CDs were a great advancement in audio quality when they were first put on the market. There’s no vinyl-style degradation of the medium if it’s played over and over, and there’s no risk of turning them into a giant pile of ribbon while rewinding like a cassette tape. The one downside was that if you were to take them on the move you needed special hardware and software to prevent the inevitable skipping. If you look at the skipping not as a downside, though, but as a way to produce interesting music, you might end up with a pretty unique piece of hardware.

[Dmitry] is known for his interesting art installations, and the latest one uses parts from three 1988 Sony D2 CD players that have been reassembled in order to take advantage of a skipping and glitching CD. The modified equipment is able to play during pause or rewind thanks to a processor modification, and can also change the rotational speed of the disc. There are other pieces of hardware included for more fine control of glitching and skipping of the audio being read off of the CD.

The new device functions as a working musical instrument, although [Dmitry] says that it is more useful for deconstructing the information stored on the disc, and exploring the medium itself. Of course if you have enough motivation, you can find sounds from almost anywhere on (or in) the planet too.

While synthesizers in the music world are incredibly common, they’re not all keyboard-based instruments as you might be imagining. Especially if you’re trying to get a specific feel or sound from a synthesizer in order to mimic a real instrument, there might be a better style synth that you can use. One of these types is the breath controller, a synthesizer specifically built to mimic the sound of wind instruments using the actual breath from a physical person. Available breath controllers can be pricey, though, so [Andrey] built his own.

To build the synthesizer, [Andrey] used a melodica hose and mouthpiece connected to a pressure sensor. He then built a condenser circuit on a custom Arduino shield and plugged it all into an Arduino Mega (although he notes that this is a bit of overkill). From there, the Arduino needed to be programmed to act as a MIDI device and to interact with the pressure sensor, and he was well on his way to a wind instrument synthesizer.

The beauty of synthesizers is not just in their ability to match the look and sound of existing instruments but to do things beyond the realm of traditional instruments as well, sometimes for a greatly reduced price point.

Everyone knows accordions are cool — they look fly, make neat noises, and get your romantic interests all hot and bothered. What isn’t cool is being relegated to acoustics only. How are you going to play a packed stadium or lay down a crystal clear track like that? You could go out and buy an electric accordion, but even low-end models carry a hefty price tag. But, this is Hackaday, and you know we’re going to be telling you about someone who found a better way.

That better way, shown in a build by [Brendan Vavra], was to take an acoustic accordion and convert it to MIDI. The base for his build was a decent full-size acoustic accordion purchased on eBay for just $150. Overall, it was in good mechanical condition, but some of the reeds were out of tune or not working at all. Luckily, that didn’t matter, since he wouldn’t be using them anyway. Don’t be fooled in the demo video below; it sounds like he’s playing the acoustic according but notice he’s not pumping those bellows! However, the bellows isn’t useless either since it can feed data back as a MIDI input.

[Brendan’s] build plan called for an Arduino Mega to be tied to a series of photo-interrupters that would detect button pushes and fire MIDI signals. But, first he had to take the thing apart — no small task, given the complexity of the instrument. The accordion has 120 buttons, and they’re not interchangeable, which means he had to carefully keep track of them as they were disassembled.

Remarkably, he accomplished this without any major hurdles (just a lot of time). The photo-interrupters were installed, and all of the electronics were tucked in nicely inside the body of the accordion. To start, [Brendan] had this wired to his computer with a USB cable from the Arduino in order to prove the concept. After that worked, he upgraded the setup with Bluetooth to transmit the signals, and even added a barometric pressure sensor that allows him to use the bellows for expression and volume changes. Although we’ve seen elaborate MIDI builds before, this might just take the cake for complexity in a small package. Oh, and just sheer coolness.

[via r/somethingimade]

Everyone has a Maker in them. We make for fun and exploration, we make to test ideas, and we make to solve real-world problems. Ponytrap wasn’t intended to be a Maker band — we just seemed to have a difficult time finding a drummer that wanted to play the classically-inspired tribal rhythm industrial music that […]

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The post How to Make a Robotic Drum Using Arduino appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

How about a new way to make music? [cpeckmusic] has it’s way to do it, with is project Sharpy.

Sharpy is an electronic instrument that was designed and built by composer Charles Peck. The instrument utilizes three infrared distance sensors to control the sound, which is produced digitally with an Arduino board and GinSing shield. So as users interact with these sensors, there is a clear auditory connection to their physical actions.

Despite having only three sensors, the instrument is capable of a variety of sounds. This is because Sharpy has three possible operating states, each of which assigns a different set of parameters to the three sensors. State 1 is initiated by covering the sensor on the user’s left first. The instrument will then stay in State 1 until no sensors are being covered. Therefore, the user must completely remove their hands form the instrument in order to change states. Concordantly, State 2 is initiated using the middle sensor and State 3 using the sensor on the right. The short improvisation in this video demonstrates a few of these sonic possibilities.

I suggest you to watch the [video] of the live performance. If you’re interested in more works check his official [website]

Music lovers will often tell you that Roland's TR-808 gave birth to modern music. Acid house, rap, techno and other genres owe some of their original (and even current) sounds to that synthetic beat. Moritz Simon Geist appreciates the effort, but has built a solution for those who think the drum machine is a little too perfect: his MR-808 installation has robot limbs playing all the equivalent real-world instruments, right down to the cowbell. A laptop musician at the helm sends MIDI input to an Arduino controller that then triggers the robot's instrument motors and matching lights. The effect is a unique mix of flawless cues with imprecise, almost organic sounds -- imagine 808 State or Kanye West replacing each and every machine with a live band and you've got the idea. Although the sheer size of the MR-808 sadly nixes chances you'll ever see one at the local nightclub, it could give any of Geist's recorded music one of the more distinct vibes we've heard.

Continue reading MR-808 recreates Roland drum machine with robot instruments, puts them in an 808 State (video)

Filed under: Robots, Alt

MR-808 recreates Roland drum machine with robot instruments, puts them in an 808 State (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.