From the UK's Sonodrome, the Posc handheld electronic musical instrument:

The Posc is a battery powered, pocket sized oscillator. It has two square wave oscillators, one of which is controlled by changes in the user's skin resistance over two metal contacts. The pitch of the second square wave oscillator is controlled by manipulating the amount of light received by the light dependent resistor. The Posc can be set to work in either stereo or mono output through a standard 1/4" audio jack, so is compatible with a wide range of audio equipment. It is ideal for use with guitar amplifiers and effects pedals, PA systems, and can even be plugged directly into your computer or Hi-Fi audio inputs....A free effects rack for the Posc is also available from our software page.

Check out the Posc and other cool DIY music kits in the Sonodrome Makers Market store.

Ad agency GGRP recently built this cardboard record player. The record player is built into the dust jacket for the record, and you play it by turning record with a pencil. It's a neat idea, but it turns out that there is some prior art here. There is an earlier version of the same thing called CardTalk, which was produced by Global Recordings Network to spread their missionary messages in the 20th century:

If you want to try making your own, teacher Dan Keith has instructions for a make-it-yourself version [via inhabitat]

More:

• Roll your own stereo turntable
• iPhonola
• Car plays music on cut up vinyl records
• LEGO paper-cone record player
• The VinylDisc
• Homemade record player

It's about time somebody made a media award that actually does something other than serve as a impromptu murder weapon. At this years SXSW festival, the Web Awards were built around Bleep Labs' Thingamagoop 2, the analog synth toy (which now has digital/Arduino-control capability).

Bleep Labs

In the Maker Shed:


Thingamagoop 2
Our Price: $100.00
Make, mod, hack, and bend your own analog noise monster! Great for beginners with its detailed instructions and photos of each step. Advanced users can taking advantage of Arduino integration, control voltage in and out, or just bend it like crazy! Choose from 3 colors!

Inspired by the late great American composer and experimental-instrument-maker Harry Partch (Wikipedia), Makers Market seller Johnson Arts created this gorgeous hardwood frame and hung a beautiful glass bell in it. Where'd they get the bell? In a former life it was a glass sink! Check it out, along with other cool handmade one-offs from Johnson Arts, in their Makers Market store.

Fawning fanboys (and fangirls) of analog synths may want to hold onto their wigs and keys before laying eyes on synth pioneer Vince Clarke's "cabin" in Maine. Clarke was a founding member of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure. In this vid, he gives Motherboard the grand tour of his studio in the woods and his impressive thirty year collection of synthesizers. Drool.

Electric Independence: Vince Clarke and the Temple of Synth

Instructables user Kyle Robinson writes:

The Super gameboy (SGB for short) is Gameboy cartridge player for the Nintendo Entertainment system. Chipmusicians who use LSDJ or Nanoloop can use the SBG to compose on a large screen. Wether its at home with friends, or in a studio environment, the SBG can be a great tool for gameboy composing and today we are going to make it even better.

Check out his how-to for adding an audio line out to the SNES Super Gameboy.

Spotted in the MAKE Forums:

Mischka modified this motion-activated greeting toy, making it into a simple sample and loop frog noise machine. There don't seem to an explanation of how it was done, but it looks like a fun project!

More:

• Flashback: Circuit Bending
• How-To: Circuit-bending the VL-Tone
• Circuit bending work station
• MIDI-controlled circuit bending interface
• Cheap and easy patchbay for circuit bending

The Handmade Music event series returns to Brooklyn, NY showcasing a talented collection of sonic experimentalists at Galapagos Art Space. A musical sewing machine, electro-country, the sound of blinking lights, and experimental gestural controllers were all on hand for the event.

In addition to the segments seen above, the night also included a performance by Mouse & the Billionaire which unfortunately I was unable to grab any footage of. In any case, a good time was had by all - stay tuned for details on the next installment in the series.

Subscribe to the MAKE Podcast in iTunes, watch it on YouTube, Vimeo, or download the m4v video.

Ebay seller nes_harmonica is offering three of these old Nintendo cartridges that have been modded to contain working harmonicas. Why the heck would you do that? Turns out it's kind of a retro in-joke for NES enthusiasts. OhGizmo's Andrew Liszewski explains:

If you grew up in the 80's and played video games, at one point in your childhood you had to blow on an NES cart, or inside the console itself, to get it to recognize a game. In fact I never even had an NES, but I can still remember having to do it on a friend's system. At this point it's almost become cliche to bring it up whenever the conversation turns to classic video games, but that didn't stop one clever modder from attempting to turn a profit on Nintendo's folly.

Right now Super Mario 3, Dick Tracy, and Legend of Zelda models are available. [via Geekologie]

Spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool:

Flickr user syano made this stylish clothtylophone, a functional cross-stitch Stylophone. Nice work! Here's what the insides look like:

In the Maker Shed:

Lilypad E-Sewing Kit

The SynPad uses four corner-mounted piezo sensors to determine the pressure and relative location of a given hit. The project can easily be made on the cheap, and turns out a pretty sophisticated Arduino-based MIDI percussion controller. Gang1ion shares the relevant steps and source code for making one yourself. [via Matrixsynth]

In the Maker Shed:

Make: Arduino

If you have to ask why... Well, just don't ask why. [Spotted on the MAKE Flickr pool]

(BTW: This is a cracker box amp, a la the project in MAKE Volume 09)

Schlitz Amp

Stewart McCullough sent us this stop-motion music video he did for some friends, The Bran Flakes. He used (and recommends) Dragon Stop Motion software. He says it's "very well done... stable, with a good user interface, and lots of good features specifically for doing any kind of stop-motion animation." It costs $275.

