This is a demo for Drawdio – a pencil that lets you “draw” instruments.

While creator Jay Silver compares it to a theremin, it’s closer to a Tannerin or Electro-Theremin.

via wakeupsilver:

Imagine you could draw musical instruments on normal paper with any pencil (cheap circuit thumb-tacked on) and then play them with your finger. The Drawdio circuit-craft lets you MacGuyver your everyday objects into musical instruments: paintbrushes, macaroni, trees, grandpa, even the kitchen sink…

One day I bought a “harmonium” kit at the street market in Bangalore. I hacksawed the keyboard off to make the first ever Drawdio circuit. We played with it at a local school in the slums using plants, water, our foreheads, etc. My friend told me graphite would work too. Meditating on it, I realized the Drawdio circuit should be literally attached to a pencil to “draw audio,” and that’s where the name came from: Draw + Audio.

DIY: Make it. Remix it. Play it.

See http://drawdio.com

Developer Eric Archer is now shipping his Andromeda MK-1 and MK-2 drum machines, DIY minimal drum machines “designed as an experiment of making the most minimal drum machine possible using analog circuitry”.

In the video above, Archer demonstrates the two new drum machines, how they can interact and how you can control them in real time.

The Andromeda MK-1 and MK-2 drum machines are available for $55 each as DIY kits.

Here’s another demo. This one features 12 of Archer’s tiny drum machines:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Andromeda MK-1 analog drum machine has a minimal sequencer with sixteen preset patterns, selectable by the red switch block.  The pushbutton restarts the patterns.  This feature allows you to shift the timing of the rhythm when synchronized with other Andromeda Space Rockers instruments.

The sound of the MK-1 is from a pair of damped sine wave oscillators, which are triggered simultaneously.  The oscillators are reffered to as “X” and “Y”.  Their pitch is controlled by the photocells AND the capacitors labeled X1,X2 and Y1,Y2.  The capacitors control the overall range of pitches that it can play.  Larger value capacitors here make lower pitches.

The square grid of holes is called the Personality Center.  You can use it to add additonal circuitry to your MK-1 to change its character.  I will publish the Personality Center mods as soon as I get a chance.

The Andromeda MK2 analog drum machine has a minimal sequencer with sixteen preset patterns, selectable by the red switch block.  The pushbutton restarts the patterns.  This feature allows you to shift the timing of the rhythm when synchronized with other Andromeda Space Rockers instruments.

The sound of the MK2 is from an analog white noise generator.  This noise is filtered by a resonant filter, and the cutoff of the filter is controlled by the photocell on the left side of the unit.

The sequencer triggers an envelope generator (EG).  This creates a signal that controls the duration and volume contour of the sound.  The EG is controlled by the photocell on the right side of the unit.

The EG’s signal is sent to a voltage controlled amplifier (VCA).  The VCA chops up the steady output from the filtered white noise generator into little bursts of sound, controlled by the EG.  This is what you hear at the output.

The sound of the Andromeda MK2 is like a primitive electronic snare drum / cymbal / handclap.

DJTechTools has just announced a new MIDI controller inspired by classic video game systems, MidiFighter.

MidiFighter is an ready-to-assemble MIDI controller that features 16 game-style buttons and 16 programmable LEDs. It can be customized and expanded, too.

MidiFighter MIDI Controller Details:

• Release Date: November 30th
• Price: TBA
• Plug and Play compatible device compliant midi controller
• USB powered
• Must be assembled (no expertise required)
• 16 programable buttons
• 16 programable LEDS
• Expandable to 20 programmable buttons and 4 analogue controls
• Limited Edition 200 piece run in this configuration (black PCB with white LEDS)

This thing looks like it’s going to be pretty insanely fun.

MidiFighter is a DIY kit – but it’s not hardcore DIY – it’s funcore DIY:

The Midifighter kit comes in a flat box that can be personally assembled in 5 minutes. Entry level moders can select the arcade button colors they want when ordering and assemble the kit into a custom configuration that fits their personal style or mapping. The arcade buttons snap into place thanks to our hand made clips that require zero soldering. Just screw together the frame using a simple allen wrench, snap in the arcade buttons and your custom controller is assembled and finished.

The finished controller is plug and play with super high quality low latency drivers and will work with all midi compatible software.

