Install a touchscreen for Linux

Figure3IBM has some great articles lately – “Historically, the lack of friendly interfaces has been an obstacle to making Linux a commercially viable product for end users, but with available GUIs, that’s yesterday’s news. What’s the next step in creating an easy-to-use Linux-based product for consumers? Imagine adding a user-oriented LCD touchscreen. A touchscreen facade can make back-end Linux applications very usable in such devices as custom digital media centers (either in the home or in automobiles), DVRs and PVRs, and even control interfaces for household robots. The potential uses are limited only by the imagination. In this article, get an overview for installing an LCD taken from a Sony PSOne, creating a modeline, and installing a touchscreen — all for Linux.” Thanks Donald! Link.

Listen to music from your iPod over a network…

Listen to music from your iPod over a network…

SharepodHandy open source app (Mac) – “I wanted to be able to listen to the songs on my iPod for some time now. This is because I don’t want to fill up the hard-drive of my iBook with music, but be able to access my Music when I’m on the way. I found some solutions but none really made me happy. Then I found mt-daapd which did exactly what I wanted except for one thing. mt-daapd can export any folder as an iTunes-music-share. The missing piece was, that it doesn’t detect if an iPod is connected. So I wrote a simple programm that detects if an iPod is connected and then automatically shares it with mt-daapd.” Link.