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.
Tyler Freeman hacked his clothes and created a jacket that transforms movement into video performance art. The VJacket senses gestures and then uses that information to create complicated visuals right from the dance floor. Filmed at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011.
John Wilson of Minneapolis, MN, created the Stella Amp, his own twist on the cigar box amp. The Stella Amp is a portable battery powered guitar amplifier! Perfect for making your own mini-practice amp, cigar box amplifier, headphone amplifier, or any other kind of battery powered amplifier you can think of. Engineered for a good […]
Mycroft Milverton used an Arduino and a Wave Shield to create the Radio Arduino Classic Edition, a retrofitted vacuum tube radio that plays different classic radio tracks when it’s tuned. The device plays 60 tracks in normal mode, but also has an easter egg mode, which can play thousands of tracks. Be sure to check out Mycroft’s original Radio Arduino as well; it’s built in the shell of an Oscar Belle two band transistor radio from the 1960′s.
When a battery operated device runs out of juice, most of us reach for a fresh pair of AA’s. But when his daughter’s electronic toy piano had drained its batteries, Dominik instead installed a hand-cranked dynamo to power the instrument ad infinitum. He hacked apart an Ikea flashlight to co-opt its cranked generator and installed it inside his daughter’s plaything. Now a little bit of elbow grease keeps the tunes coming while saving the environment and a little bit of money to boot.
Joe and John DiPrima’s ArcAttack! is a performance group that creates electrifying melodies by controlling the frequency sweep on their solid state Tesla coil. This is accompanied by a full drum set that’s controlled electrically through a series of rotary solenoids.
We’ve written about the work of instrument inventor and musician Bart Hopkin here on MAKE before. But I just spent a bunch of time on his site today and am enchanted for the experience. A lot of instrument inventor/builders create objects that look cool but don’t sound very… instrumental. Or others create devices that make great sounds but aren’t much to look at. Bart’s pieces are novel, gorgeous, and sound amazing.
Andy Cavatora and friends built these gravity harps for a Björk concert currently playing in the U.K. It looks like each pendulum has a servo-controlled rotation system that changes what note gets plunked at the pendulum’s nadir.
