Music

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.

The real-world origins of some of your favorite Star Wars sounds

I remember seeing the old footage of Star Wars sound designer and foley artist Ben Burtt, banging on a steel radio tower guy wire with a crescent wrench to record blaster-sounds, from a TV documentary when I was like five years old. Which is one of the reasons I thoroughly enjoyed this video interview with him, in spite of the fact that it’s part of a puff video for Lucasfilm’s new book about Star Wars sound effects. Click the embedded player to be taken straight to Ben’s interview at 1:05. [via Gizmodo]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan

OpenKinect-powered virtual floor piano

Or desk piano, for that matter. No actual keyboard required. Gotta say, choosing Thelonious Monk or whomever that is riffing away on the soundtrack is a bit disingenuous, as the virtual keyboards shown in the infrared footage don’t even have semitone keys. According to YouTuber petermmoz’s first comment, however, the software does actually include the “black” keys; they’ve just turned them off to make it easier for beginners to play. [via Boing Boing]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan2
Atari paddle synth

Atari paddle synth

From the MAKE Flickr pool: This slick synth built inside an Atari game paddle, one of many cool synths Michael Rucci has created. This is a square-wave generator with a pulsing effect, hand built into an Atari paddle controller. When you press the trigger it plays the pitch controlled by the large original knob. When […]

Continue Reading John Baichtal