Bassoforte And Other New Instruments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhp6P9Ygsoc]

[Diego Stocco] makes music with instruments he assembled. For instance, his Bassoforte uses piano keys, the neck and strings from an electric bass, and what look like some cymbals. Throw in a hammer from that piano and a double bass bow (plus heavy use of audio software) and he’s in business. Big business actually, his work has been in video games such as The Conduit and in feature films like Sherlock Holmes where he worked with Hans Zimmer. Bassoforte isn’t his only invention, he’s got several more including the Experibass string family on one instrument, the Light Controlled Oscillator, and sand music using the fine aggregate along with some piezoelectric film transducers.

[Thanks LuciusMare]

29 thoughts on “Bassoforte And Other New Instruments

  1. That… sounds like shit.
    How is this a hack.
    Making instruments from random parts is something everyone tries in their life.

    Making it sound good now that’s a skill.

  2. wow, i was hooked the i saw the guitar neck being sawn off. i must admit i wasn’t expecting the awesome music :D replayed it a few times. …and it still takes me by surprise on how good it sounds

  3. I’m curious as to what he can do with this thing that he couldn’t do with a guitar, cymbal, bow, hinges, etc. as separate, intact components. Maybe he needed to prove to his wife that storing the old broken piano was necessary?

  4. Girt, it was a bad idea to replace your head with your ass.
    First comment and Already hatin’!!

    It sounded unique and great! It’s awesome to see someone put their ideas to work, instead of sitting in front of a screen all day dreaming about doing a mod or hack.

    If you came to hackaday solely for electronic or software, infiltration or manipulation, then you came to the wrong site.

    Hackaday is about the appreciation of worldwide efforts of people that try to produce their ideas to go beyond commercial limitations or invent something new. aka hack

    Once again, keep up the DAMN good work Diego!! Your creativity in achieving new sounds and orchestrating them in such sync is remarkable.

    (instead of just piradownloading plugins for frooty loops like most of the crud out there)

  5. I’m getting really tired of these cliche “Don’t post anything negative or critical unless you have had 5 projects on Hackaday” posts. Getting something posted to HAD doesn’t automatically imply you have any talent or original ideas, and conversely, you don’t have to be an inventor or hacker to know when an idea is bad or poorly executed.

  6. Brennan: Now you know how the rest of us feel when people bitch about every damn post. If you want to hate on an idea, keep it to yourself. The rest of us come to read about neat ideas, not complaining. Maybe some of this stuff is below your skill level – if that’s the case, then you should be visiting a site that challenges you more. You wouldn’t stick around kindergarten for three years complaining about how you don’t like it…

  7. @ Brennan – Agreed.

    The bassforte is the only thing this guy has made that even sounds remotely good and even then it needs a lot of improvement.
    Making music from banging things is probably something that most people in music or sound design have tried at least once and it never sounds that amazing, but is a great learning experience. I think the true gift of this guy is how he manages to sell it to so many people and promote himself so people think it’s amazing. Anyone can take a crap but only a truly gifted one can make the world eat it.

  8. @Patrick

    If you read my post, I never bashed this guy’s bassforte idea, so calm down. I actually think it’s pretty cool, as I am a musician myself and I love finding ways to combine music and technology. I was just responding to a previous poster in these comments, because I have noticed a trend in the HAD comments and it bothers me.

  9. I didn’t say you bashed his idea. I was under the impression we were both addressing the general concept of bashing ideas.

    Granted, I’m sure it’s just as annoying to read the rebuttals as it is the original bashing. I’ll tone it down on my end. I just think there’s enough negativity in the world that we don’t have to go around debasing others for no reason.

  10. wow. what a bunch of sorry ass haters. let me guess, rap is the devil, sampling is for no talent bums and electronic music is just noise.

    i was in the middle of making several points when i realized once again it will never get through to the people that need to hear it.

    im always glad to see people making new instruments from old, giving new life to something that was destined for the trash.

    in short, trolls will always troll, haters will always hate. its best to ignore them and move on

  11. @Everyone Dis’in this guy….

    most good musician’s are really good hckers
    this guy did a great job and it sounds awesome!!

    thank you HackADay for posting this wounderfull piece of Work :)

  12. one word: junk

    This is not a ‘hack’. It’s just a bunch of junked instruments glued together and a guy twanging on the junk, making junk “music” that is far from enjoyable. Sorry, I could have done this when I was 12 years old, ruined a lot of good instruments, and done something more interesting.

  13. I didn’t like it for the first few seconds, but then it starting rockin. Good post. If you guys are going to hate can you at least be funny with it. There’s nothing enjoyable about hearing someone complain.

  14. It’s a bit unconventional, but I actually liked the music!

    I think the build is only a small part it. It doesn’t look very complicated, many people could have build it, but few people could have played it so well. I think that’s his real talent.

    To all the people bashing: negativity will get you nowhere in life, and it would be sad if you wouldn’t figure that out until just before the end.

  15. @David: HAD embedded YouTube videos always work for me.

    @Anyone else: FWIW, I find this post inspirational regardless of the quality of the hack, the definition of ‘hack’ and, indeed, the definition of ‘music’. If a HAD post gives me a new idea, helps develop an old idea or makes me think in a way I didn’t before, then I consider it worthwhile. If not, then it’s no sweat – it only takes 20 seconds to read and decide if it’s useful.

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