Synplant takes a unique approach to creating sound with software synthesizers - Each patch starts as a 'seed' that sprouts branches towards parameters you choose. Decide you don't like a certain aspect of the voice? - just clip off the branch. Or if you like it a whole bunch, replant it as its own seed. 3-week demo available on their site - SonicCharge Synplant
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Singing Plants
AJTurley lives out many a Kraftwerk fan's fantasy as he uses his scientific calculator as a MIDI controller by way of a Basic Stamp board -
This is a demo of a project I built so that I could use my HP 48 to play a MIDI keyboard. The calculator is running a program that sends data to a Parallax Stamp Basic microcontroller over the built-in serial port whenever I press a button. The microcontroller is running software that converts the message from the calculator into a MIDI noteon or noteoff message that is then sent to the keyboard. This is a response to a createdigitalmusic.com poll in which a (small) number of users said they wanted the site to cover more calculator music.[via Create Digital Music] Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!
Linsey Pollak drills out a carrot and turns it into a clarinet and plays it, live looping with a Boss RC20 to record 3 layers....from his solo show "Making Jam"Wow - I thought you coud only get tone like that from a gourd! [via Boing Boing]
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Handlebars as wind instrument
The by-no-means-subtle flash and racket of Zippy's squarewave cylinder -
...here's my brand new homemade analog synth, inspired by the Thingamagoop, but designed from scratch by Zippy. It's controlled by three mercury tilt-switches and of course, buttons-and-knobs. Fun to play! The sound changes as you rotate the thing. It's brain is seven square-wave oscillators: three for the "notes," three for the blinky lights, and one for the "tremolo" mod. The whole thing mounts on a round, blank circuit board and fits inside this acrylic rocks-glass I got at Lucky's!!!! 1/4" output also installed to crank-it-up and annoy the neighbors.WHAT? - CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER the FUNX CAPACITOR [via Synthtopia] Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!
Michael Una brings us the Beep-It optically controlled squarewave generator in a petri dish enclosure -
This minimalist electronic musical instrument eschews esoteric interface in favor of intuitive, expressive control. One button turns the device on or off, which can produce a continuous tone or a rhythmic sequence. One sensor varies pitch of the output waveform in response to ambient light. The resulting system encourages playfulness and body movement.In addition to selling these, Michael has kindly posted the hand-drawn schematic to his blog - Beep-it for Sale
[via Create Digital Music]
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?This mod shows how to wire together a Fender Mustang guitar with new switches, pickups, pots, input jacks, and capacitor. Check out the modded switches on the front face in the picture above. Although we wish the aesthetic look of this guitarwas better, this maker has documented the entire process down to the last strum.
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?This mod shows how to wire together a Fender Mustang guitar with new switches, pickups, pots, input jacks, and capacitor. Check out the modded switches on the front face in the picture above. Although we wish the aesthetic look of this guitarwas better, this maker has documented the entire process down to the last strum.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!This is what happens when a couple of light-sensitive Thingamagoop analog synthesizers scan a blog. I'd love it if someone would compose a song on an incredibly long webpage for them to play!
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!I'm really digging Zebranalogic's Circular Oscillator enclosure design - the layout/shape is unusual and cool - but the transparency and visible PCBs just seal the deal - Circular Oscillator VII [via Matrixsynth]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!The eyeSequencer creates ambient music from the unique pattern of the human iris -
Every now and then you see some particullary beautiful eyes … some of them inspired me to use images of eyes to create musical material. I wrote a little framework/application in Processing to help me analyse the image. “Scanners” circulate in the eye and analyse RGB and brightness values. These values are used to create OSC Messages, which then are send to SuperCollider. SuperCollider would be a great way to produce the sound, but for this example i decided to use SC3 to send MIDI events to Ableton Live, to two instances of the Alphakanal Automat Synthesizer.- eyeSequencer [via Califaudio] Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!
Paul Slocum's “Pi House Generator” creates an evolving soundtrack of house music which goes on forever(almost) -
The software progressively calculates the sequence of digits in pi, starting at 3.14 and progressing towards infinity. As the program calculates the digits, it feeds the results into an algorithmic music generator containing my structural criteria for house music. The resulting piece of house music is infinitely long and static and never repeats itself.Listen to a sample of the math-dance dream in action here - Paul Slocum is an artist and musician …The number of processor cycles required to calculate pi increase with the number of digits it is calculated to. After months or years of playing the song, any fixed computer hardware will be unable to calculate the digits fast enough for the song to play continuously.
