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.

Sonodrome: Inspiring entrepreneurship in hobby electronics

That said, there’s almost nothing we like to see better than a maker hanging out a shingle and selling their own handiwork. Finding these people and helping to promote their work was the single biggest reason we launched Makers Market. If you’re on the fence about hanging out your own shingle, give it a look and/or drop me an e-mail, and let’s talk. Likewise, if you’re ready to take the plunge but could use a bit of start-up cash, consider entering our Gadget Freak Design Contest. It’s been running for a couple of weeks, now, but the pool of entrants is still small, and the pool of truly impressive entries is smaller still, so there’s a very real opportunity there for the right clever person with the right clever idea. First prize is $1,000 in cash and guaranteed admission to Makers Market.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan

Tin can contact microphones

If you’re into lo-fi sound, this is a pretty cool trick. What’s more, it’s super easy to DIY. If you’re as busy as I am, though, and you still want to experiment with a tin can mic, it’s hard to argue with the $7 price tag on these from the guys who run getlofi.com. I like the fact that they leave the original labels in place, and that they use 1/4″ jacks. It would also appear that they have some clever trick for resealing the empty can in a good-looking way. At first I thought they were actually using a can sealer to close them back up, but close inspection of the photographs makes me think they probably open them with a side-opening can opener (Wikipedia) and then glue or solder the original lids back in place. Still cool, though.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan
Voltage controlled grunge module

Voltage controlled grunge module

Spotted in the Electro-Music forums, oldmanfury converted an old guitar distortion pedal into a voltage controlled synth module using an Arduino & digital potentiometer chip – I’ve talked about doing this forever, so I am happy to finally be able to introduce my 95% complete, voltage controlled DOD Grunge FX-69!  Frac-rack modular synths have been […]

Continue Reading Collin Cunningham
The worlds only working pallophotophone

The worlds only working pallophotophone

A while back Schenectady Museum curator Chris Hunter came across some old pallophotophone recordings from radio station WGY. “What’s a pallophotophone?”, you might ask. Also known as the RCA Photophone, it’s an early recording device developed by GE researcher Charles Hoxie. GE Engineer Russ DeMuth, recreates a pallophotophone from Hoxie’s original design and manages to extract some rather interesting recordings.

Continue Reading Adam Flaherty