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Showing posts from 2011

Homemade 24-string bass with aluminiun fretboard

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This pic says it all: Here's the video:

Monster version of Elektor Formant

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Siegfried Brückner has built a HUGE version of a 70's DIY synth project from the Elektor magazine. See the Monster-Formant in action: "the Elektor Formant is a Moog-ish DIY synthesizer presented in Elektor in several episodes way back in 1977 and replicated as fantastic project by an extraordinary number of people at the time, complete with many extensions." Via Elektor magazine .

Circuit bent Stewie in the pocket

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Via electro-music. Made me lol.

More of Björk's new instruments

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You must watch this video from start to the end... Quite a lot of uncommon instruments being prepared...

Making of Björk's Gameleste

This is really cool! Quoting the Vimeo page: Björk commissioned several custom instruments for the shows surrounding the release of 'Biophilia' - one is a hybrid gamelan celeste; the original steel bars of a vintage orchestral celeste were replaced with bronze tonebars hand-made by UK cymbalsmith Matt Nolan, and the instrument was rebuilt and MIDIfied by Iceland's top organ-maker, Björgvin Tòmasson. This is a 2-minute brief montage of the making of the 'Gameleste' Camera: Andy McCreeth Editing: Andy McCreeth and Matt Nolan Soundtrack Music: Matt Nolan

ToneMatrix Touch

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This is a touch-based synthesizer made as a student project. It's based on a flash synthesizer of the same name. I don't really understand how it works or is controlled... Check the video to see for yourself! ToneMatrix Touch Demo ToneMatrix Touch Tour

The Optigan resurrected!

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The Optigan was a 1970's organ based on optical rotating discs. In fact, it was much more than just an organ: it was more like a sampler. You could even play pre-recorded beats with it and more. The problem is that the Optigan is very rare nowadays. However, the discs are still available... ...so Gan at gaje.jp decided to make his own Optigan. Very impressive! Here's the video! [Found via Hackaday ]

The Verrophone

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While reading the Google Books preview of Thomas D. Rossing's book Science of percussion instruments , I stumbled across the Verrophone. The Verrophone is quite close to a glass harp made of wine glasses, only it looks much cooler, being made out of big glass tubes. The sound is sharper and with more attack than the glass harp. Here's a nice piece with a verrophone and a glass harp.   For the HC Verrophone fans, here's a Verrophone wallpaper !

Laser-cut violin

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Ranjit made a sharp-looking violin with a laser cutter . He calls it "the 8-bit violin", for a reason! Below is a video of it being played. [Found via Hackaday ]

Robotic harmonica

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Another musical robot! These guys built a harmonica-playing machine. I got to say it's not very flexible, and seems it can play only simple songs. Anyway, interesting idea, and a lot of work invested into something so crazy! See the video here . [Found via Hackaday ]

Glitchy beats on Nintendo DS

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glitchDS is a unique freeware sequencer for the Nintendo DS. Like the 2112 sequencer we saw earlier , the glitchDS is also based on Conway's Game of Life. Here's a couple of tasty videos of the glitchDS in action:

DIY telephone handset microphone

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This guy made a microphone out of a telephone handset and made an instructable out of it . He used quite simple electronics and the sound quality is not very good, as you can hear in the demo video he posted . Anyway, it's a nice idea and gives some use for the old wired telephones. See also this cool video of a studio performance with two DIY headset mics! Erikino & James Studio Perforance

Game of Life sequencer

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This crazy sequencer called 2112 switches a 4x8 matrix based on the Game of Life! Why? So you could ask! See below a video of it rigged to a Buchla 200e ! Plus another two videos, if you didn't get enough from the first one! [found via Hack a Day ]

Welcome to my new blog!

Hi there! This is the first post to thingstruments, a blog about strange instruments, pioneers who create them and virtuosos that play them. There will also be posts about software instruments, sound related programs, do-it-yourself guides and even schematics. The instruments will vary a lot, from acoustic to electronic to electromechanical constructions... Basically if it makes a sound, it fits here. After Tom Whitwell's Music Thing , my all time favourite blog, closed in January 2009, I felt like the internet had a hole in it. This blog will try to fill that hole at least partly, providing some strange & funny news about crazy musical things. It will be no Music Thing, I'm not even a native english speaker, but I'll try my best to make it an entertaining blog!