Crash Space Takes On The Machine

October 21, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 6 Comments

It’s that time again, time to take on the machine with the Hackerspace, Crash Space (and part two)! The team of Californians set out and successfully turned the front of their building into a musical instrument, similar to [David Byrne’s] Playing the Building. When a pedestrian walks by they set off distance sensors, which in turn actuate mallets that strike particular objects to produce a tone. We were pleasantly surprised at how interactive the installation was, even if it didn’t sound that great. But will it be enough to beat out the previous two teams? And how will it do up against Artisans Asylum’s not what you’re thinking Breakfast Machine next time?

[thanks Deven]

Homemade Music Player

October 17, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 20 Comments

Sadly, this pocket mp3 wav player doesn’t come close to the capabilities of even an iPod generation 1 yet, but you have to give [Owen] props for making it in less than 24 hours. The system consists of a Propeller MCU (cleverly wired to be swappable with “shields” similar to Arduino systems), SD card for song storage, and an LM386 for audio. While the setup is a little dull, and only plays through songs non stop with no controls whatsoever, it certainly is a good start in the right direction for a cheap and simple portable music player. Of course some planned changes are in the works, include an accelerometer (gesture based controls?), etched PCB, docking station, and a case. We’re surprised there is no form of screen planned, considering Owen appears to have a rather good handle on touch interfaces; perhaps he’s waiting for revision 3.

The Polyplasmic Archophone

October 16, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 41 Comments

The polyplasmic archophone is a fresh approach to high voltage “arc music“. They are using an Arduino clone to convert signals for the ignition coils. It is still unfinished, but the effect is decent. In the end it will have 2 tiers of voice coils for a total of 13. They are using different materials for the antenna so they can get different colors of sparks. You can see a video of it after the break and we must say the effect is quite nice. Change the lighting on that video and we could imagine this being the set to a [Joules Verne] movie.

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Pyrosphere At Burning Man 2010

October 6, 2010 by Mike Szczys 31 Comments

What’s thirty-seven feet tall, has ninety-one flamethrowers, and is controlled by an Arduino? Why it’s Pyrosphere, an interactive art piece at this year’s Burning Man. It lights up the night along to the music in a way that makes us want to set up a lawn-chair and watch the show. You can see for yourself in the video after the break, but you really should have thrown on the LED fur coat and gone to see it in person.

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Single String Servo Electric Guitar

September 28, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

its a catchy tune!

Ah, we love musical hacks that actually play music. [Mike Baxter] is back again with a new servo electric guitar. This one, called the physical string synthesizer, and has only one string. He’s using two Arduinos to control the unit. One to change the midi file to a note within the string’s limits and the second to actually control the servo. It seems like that could be simplified a little bit, but we’re pretty sure his end goal was to build an instrument quickly, not learn to be a circuit ninja. Last time we saw Mike Baxter, he had built a servo electric guitar that used a keypad for control. You can see a video of the single string one after the break.

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Shovel…guitar?

September 4, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 53 Comments

We didn’t believe this hack at all when we saw it, or rather heard it. Surly a guitar made out of a shovel couldn’t sound decent. But the video (after the jump, skip to 2:40 for the jam) to our untrained ears sounded pretty rad. Could be the supremely well done wood work, proper use of tools, high tech pickups, or maybe Russian magic, we don’t know.

In fact, if you continue the video it doesn’t stop there. The creators also made a 2 string bass and a few other instruments from shovels. Do I smell a new shovel hero?

Related: Guitars made out of things that should not be guitars.

[Thanks Paul]

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YM2149 Gets New Life

August 15, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 6 Comments

[MicroMinded] took us way back to our childhoods with his experiments and subsequent YMstream music player based on the Yamaha YM2149 sound generator used in old arcade systems, computers, and even phones (think chiptune). This reminds us of the Chipophone, only this time the sound is achieved from ICs used back in the day, rather than MCU waveforms.

There is still some work to be done to make the music player have a bit more functionality, but for now source is available if you want to make your own. Of course you might come across a small problem; finding an SSG is a tad bit more difficult than say, an Arduino. If a good resource is found, please share it in the comments!

[Thank you Andrew Kretschmer for sending in the chiptune mp3s]