Very much digging this classic clip of Herbie Hancock demonstrating a Fairlight CMI to some of the kids from Sesame Street. Guessing such technology may not dazzle today's youth quite as much.

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Sadly, the video above is the only information we were able to find on the “Double Slide Controller” trombone, built by composer Tomás Henriques. As well as, the instrument took first place in the Georgia Tech Center Guthman Musical Instruments Competition. Right in front of a Bluetooth bow for violins, and a circuit bending group from New York, and…wait; it beat out our favorite modified didgeridoo? Better luck next year.

Wayne and Layne, creators of the Tactile Metronome, are developing a "party game" called Nerdle that packs capacitive touch sensors on the exterior of the case.

On a whim, I edited the program to make sound based upon the what the buttons sensed. 30 seconds later, this beautiful music emerged.

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Ranjit Bhatnagar writes:

Motherboard tv was kind enough to ask me to make a music machine for them. Here’s their video of the process!

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MAKE subscriber Mike Walters (NYC), from Mystery Circuits, sent us a link to this amazing project he did that turned a Tascam 4-track tape recorder into a programmable drum machine. I love that it looks like something off the set of the original Star Trek. I almost expect to hear the voice of Majel Barrett coming out of it, along with the drum sounds.

Drumssette

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Scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider have put together a sound library consisting of Community Commons music interpreted from from LHC datasets. Here's an example description:

The ATLAS detector viewed from the direction of the beam is circular, allowing us to sweep around it in a clockwise direction, looking for tracks and energy deposited in clusters. This is a bit like radar.

The detector is divided up into very thin wedges and a note is played if there is a track or cluster within the wedge. The pitch is determined by how much transverse momentum (for tracks) or energy (for clusters) is deposited in each wedge.

The resulting pieces are sweep_tthtracks and sweep_tthclusters , named because the event being sonified is a 'ttH' event, which means that it is a simulated event containing two top quarks and a Higgs boson.

[Via Paul]

More:CERN publishes Large Hadron Collider manualLarge Hadron Collider pop-up book"Large Hadron Collider scuttled by birdy baguette-bomber"Better safe than sorry - keep the Large Hadron Collider on all the time!Large Hadron Collider switch-on fears Are completely unfounded

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There's another first for MakerBot: electronic musician Haeyoung "Bubblfish" Kim wrote this song, supposedly the first original composition written for a MakerBot CupCake! If you're digging this, check out MakerBot's list of other musical compositions. If you want to make your own, there is a MIDI to gcode Python script that helps you convert your tunes. And if you don't have a machine but still want to make CNC music, download the MakerBot sound library which consists of .AIF samples of various CupCake pulleys and servos.

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[Taichi Inoue] put together this beautiful visualization system called Yukikaze, japanese for “snow wind”. Basically a spectrum analyzer, Yukikaze is delightful to watch. We would love to see what kind of response he gets, as most of the footage shows very slowly changing smooth jazz. While we don’t think he gets crisp EQ visualizations out of this since it is a single large chamber, we still think it is amazing to watch. [via MakeZine]

These MIDI & Arduino-driven musical instruments -- a violin and a glockenspiel(?) -- were created by Spanish artist Joan Vallvé as part of Sónar, a music and multimedia festival going on this weekend in Barcelona.

The "Violí MIDI" and "Metal·lòfon MIDI" are part of the project to design and construct an automated musical environment. This environment must be able to play live, and that is why it has been designed to be easy to handle, reliable, stable and completely portable. The roots of the project lie in a reflection on the use of robotics as a tool for musical composition and performance. The media and surroundings influence and determine the artist's creative process. A new environment, a new language and a new interface will produce new creations and new musical styles. This is therefore a new format which calls into question the limits of the concepts of singer-songwriter or musical group.

Robotic instruments have so far been polyphonic percussion instruments and melodic instruments using plucked strings. Other musical timbres, registers and functions have still to be explored. On the horizon of the project is the creation of an interface adapted to the characteristics of each instrument, making the automated musical ensemble into an automated musical environment. The project is also based on constructive simplicity, the recycling of components and free hardware (Arduino), as well as the MIDI protocol due to its flexibility.

[Via the Arduino Blog]

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Performous is an open source karaoke/instruments game, in the same vein as Rock Band. Perfect for practicing your favorite Jonathan Coulton song!

While Performous might be classified as a karaoke program, it is actually much more than that. Instead of just displaying the lyrics, notes are also displayed and the performance is scored based on how well you actually hit the notes. Unlike in most other games in this genre, you will also see the precise pitch that you are singing, so that you can see what you are doing wrong and easily (well, everything is relative) correct your pitch.