The Bran Flakes
Dragon Stop Motion

Beeple posted this video analyzing/documenting/presenting a beyond-awesome computer-generated rhythm machine I so deeply wish was real. Note to self - must figure how to construct laser capable of creating laser sound … anyone? [via CDM]

From the pages of MAKE: Drumbot Activate! MAKE: 15: Music, Page 60. Subscribers--read this article now in your digital edition!

Pete of Casper Electronics posted his picks for better bending on the classic Casio VL-Tone keyboard -

Almost all of the bends in the VL-tone are achieved be creating amplifier feedback loops. There are no data glitches to be found. This means there are no random melody bends but lots of squealing distortion bends.

One of my new faves is YouTube phenoms Pomplamoose, a musical duo composed of Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte. On their YouTube channel, they post what they call "VideoSongs," quick and dirty (tho still quite professional) videos of them performing songs in their home studio. VideoSongs have two rules: 1. What you see is what you hear, and 2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds). I love the sense you get of them using all of these modern musical and A/V tools to do creative, improvisational work that they can instantly share with the world. What fun.

PomplamooseMusic Channel

Attention NYC noise-lovers - Handmade Music Brooklyn returns at our new venue, Galapagos Art Space!

Science fair, party, variety show - Handmade Music celebrates unusual DIY creations in music, with people who make their own tools to make their own music. This month, Galapagos Art Space means a stage, a bar, and a huge lineup of FREE music:

• ELECTRO-COUNTRY + unusual instruments with the Owen Lake band, covering honky-tonk country classics on synths and electronics and showing off Jeff Snyder's original Manta touch instrument
• AUGMENTED SEWING MACHINE + ENSEMBLE with monome and other creations, featuring Lara Grant (sewing machine) + Matt Ganucheau + Peter Kirn
• AUDIOVISUAL HYPER-TRUMPET the TOOB, an expressive digital instrument

...plus surprises, hands-on with lots of inventions, plenty of makers and technologists to meet and buy beers in exchange for tips, crafters, inventors, and more. Hosted by createdigitalmusic.com, the craft marketplace and community Etsy, the DIY bible Make Magazine, and the trend-setters of XLR8R Magazine

Where: Galapagos Art Space, DUMBO Brooklyn [directions]
When: Doors open 7pm
Cost: FREE

Sound artist Ranjit Bhatnagar explains how to build a simple guitar, with amplifier, at a recent NY Resistor junk guitar workshop. [via Science Friday. Thanks, Sam Murphy!]

How To Make A Junk Guitar

More:

• All of our junk guitar coverage on MAKE

Features

• Analog VCO controlled by analog or digital signal from Arduino. (A separate Arduino board is not required)
• Sample and hold, Arpeggios, noise, and bit crush effects with open source code so you can program your own sounds!
• All the analog sounds of the original Thingamagoop.
• Controllable LEDacle - Ramp and random waveforms with rate control.
• New modulators - Square wave amplitude modulator and triangle wave pulse width modulator.
• Tough, stomp box type body with silk screened graphics in 3 different styles.
• Easy to access battery - No more screws!
• Much fuller and louder speaker
• CV in and out
• Arduino Programmer jack. Easily hook an Arduino board up to the Thingamagoop 2
• Kit now comes with a pre-drilled enclosure

We've discussed numerous methods for making a cup from a glass bottle, but I don't recall seeing anyone use the neck before. Brookelynn from CRAFT has us covered, though, with this guitar slide made from a wine bottle:

One interesting historical example of upcycled crafting is the bottleneck guitar- or as it is now widely known, slide guitar. The unique resonant sound of slide guitar was originally formed by playing with a glass bottleneck over one finger and running the slide up and down the strings. While the materials for making slides have evolved, bottles are still a popular choice of material. We were given one, and as it has been used over the years, the piece has developed some lovely scratches that give the glass beautiful character. Slideplayer.com has two great ideas for making your own, including a "Burning Twine" method that sounds really cool (and drunkenly dangerous).

When fed a valid URL, CODEORGAN gets to work arranging an original, often quite danceable piece of music determined by several characteristics of the site's HTML. So explaineth the CODEORGAN -

THE CODEORGAN ANALYSES THE *BODY* CONTENT OF ANY WEB PAGE AND TRANSLATES THAT CONTENT INTO MUSIC. THE CODEORGAN USES A COMPLEX ALGORITHM TO DEFINE THE KEY, SYNTH STYLE AND DRUM PATTERN MOST APPROPRIATE TO THE PAGE CONTENT.