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Big box o' techno
Percussionist and Metal Sculptor Steve Hubback creates gong instruments in many varied shapes and sizes - often exploring medieval and gothic themes. Check out the gallery pages on his site - Very metal!
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!Guitar effects manufacturer Line 6 collaborated with Freescale semiconductor to develop a Windows-based programming interface for their modular digital effects pedals. They've just released the software along with a writable hardware module as the ToneCore DSP development kit.
This could be a great and relatively affordable way to experiment with DSP for those interested. The included code examples are written in assembly language and C programming is possibly using Freescale’s software tools. [Thanks, Jan]
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Strannik converted 2 big ol' fire extinguisher tanks into a pair of cylinder speakers. I bet they sound pretty hot! … ahem.
A ton of build pics available in the original forum post
Remain Calm has a nice little roundup of homebrew music applications for use with Nintendo DS - ds music apps [via Matrixsynth]
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Recalling talk of visuals embedded in a track by electronic experimentalist Aphex Twin, Bastwood decided to take a closer look -
First I needed to extract the track from the Windowlicker CD, which was easy with CDex. The extraction of the whole track was not really necessary because the "face" is situated at the very end of the track, starting from the 5:27 mark and lasting for about 10 seconds. There are other "audio images" on this particular track as well (and one at the end of the first track), but the face is certainly the most exciting of them all.… and Aphex isn't the only one to use this technique - see spectrum visualizations from Plaid, Venetian Snares, and others along with more info here - The Aphex FaceAfter I had the wav-file, I used a program called Spectrogram to visualize the file. To my amazement, it worked, and I was soon staring at the "demon" face
You can also experiment with listening to images online using The vOICe Java Applet - good stuff.
[via EMSL]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!Dror provides us with a video tour of his excellently thorough homemade electronic drumkit. It's a full performance system including sound synthesis and even the amplifier! Some good ideas here if you're considering a diy kit yourself -
In order to get the same feel with foot pedals i decide to use regular pedals and perform modification to each one of them, the modification include mechanical upgrade with aluminum plates, for the bass pedal i designed the trigger at the lower section and i change the position of the hammer, in the HI HAT i added variable resistor so when i push the pedal the resistant change and sent to the MIDI unit.- Watch him demo the kit here.
[via Hacked Gadgets]
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An interesting Austin electronic music event tonight:
Ai180: Art Institute of Austin DJ/Laptop BattleRead more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!
Saturday, Nov 1, 5pm100 Farmers Circle, Austin, TX
The Art Institute of Austin is calling all DJs and laptop musicians to come flex their skills at the inaugural Ai180. Battling through five rounds of competition, you better come prepared to show your best stuff quickly; contestants will have three minutes per round to show the crowd and the judges why they deserve a pass to the next round.
32 musicians go head-to-head, battling to win a recording session in the Art Institute's brand new recording studio designed by Grammy Award winner John Storyk.
To make the contest more interesting, each contestant will be allowed to perform with one support artist. A support artist can be a rapper, singer, or dancer, who you think will enhance your show. So whether you decide to spin vinyl with a breakdancer, or rock your laptop and MIDI controller with a soul singer, the competition is yours for the taking. Just make sure to bring your best stuff, or expect to get lost in the crowd.
Aris built a PIC chip based fraktalSynth from Catweazle's designs which have been making their way around the Synth DIY community of late. The project was first posted on circuitbenders.co.uk apparently generates sound sequences based on fractal math - and the results certainly are interesting. Listen to samples and read more about the project over @ Aris' blog - Shoebox Fractal synth
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Flaming Lips' art/noise-rock frontman Wayne Coyne showed off his take on the Guitar Hero controller in a recent interview @ EW.com . His musical hardware mashup combines a Guitar Hero controller's neck and a KORG Kaossilator pad on a double-neck Epiphone electric body. As inspiration, he cites the game controller's acceptance as by today's kids as "how you play guitar now". Well if they watch this thing in use they're sure to be confused ;) [via Hack a Day]
From the pages of MAKE:
21st-Century Keytars MAKE:15, p.56 - Subscribers, read this article now in our digital edition
Here's a brief yet interesting video excerpt where TV icon Mr. Rogers meets with electronic musician/composer Bruce Haack and becomes captivated by a photo-sensitive synth-box. Fred Rogers displays that child-like fascination very well - a feeling many of us still experience while creating interactive devices today.
