RSSMake a mellotron out of walkmans - Weekend Projects Podcast
This week Eric Beug joins me this week to make a musical instrument out of walkmans. The mellotron is an instrument that uses taped audio through a keyboard interface. Finding inspiration in Mike Walters' Melloman, we hacked together a simple circuit to trigger loops of tape to make a super simple sampler. We had originally thought to use getlofi's parallel port sequencer, but ended up going with the arduino instead. I'll have the pdf, including the program that goes on the arduino, available for download Saturday. - Subscribe Link
We got the walkmans for two bucks apiece on the west end of Canal Street in New York City and there were still a lot left there.! If you need an arduino, we sell them now in the Make: Store - Link
Posted by Bre Pettis |
Sep 28, 2007 09:00 AM
Electronics, MAKE Podcast, Weekend Projects |
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Comments
Oldest comments listed first.
| Posted by: colossalman on September 28, 2007 at 1:04 PM |
I've always been a fan of hte weekend projects, and this one is incredibly cool. I had seen the melloman before but never thought of making my own mellotron.
| Posted by: TheThompsonFive on September 28, 2007 at 4:00 PM |
And as if by magic this auction appears: http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-7-Sony-Walkman-WM-FX290-AM-FM-Cassette-Player-NR_W0QQitemZ230174250851QQihZ013QQcategoryZ15053QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD7VQQcmdZViewItem
| Posted by: IronSausage on September 28, 2007 at 4:33 PM |
I built mine almost entirely out of garbage... a year and a half ago:
http://www.siemprelaluna.com/index.php?itemid=11
| Posted by: samurai1200 on September 28, 2007 at 6:22 PM |
neat idea. mix master mike would be proud.
dang flash player volume slider getting stuck.
| Posted by: tubetone on September 28, 2007 at 7:51 PM |
Very cool. Has anybody created a digital mellotron? I'd like to make a folder full of ogg samples playable by a midi controller. Would that not be cool?
| Posted by: petdav on October 1, 2007 at 11:29 AM |
Awesome project, but on the YouTube link you closed your "a" tag twice, so it doesn't work. I thought about doing this with little Radioshack recording modules, but then realized that that would probably be crazy expensive, and decided not to do it. In response to the digital mellotron, I think that's your basic synthesizer.
| Posted by: EdgesofTwilight on October 5, 2007 at 4:33 PM |
Still having a hard time finding cheap walkmans. Must be all the "Make" fans buying them up! :)
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Posted by: boogmusic on March 23, 2008 at 11:24 PM |
Great! But where is the PDF with the instructions?
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