Piezoelectric materials are about as close to magic as you can get. They turn physical pressure into electricity and can even turn electricity into physical pressure – an amazing sort of bidirectional converter for mechanical and electrical energies. Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that you can easily ‘grow’ your own piezoelectric crystals overnight using just a couple of common ingredients – awesome.
Tristan Shone rolled out the ‘big guns’ for Maker Faire Bay Area 2010. His Industrial Sound Controllers are a musical force to be reckoned with and their sheer size and weight demand considerable attention upon seeing them firsthand.
Tristan took a few moments out from setting up to speak with Becky Stern before performing, and explained some of the functionality of his very custom gear. For more on his unique brand of ‘heavy metal’, be sure to check out the interview in MAKE, Volume 22 and the how-to on building your own 8-mic MIDI controller –
https://makezine.com/22/tristanshone/
http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol22?pg=119#pg121
John Park of Make: magazine builds a fun audio playback device using an Arduino, VoiceShield, and 2-axis joystick from the Maker Shed http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKSKL3&Click=37845
Instead of chaining multiple guitar effects in search of a new sound, I decided to mod just one. Using an Arduino microcontroller board + digi-pot chip, I was able to add a variable gating effect to a fuzz pedal.
source code + more infos here:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/08/collins_lab_guitar_pedal_modding_wi.html
video, audio, & riffs by Collin Cunningham
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/circuit_skills_led_color_organ_spon.html
Join Collin as he synchronizes light to sound using the power of analog circuitry. It’s disco-tech!
What do you get when you combine DIY custom molded earplugs with a pair of in-ear headphones? Isolated Hi-Fi that fits like a glove but won’t break the bank.
I’ve used quite a variety of sound-isolating personal audio gear; around-ear cans, in-ear buds, as well as active noise-canceling models. All of these posed problems for me in one way or another. Most often, it came down to issues with comfort and how well each design could maintain a good seal on my substantial noggin. […]