Because it’s a kit, you can customize it. Use color-coded buttons. Use the extra analog and digital input ports toadd mod wheels, joysticks, sliders and knobs. And if you want to get hardcore, the kit is totally open source so you can hack the firmware.

Pricing is TBA, but we should know soon, because they plan to release this November 30th.

Anybody interested? Leave a comment!

rishabhrajan demonstrates his MacGyver multitouch surface, with some general applications and then with a Flash version of Brian Eno’s Bloom ambient app.

Below, a “paper piano”, created with Community Core Vision, Pure Data and Logic Pro.

Do you think 2010 will be the year somebody packages this concept and turns it into a general music app?

This can’t end well.

You create a synthesizer-controlled Frankenstein robotic dog, and pretty soon you end up as dog food.

via SpillerNo:

How to controll a frankenstein robot dog with animatronics using a toy synthesizer. Fra programmet «Tekno» som går mandager 21:30 på NRK 2

This video offers a nice before and after comparison of DIY acoustic treatment for your studio.

If you want to read specifics on the Pretension’s DIY acoustic treatment, check out this post at the Pretension Music site.

via PretensionMusic:

This video shows the difference that acoustic treatment can make to your studio. This is by no means a hi-tech acoustic test but it does show what a little DIY and some acoustic insulation can do to an ordinary room. Throw your headphones on and hear the difference for yourself and if you want to know more about the project, check out my blog.http://pretensionmusic.blogspot.com

via the Awesome-Amplifying Torley

This is a sneak preview of Eric Archer’s DIY Andromeda MK-1 and MK-2 minimal drum machines, with hand cut cardstock enclosures:

The enclosure is actually an afterthought. I added it to address any concerns about the bare board, to make it easier to put the device in your pocket, and to offer six surfaces for your artwork. Although as a friend pointed out, the enclosure covers up the surface bend /body contact points inside. So its just an option.

This video demonstrates different ways to use/abuse the infrared wireless signals that keep the instruments synchronized. The unit on the far left is the master clock.

Archer says kits will be available soon.

Jan van Nuenen created this IKEA solar-powered optical theremin thing, the Sunnan Synth.

The Sunnan Synth is made with an IKEA Sunnan solar lamp, photoresistors, pots and a cmos 556 ic. The IKEA Sunnan lamp is $20 at IKEA stores, and if you buy one, they donate another to UNICEF to help kids in small villages.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ben Brown plays his bizarre DIY monome guitar synth thing, aka the Guitarnome:

I’m playing the guitar I made from scratch, with a monome kit embedded in it. It was a long project… but fun.

Some parts are a bit out of tune(need to do some more guitar work) and Im still figuring out the setup(running 7up live on the monome). The audios pretty crappy on this recording unfortunately as my speaker setup was a bit janky… but hey! it was fun. Ran the vid through ScreenFlow for some super quick editing and export.

I’m using Ableton Live for my audio bits and a Presonus Firepod to process my voice and guitar signal. We kinda just did this spur of the moment so I didnt get the audio from Ableton.

The Guitarnome is not a traditional guitar synth, but rather a monome/guitar mashup.

The Guitarnome has a body made from cherry, wenge, and maple, a neck with a zebra wood fret board and a birds eye maple neck.  Brown embedded a Monome within the body and custom built the encasing for all the electronics. The Guitarnome has USB & 1/4″ outputs.

Ableton Live 8: This video demos Liubo Borissov’s simple arduino 4-sensor controller for an FM synth.

Code: 2rem.net/projects/m4l/lab.arduinofm.zip

This video, from Handmade Music Austin, features a discussion with Eric Archer about his new drum synths and more.

via EA78751:

Handmade Music Austin – a series of DIY music workshops for 2009-2010 presented by Church of the Friendly Ghost.

In a workshop setting, we’ll build a series of miniature electronic instruments called Andromeda Space Rockers. No bigger than a credit card, these projects are designed for DIY’ers. They can be built in a couple of hours to make a working drum machine, bass generator, or micro-synthesizer. These fun little instruments love to jam together, and they do it by forming a wireless network to keep the rhythm!

Of course, there will be an open jam / performance once the instruments are built.

Workshop dates 2009-2010
Location: Austin, Texas October 18 – November 15 – December 20 – January 17 – February 28 – March 14 – April 18

Registration is $45 and includes materials.

