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.
Tufts University has a really good book available online about the physics of music and musical instruments. It’s a nice balance between theory, examples, and hands-on projects. The Physics of Music and Musical Instruments covers the physics of waves, sound, music, and musical instruments at a level designed for high school physics. However, it is […]
Mika made use of an old ukulele body as electronics enclosure – a Weird Sound Generator enclosure actually. There’s some conceptual metaphor @ work here but I can’t quite place it – Weird Sound Generator Mk.I [Thanks, Eric!]
LoFi Ninja turned an old floppy drive into a bit-scratching, micro-turntablesque motorized instrument with touch contacts. See it spin and noise about on the inter-tubes (be warned – the video’s annotations contains strong language).
Ben crafted this fine-looking enclosure/keyboard with a variety of wood types – he then made it functional by adding the guts of a regular old plastic keyboard – The purple keyboard is made of the woods: purple heart, santos mahogony (for the ‘white keys’) and an unidentified yellow wood for the black keys. The woods […]
In case you tire of photocell for sound (ahh but who could?), here’s a demonstration using an entirely different type of sensor – Short demonstration of the device used for my “Nunk on Droise” (Noise Under the Influence) performances. The device is constituted of three alcohol sensors connected through an Arduino board to a computer […]
Here’s an interesting MP3 player concept. Move the cube in a specific direction to advance the track through a built-in accelerometer detecting force. Similar to Apple’s iPod shake function in their new Nano, we like the DIY sensibilities and industrial design of this little guy. Motion Controlled MP3 Player via Hacked Gadgets
“FielDrum” is an acoustic drum built with a system of magnets that pull the performer’s hits so that they complete the correct drumming motion. Imagine if you were learning to play and your instructor was always there, guiding your hits to the correct location on the drum. The system emulates this sensation through controlled magnetism. […]