Artist slash musician Yoshi Akai makes a lot of electronic musical instruments, including this 3-channel Lego sequencer. A lot of his pieces have an awesome steampunk flavor.

[A]lmost everybody has played with Lego block. In an interface design, this experience is very helpful. Users can understand how to use the tools by intuition. Furthermore, the sound of the complex system is constructed by combining simple systems intricately. The devices that are using emotional designs play chaos sounds by uncomplicated movement.

Playing sound using crisp bread instead of vinyl records; pieces of Lego instead of synthesizer keys etc. It is more building music or finding sound than playing.

[thanks, Pat!]

More:

• Handmade synth senses wireless activity

Ranjit Bhatnagar is getting some really neat watery sounds from this tiny kalimba made from a tube clamp and some guitar wire clippings. Great for audio FX, just stick a contact mic on things and check out the sounds you get!

Features

• Easy to assemble kit makes for a great learning experience. All parts are easy-to-solder through-hole, with no tiny surface mount parts.
• Fully open-source design means that everything is freely available and ready to be hacked, including the circuit schematic, PCB layout, part list, and microcontroller firmware.
• Piezoelectric speaker is used as the pattern input, by simply tapping in the tempo or pattern. Once the metronome learns your pattern, it starts beeping with the same piezo element.
• Seven-segment displays provide feedback in the form of beats-per-minute (BPM) readings.
• Custom, professionally made PCB provides a solid base for happy tappers. All circuit connections are routed on two layers without the use of vias, reducing confusion while assembling.
• A Pre-programmed Microcontroller means you don't need a specialized microcontroller programmer to get started with the Tactile Metronome. If you want to experiment with modifying the firmware, an in-circuit serial programming (ICSP) header is provided to enable easy re-programming.

Clock Loop's BlackBox 2.0 sequencer project uses 4 Parallax Propeller chips driven by a single 5MHz crystal to create some sweet electro rhythm. The above-seen demo shows off what two of the devices can do together - one handling sound synthesis, while the other's on sequencing duty. Have a look at the project's schematic & source code over in the Parallax forums.

In the Maker Shed:

Propeller Proto Board USB

Linyl are colored discs created from old photos or any other means that has captured light on a paper, these are then placed under a transparent vinyl disc that has special groves like the old gramophone records, this particular combo is then placed on a special record player that is capable of playing light and creating an ambiance with a nostalgic feeling.

Update: The team behind Linyl records is Benoit Espinola, Ishac Bertran, Natalia Echevarria, Shruti Ramiah. Nice work, keep us updated on any new projects!

In the Maker Shed:


The Maker Shed has everything you need to get started with Arduino

After some investigative hacking, Wil Lindsay added Monome functionality to a low cost Bliptronic 5000 melody generator using an Arduino + Arduinome source code. If the devices mentioned in the previous sentences leave you a tad confused, suffice it to say - the above-demonstrated hack adds nicey-nice versatile functionality to a $50 grid of LED buttons. For more info on how it's done, check out the Arduino sketch and relevant hardware hookup infos @ Stray Technologies. [via Matrixsynth]

Maybe it's 'cause I'm still all aflutter over the new guitar kits in the Shed, but I paid special interest to this guitar pedal board and travel case that MAKE subscriber Ian, of Tiny Little Life, sent to us. He writes:

Steps in the construction of a pedalboard that I built for the guitarist in my band. This board is a mashup of a whole bunch of really great ideas I found from other DIY designs online. Plus, its covered in flannel.

A Flannel Guitar Pedalboard

More:

• HOW TO - Multi layer pedal board for guitars...
• Building An Effects Pedal Board

I am over the moon with excitement for these new Saga guitar (and banjo, mandolin) kits the Maker Shed is now carrying. I've been ogling such kits ever since Steve Lodefink did a kit-guitar project on his blog. These instrument kits require just enough work that you feel like you've really accomplished something, and you get bragging rights for having built your own axe. The customizing possibilities are also exciting. My credit card started trying to sweet talk its way out of my wallet the second I saw these in the Shed. I think *I've* sweet talked the Shed into sending me a kit to assemble and document for the site. Editorship has its privileges (that and a lot of unseemly begging).

A bunch of MAKE staff members are being similarly seduced by their pocket plastic and the call of these kits. I smell MAKE staff DIY jam band at the next Maker Faire! Move over Spinal Tap!

The kits come in a variety of guitar styles, from flying V to double cut-away, and range in price from $179 - $259. There are two bass models (at $195), two mandolins (one electric, one acoustic), and two banjo kits.

One of the things I'm most excited about is coming up with some amazing veneer or finish and a design for the peghead. Not to mention the creation of my own nameplate to attach to it.

Then my next DIY music project after that will be re-learning how to play the guitar! I haven't played since high school.

In the Maker Shed:

Livid's Builder series consists of a central USB-MIDI "Brain" board plus several input boards, each size-customizable for use with LED pushbuttons, rotary potentiometers, or faders. The system could definitely speed-up construction of that controller-of-your-dreams project - just be sure you won't end up wanting a few more buttons after you've drilled/cut the enclosure (guessing I probably would). Specifics available over at Livid Instruments. [via Create Digital Music]