[via lifehacker]

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While we could be content following our “kiddie d-day” as [Caleb Kraft] suggested. We know you can’t continue such an awesome Friday without trying to blow yourself up first. This Wiimote Rubens’ tube caught our eye. A PVC Aluminum irrigation pipe is drilled with holes and propane is pumped through. A speaker on one end creates changes in pressure and a neat light show follows suit. [ScaryBunnyMan] went further though, with a collection of software and a Wii Remote he “plays god” controlling the music, and thus, the fire. Check out a fun video after the split. [Via Make]

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.

More:Condenser mic in a tin canHOW TO - Furious contact microphone assemblyDIY Microphone Projects

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Over at Make: Español, Marisol found this nifty homebrew xylophone, built by Lovisa Ekelund and Bernardo Flores. Looks like fun!

More:Stone xylophone'Flight of the Bumblebee' on robotic vibraphoneGiant xylophone tableIntroducing the Multixylophoniomnibus, an augmented xylophoneThe gravity-powered xylophones of Charles and Ray EamesHow-To: Build a driftwood xylophoneFlashback: Solar Xylophone

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Austin band ArcAttack! performs with musical tesla coils (in a chain maille "Faraday suit") and a robotic drummer. From their Maker Faire profile:

ArcAttack! employs a unique DJ set up of their own creation to generate an 'electrifying' audio visual performance. The HVDJ pumps music through a PA system while two specially designed DRSSTC's (Dual-Resonant Solid State Tesla Coils) act as separate synchronized instruments. These high tech machines produce an electrical arc similar to a continuous lightning bolt and put out a crisply distorted square wave sound reminiscent of the early days of synthesizers.

ArcAttack! is an Austin born, high tech performance group. They've been working together since 2005. The group members are Joe DiPrima, Oliver Greaves, Tony Smith, John DiPrima, Patrick Brown and Craig Newswanger. Subscribe to the MAKE podcast in iTunes, watch it on YouTube, Vimeo, or download the m4v video. More:

MythBuster Grant Imahara gets ArcAttacked

ArcAttack plays the Star Spangled Banner

Happy Birthday Tesla - from ArcAttack (and MAKE too!)

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Sweet Child O' Mine (Swing Version) by plamere

White Rabbit - The Swing Version by plamere

Tristan Jehan's Swinger does a heckuva good job adding a convincing swing to prerecorded music. Written in Python, the code uses the Echo Nest Remix API to time-stretch half of each beat while condensing the remainder. Check out more of plamere's examples over at Music Machinery. [via joshuatopolsky]

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Now that Microsoft has released their .NET Micro Framework under an open source license, we're hoping to see some interesting projects come out of it. The makers of the .NET-powered FEZ boards wrote in with this cool project:

This project demonstrates how to use the Xbox Rock Band Stage Kit with Micro framework using GHI's USB Host feature....no Xbox is necessary!

...

This example uses a distance detector to measure the distance from the stage kit. The closer you get, the more LEDs will turn on and you will get faster strobe. If you are too close, the fog machine will start working.Here's some code: // when it is connected, make a new device RBSKController rbsk = new RBSKController(device);

// set strobe speed rbsk.SetStrobe(RBSKController.StrobeSpeed.Faster);

// Turn on the second and sixth Blue LEDs rbsk.SetLEDs(RBSKController.LEDColor.Blue, RBSKController.LEDs

RockBandStageKit on NETMFPROJECTS

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Marky likes it!

One of the highlights of our tour of the Maker Faire grounds last Thursday was this "Wayward Calliope" by artist Ben Cowden of Applied Kinetic Arts. Turn the crank, and a combined mechanical and pneumatic power transfer system activates a choir of slide whistles to produce a sound that is simultaneously beautiful, creepy, and hilarious. Somehow. It's rather harder to appreciate in a noisy exhibit hall, so if you were at the Faire and saw, but couldn't hear, be double-dog-sure to check the vid.

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This is (video above) perhaps the most abstract way of playing sounds…ever. Yes, we’ve heard Hard Drive music and Obsolete technology bands, but [DJ Sures] brings us the first ever, spark plug instrument. Much like Velcro and Teflon, the musical spark plug is claimed to be an accident. After testing energy use vs. spark power with his flare stack ignition controller, [DJ Sures] noticed that different frequencies could be produced. It was only a matter of reprogramming before death metal Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is heard. Now he just needs to refine it a bit and build a full stereo cabinet.

This is the Saga FV-Style Electric Guitar kit in mid-build. John Park put one together in the Maker Shed at Maker Faire (with stringing/tuning by the Shed's resident shredder Rob Bullington). It's a beautiful guitar, and an easy build. Come check it out this weekend at the Faire!

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Silverspaceship coded up a simple 3D maze app for his monome 256. Nothin' like a $1400 premium music controller for retro gaming ;) [via monome: news]

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