DIY stylophone
Australian maker Doug Jackson (he of the networkable watering system controller) built this cool-looking analog stylophone. Want to make your own? Download the schematic and PCB files (.zip) and peruse the Instructable.
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.
Repurposing old toys as bird songs
Ranjit Bhatnagar made these City Bird bird call sculptures by reverse-engineering some old children’s toys and producing new records for them on a laser cutter.
Bit-52’s robot band does “Rock Lobster”
I can’t believe this escaped our radar until now — it’s the Bit-52’s, a robot band, doing the B-52’s epic “Rock Lobster.” Check out bd594’s (James Cochrane, Toronto, Canada) YT channel for some other great vids of machines making music. [via LaughingSquid, Boing Boing, and Dangerous Minds] bd594’s YouTube channel
Tron light show made with Arduino-controlled stepper motors
Kim Pimmel’s amazing effects created with a record turntable and some Arduino-controlled stepper motors. I’ve been interested in taking my Light Study photo series and evolving them into motion pieces. I shot a lot of footage for a VJ gig for FITC San Francisco. So I edited together those stop motion sequences, mashed up some […]
How-To: Clean your amp controls
Instructables user Teslaphonics writes: Is that crackling and popping when you turn the controls on your amp driving you crazy? Here’s how to clean them and get back to the music. There are spray “contact cleaners” available for this purpose, but in most cases just mixes the dirt and grime already inside with more dirt […]
Send MIDI over USB for cheap
If you’ve ever tried to interface a microcontroller-based MIDI project to a computer, you know it can be kind of a pain.
A macro video tour of a pocket watch
MAKE pal Charlie Visnic, of the wonderful creativity blog the b-roll, was inspired by Matt Mets’ post on how a mechanical watch works. Charlie decided to open up a pocket watch he had and do some macro photography. The resulting video, backed by a soundtrack of his own, created with a punchcard roll music box, […]