Casper Electronics has announced the Drone Lab synthesizer – a DIY synth designed to make ambient electronic drones:

I’ve joined forces with Electromagics to design a Drone Lab kit that is easy to build and is capable of creating rich drones and complex pulsing sequences. We’re in the final stages of PCB prototyping and will be calculating the cost and taking pre orders within the next week or two.

We plan on offering parts kits as well as finished units soon after.

Pricing and availability info is expected to be up soon.

MIDIBox.org has announced sammichSID, designed to be a “no excuses” MIDIbox SID synthesizer kit that’s cheap, easy to build and powerful.

sammichSID has the following design constraints/features:

• cheap
• small
• DIY newbie friendly
• minimal control surface
• single “walwart”/AC adapter supply, no C64 PSU brick!
• stereo SID, optimized for 8580/6582A, 6581 optionally supported
• “sandwich-style” stacked PCB design, no wires!
• laser-cut 3mm acrylic case by Ponoko, customization possible
• industry standard 2×20 character LCD with low-power LED backlight, customization possible
• common control surface parts used, customization possible
• To be available as a complete kit, including PCBs, components, case, hardware and (optionally) two 6582A SIDs!

MIDIbox SID Synthesizer V2 features:

• One Core module and one stereo SID module, fully integrated on one PCB with power supply.
• Five “BankStick” slots, so you can store 4 banks of 128 patches, plus 128 “Ensembles” (engine and patch configurations)
• Jumpers to configure the power supply, allowing a regulated 12V input to power 6581, or unregulated AC/DC input to power 8580/6582A.
• Minimal control surface with three user-customizable buttons and LED matrix for maximum bling.
• 2×20 character LCD with support for low-power (25mA) or high-power (250mA) LED backlight.
• Potential for future upgrade to MIDIbox SID Synthesizer V3 using add-on board

More details on this Wiki page, discussions in this forum article.

This video captures some Drawdio fun.

Drawdio is designed to “bring to life the everyday interconnections between people and environment, encouraging you to use your sense of touch, and letting you hear otherwise invisible electrical connections by creating, remixing, and playing.”

Drawdio is a DIY project that lets you “draw music”.

A Drawdio kit is available for $17.

This is a proof of concept video for Cantarino, a software speech synthesiser for Arduino.

It is still a work in progress, but a tech demo that runs on Arduino is now available.

This is a demo of a Peggy 2.0 based giant LED system, which can be used to play old-school video games, or make generative music!

Details below.

via SenorBon:

We built a giant LED board, about 6.5×6.5 feet, with 900 LEDs using ping-pong balls as diffusers.

It can play Conway’s Game of Life, Pong, and Sketch mode that allows you to create a starting pattern for Life. We output board state information to a MIDI board that allows us to make music based on what is displayed. This gets interesting with Life, creating minimalist generative music.

See pictures here.

Thanks to Evil Mad Scientists for their Peggy 2.0, upon which we based the circuit for our project.

Jesse Styles created this “autofaciomodulated synthesizer”, built from the Thingamakit by Bleeplabs.

The Thingamakit is a DIY light-controlled noise making synth thing.

Eric Archer demos four tiny drum machines with analog sound, IR wireless network, and photocell control.

One drum is running through a DigiTech Synth Wah pedal. The other three are mixed dry. The mix is playing through a guitar amp.

See the recent post on minimal drum machines for more info.

This is a preview of the Black Box music sequencer – a DIY project based on the Propeller chip.

The Propeller chip is designed to make it easy to rapidly develop embedded applications. Its eight processors (cogs) can operate simultaneously, either independently or cooperatively, sharing common resources through a central hub.

Details on the Black Box sequencer are available at the Parallax Forums.

via GlowingPhatRaver:

All sounds are coming from the black box.

Jacob Remin demonstrates his Cheap, Fat & Open synth:

the CHEAP, FAT and OPEN synth put trough the audio gate of an electribe. trigging some more noisy sounds in rhytmical patterns is real fun, and it makes we want to implement a gate sequencer to the platform

More images are available in his Flickr stream.

Below, he demos a light sensor:

Click here to view the embedded video.

via jabstarr:

using mini-jack cables as stylophone sensors turned out to be a clever move: the cables carry 3 signals, allowing me to run 5V and GND through the cable along with the sensor signal. this opens up for modular plug and play with home built sensors, that get powered by the platform.part of the CHEAP, FAT and OPEN project: http://tthheessiiss.wordpress.com