Hacker & Commodore 64 expert Jeri Ellsworth wowed visitors to the Bay Area Maker Faire with her Commodore 64 Bass Guitar.
Ellsworth noted via Twitter that it uses the SID chip and is based on an FPGA - a re-implementation of the Commodore-64 computer using reconfigurable logic chips. See the video below for an overview of the instrument from Ellsworth.
From the stupidtacular department comes the Bananaphone - a DIY touch-capacitance banana-controlled synthesizer.
Here’s the Bananaphone in action:
You can substitute other strange musical control devices for the bananas, if you like. See the DIY guide at Gadget Gangster for details.
via adafruit
Here’s another cool project from Kyle Evans, creator of the electroacoustic didgeridoo.
The de/Rastra oscillographic synthesizer is a real-time audio/video instrument and computer-interfacing device that lets you generate visualizations intrinsic to cathode ray tube technology while simultaneously creating the acoustic analog of the displayed imagery.
Here’s what Evans has to say about the de/Rastra oscillographic synthesizer:
Through hacking and exploiting the capabilities intrinsic to all CRT devices, the technology becomes repurposed as a performative interface, breaking down the device’s ‘consumption only’ nature. The performer is given control over the technology by removing it from the intended application and forcing it into an active state through a combination of physical and mental effort.
Textile designer Lara Grant is giving ‘soft synths’ a new meaning.
This soft interface is made from metallic wools, Velostat (a resistive material), conductive fabrics, sheep’s wool and acrylic craft felt. It is connected to the circuit with snaps soldered to wires and alligator clips.
This video offers a preview of a new instrument from Slaperoo, the ‘Lap Slap‘.
The Lap Slap is a smaller version of the original Slaperoo, which is designed to be held like a stand-up bass. The Lap Slap is 26″ long and designed to be played in your lap.
Both instruments are based around a tensioned steel strap on a rigid aluminum tube.
This is the official teaser video for DEWANATRON! A 3D Stereoscopic Documentary, which looks like it will be a heaping serving of awesome:
DEWANATRON! is the struggle of two inventors, cousins Brian and Leon Dewan to design, manufacture, sell, and play unique analogue synthesizers in an overwhelmingly digital world.
The Magnetic Cello is an analog electronic musical instrument created by Cal Poly SLO student David Levi.
Notable Features:
The instrument is expected to be available in summer 2012. See the Magnetovore site for details.
Noisy Jelly is an unusual project, by Raphaël Pluvinage & Marianne Cauvard, that explores using gelatin shapes as music controllers.
Here’s how they describe it:
Noisy jelly is a game where the player has to cook and shape his own musical material, based on coloured jelly.
With this noisy chemistry lab, the gamer will create his own jelly with water and a few grams of agar agar powder. After added different color, the mix is then pour in the molds. 10 min later, the jelly shape can then be placed on the game board,and by touching the shape, the gamer will activate different sounds.
Click for larger size.
Technically, the game board is a capacitive sensor, and the variations of the shape and their salt concentration, the distance and the strength of the finger contact are detected and transform into an audio signal.
Skintimacy is an project designed to ‘explore interpersonal boundaries through musical interactions’.
The work, by Alexander Müller, Jochen Fuchs & Konrad Röpke, translates skin on skin touches into sound:
With ‘Skintimacy’ we present a skin-based interface for a collaborative musical performance.
The experimental setup is intended to be both an evocative tool for interpersonal interaction and touch, as well as an alternative digital musical instrument. By integrating the human skin and touch into the musician-computer interface, we propose a bodily-close haptic and emotional experience.
W-Audio today introduced a new MIDI keyboard controller that they describe as ‘a game changer’.
The Whole Tone Fixed-width keyboard MIDI controller features a unique keyboard layout that maintains a consistent relationship between black and white keys across the full range of the keyboard. By standardizing the key relationships, the whole tone fixed-width layout makes playing intervals and chords consistent, no matter what key you play in.
“Many musicians don’t realize that the standard musical keyboard was originally designed to slow down players,” notes designer Ellen Qwerty. “Early organs and harpsichords had mechanical limitations not found in modern electronic instruments. If you played notes on two adjacent keys in short succession, the mechanisms would become entangled.”
“The whole tone fixed-width design is derived from the Dvorák Standardized Keyboard, created by composer Antonín Dvorák in the late 19th century,” explains Qwerty. “While this keyboard was impractical in Dvorák’s day, today’s technology makes it not only possible, but desirable.”
Practicing Scales Now ‘A Thing Of The Past’
The new keyboard simplifies learning to play by eliminating the need to learn fingerings and practice scales, according to the designer.