MIDI Controllers

EM’s Geary Yelton has an interesting review of the Tenori-On.
Their take:
You could easily argue that the Tenori-on is not suitable for professional music production. It has no filters, LFOs, envelope generators, nor any of the user-programmable parameters you’d expect in a real synthesizer. It has only one oscillator per voice, and it provides no access [...]

This Tenori-On Meets Kyma video is sort of sexed up - in fact it sort of hypnotized me into thinking I need one of these things.
Anyway - here’s the scoop on the video:
In order to tap the real power of Yamaha’s new Tenori-on, it helps to pair it with external equipment capable of producing more [...]

BeatMachine - Amateur is a DIY project that uses a webcam and a computer to turn a sheet of paper and some bottle caps into a drum machine. 
This is totally MacGiver - but you gotta love it, too. Unfortunately, the creator’s site is in Polish. If you can read it, give us the run down in [...]

Let’s get this out of the way up front:
The Tablo, a new multitouch keyboard/drum controller integrating displacement and pressure, just doesn’t look as cool as other new music controllers, like the Tenori-On or even the MultiWind. 
In fact, it makes you look like you’re pitching a tent, instead of pitching a tune. 
Get beyond that, though, and you’ve [...]

Bob Chidlaw from Source Audio demonstrates what can be done with 2 rings controlling synth parameters using Hot Hand Soundblox controllers:

You can make awesome chainsaw sound effects with your hands.
You can make the photographer keel over.

We need some of these things!

Chris Graham is prototyping a modular breath-controlled instrument of his own design, the MultiWind. 
One of the goals of the MultiWInd is that it can be played multiple ways:

The Mini Instrument (playable in many styles including brass, harmonica and breath controller).
The Woodwind style instrument, which is convertible from the Mini Instrument by snapping on the Finger [...]

Erik Rask and Mika Forsling, aka Lurmusic, are couple of musicians from Malmo, Sweden, working with interactive performance and live loop music.
They are known for their electronica shows where they combine projections that react to the music. Their latest project includes one Arduino board, the Tinker.it software to communicate to Flash and a shield designed [...]

Some interesting footage of Stephen Hobley testing out his DIY laser harp. 
Says Stephen:
The visuals look great, but the sound is out of sync (we’re not film-makers!). In retrospect we should have had more people working on the different parts of the shoot.
How tired was I when we shot this? We’d been setting up since 8:30pm [...]

The Doepfer CTM64 is a universal contact-to-MIDI interface that can be used as the basis for custom MIDI controllers.
Here are a few examples of what people have built using the CTM64:

More examples of custom MIDI controllers, including custom DJ controllers for Richie Hawtin & Monolake, are available at the Doepfer site.

The MIDIator is a new synth DIY project that turns a PS2 controller into a MIDI controller.
The current firmware supports remapping of the buttons to different notes or controllers. It’s [...]

Slapyak has an interesting tutorial on creating a Guitar Hero MIDI controller.
With the current version you can:

play 2 octaves of an 8 note scale at a time
change the starting note anywhere in the range of a regular keyboard
change octaves
change keys
change tonal modes (Ionian, Mixolydian, Lydian, Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, Locrian)
change [...]

Livid has put together a couple of cool videos demoing AudioCube basics:
Percussa Cubes Basics

Impressions and demonstration of using the Percussa Audio cubes with the tutorial Ableton Live set. The center cube detects the faces of the other cubes to send MIDI notes to Live to change loops.
Percussa Cubes with Resonant Synth

Here’s the setup:
Using the distance [...]

This video, by Livid Instruments, shows scratching with Percussa AudioCubes:
I set up four loops in an audio looper program I’ve been working on for future release by Livid Instruments. I’m using the speed of my hand gestures as detected by the four distance sensors on the audio cube to change the playback speed and direction [...]

At the 2008 Maker Faire, IEEE Spectrum caught up with Andrew Turley, who had turned a microfiche into a musical instrument.
Using a simple photodiode, the keyboard plays notes based on how light the center of the screen is.

Steppers are an interesting music controller designed for 5-year olds:
As a group, we hoped to make a toy that not only encouraged physical activity, but that also acted a clear and direct musical interface.
Steppers transform walking, dancing, running, and jumping into a unique and dynamic activity, allowing the user to express themselves audibly through their [...]