[via Synthtopia]
More good ideas for ways to use/bend/repurpose the atari punk console circuit -
Remade a Atari Punk Console a friend of mine gave me and put it into an old toy keyboard that I accidentally broke during a circuit bending frenzy this summer.Especially good if you have some leftovers from a "circuit bending frenzy". Keyboards certainly don't have to be 'in-tune' to be fun!
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Atari Punk Console schematics
Over at the MightyOhm, Jeff has been working on building a streaming WiFi radio system (built around a Asus WL-520GU router):
I have been wanting to build a streaming radio for some time. I frequently work in my garage, where I occasionally use my Macbook to play music through a small amplifier and bookshelf speakers. The problem is that my laptop is not always set up in the garage, and greasy fingers are not a good thing to have around a white laptop, period. I could simply buy an internet radio, but I couldn't stomach the $150-$300 price tag on most players for such a luxury.So I decided to build one instead.
I started the design process by drafting an outline of desired features, and then breaking them down into wants and needs, while trying to keep the project scope under control.
Here's Part 1 of the project.
And Part 2.
These in-guitar effects kits look interesting -
The MODboard concept is simple- Take the best vintage style analog guitar effects, miniaturize them, and mount them on a completely modular circuit board. Add the right output jack, knob setup and switching setup to accomodate your guitar, and you're ready to roll. A few simple solder connections for input and power, then everything plugs in with instantly removable modular connectors.Offered in tremolo, wah, compressor, delay, chorus, and tube distortion flavors. While the "best vintage style" description is of course very subjective, the concept seems sound[npi]. Glancing down toward ones feet during a dimly lit gig is never fun - moving at least your most important effect's controls onto the instrument body sounds like a smart idea. Any music-makers out there ever used these? Or have any good tips for mounting your own effects 'in-instrument'? - MODboards
Of course, one could always just duct tape a pedal to their axe a la DEVO -
Further proof of the music-making possibilities that lie dormant in many of our common electronics.
[via Matrixsynth]
Steven Leckart writes on CoolTool:
Ever wonder what instruments, pedals and assorted gizmos Eric Clapton used on stage with Cream circa 1968? If you're a gearhound, amateur musician, professional journeyman, or weekend warrior, Guitar Geek is a fantastic resource (and a major potential time suck). In addition to a laundry list of gear, with each artist comes a very straightforward visual roadmap of what hooks into what. Plus, each specific piece of gear gets its own page with additional info and links to every band in the database that uses, for instance, the Digitech WH-1 Whammy: Robert Fripp, Steve Vai, Radiohead, and My Bloody Valentine, just to name a few. The catalog of bands/guitars is not as vast as it could be. It's very late-90s-heavy and there are some glaring omissions -- no Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin. Also, the site says the accuracy of each setup is not guaranteed, as each has been cobbled together from bios, concert footage, eyewitness accounts, press and online research. Nevertheless, even if you're a fan who has no interest in building your dream setup, there's a certain wow factor when you dive in here (check out Eddie Van Halen's rig circa 1997. Seriously.). When I was 14 years-old and played non-stop, not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined so much info would ever be available in one place.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!Justin writes -
Hi! With a little inspiration from your blog, I made a sequencer from a turntable and some tin foil. I connected a homemade 555 oscillator and cheap keyboard so that they would be triggered by the strips of tin foil rotating on the turntable.Nice contacts sequencer - always great to hear our posts can inspire experimentation and projects like this! Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!
Frostedminipete housed an Atari Punk/noise synth inside of an old Dreamcast game console, making good use of most of the case's features -
This is my first atari punk console, housed inside a dreamcast. Photo cell is demonstrated with a strobe light in the second half of the video.Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!Extra features include...
-Internal speaker with on/off [under lid]
-Opto-theremin (photo cell) with on/off [under lid]
-4 Body Contacts
-Pretty blue LED
- ... uh, furby eyes.
We covered the Komegatone synth-in-a-suitcase previously on MAKE, but there wasn't too much information at the time. Recently, Craig sent us a link to a video and thought it was worth another post. Awesome Sound! [Thanks Craig]
More about Komegatone synth-in-a-suitcase
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Komegatone synth-in-a-suitcase
