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.
Jay Wasco’s Swiss Army bass – an inconveniently unique instrument; hard to play, interesting to hear – Yup-that’s right. It’s a bass guitar with a midi keyboard mounted on it. Yes, the two are played simultaneously. The bass is played with the left hand alone by means of a guitar technique known as “hammer-ons” while […]
From the MAKE Flickr pool Another very original enclosure design, this one goes knob-less. Flickr member Rarebeasts writes- This unit makes a huge range of strange noises. You start by setting the controls on the top of the unit, this sets up a sweep on the LEDS, by moving the LEDs around the light sensors […]
I met up with Dan Paluska (the other maker is Jeff Lieberman) – they have created the “ABSOLUT QUARTET”, an “automated multi-instrumental orchestral machine, a large-scale electromechanical sculpture consisting of three instruments and thousands of parts, working together to create one piece of music. The main timbre is a marimba played by balls shot from […]
From the MAKE Flickr pool More good stuff from member Ranjit – The frets are bamboo skewers – I tuned them by ear so the tuning is kind of shaky. I might add more frets later. Note how the bamboo bridge rests on a point on the membrane (architectural vellum)- this helps to transfer the […]
From the MAKE Flickr pool Member Recotana may have built the smallest MIDI input device ever. It uses a PIC12F675 chip, a few basic components, and single switch to register input. He plans to use it in conjunction with a heartbeat sensor – cool! This could come in handy for quite a few project ideas. […]
Not a kit or a toy but worth noting – Schoenhut has been making toy pianos for over 135 years – here’s an amazing harp (for kids) they make too. I think these folks are the best and only makers in their space – gorgeous looking (and sounding) stuff. More: Schoenhut – Link. More photos […]
Derek writes – In order to promote the art of circuit bending and the BENT festival, Absurdity.Biz has uploaded the first BENT festival documentary dvd online in its entirety for free viewing. Shot at the first international circuit bending festival for Absurdity.Biz’s ongoing Circuit Bending documentary, it later became a side-project DVD series sold at […]
