Bespoke Electromechanical Instrument was built by Jay Harrison as part of a dissertation undertaken on the Creative Music Technology degree course at Staffordshire University. The instrument, running on Arduino Mega 2560 is designed  to allow each note to be independently placed in a space:

The project involved the creation of an electromechanical system capable of autonomously playing a bespoke Lithophone musical instrument. The underlying idea was to create a Lithophone that allowed the audience to literally step inside it, giving a unique spatial and acoustic surround experience. Designing an autonomous electromechanical was the thought to be the most effective and reliable solution to achieving this.

The Arduino Mega 2560 was used to interface Max/MSP with the physical circuitry. Control messages/signals would be sent out of a Max/MSP patch using Maxuino, these signals would then be interpreted by the standard firmata sketch loaded onto the board and would go on to trigger and control the 24 rotary solenoids and 24 servo motors that work to produce the notes.

In the video below the instrument is arranged in a 24-foot surround configuration and the audience is invited to experience the instrument from within offering a unique spatial dimension to the Lithophone intended to completely envelop the listener:

The Interaction Awards  published the shortlisted projects for 2016 and up to five finalists in each category will be announced during the event on Friday evening, March 4, 2016. In the Expressing category, showcasing projects enabling self expression and/or creativity there is a project called Step representing an innovative and engaging way of approaching music production for children between 6 and 100 years old.

Step runs on an Arduino and has been created by Federico Lameri, Sandro Pianetti at the Master of Advanced Studies in Interaction Design in Lugano under the supervision of Massimo Banzi and Giorgio Olivero of Todo.

To prototype the user experience we’ve used an Arduino Leonardo connected to a processing sketch that handle the recording and playback features. Using a Mux Shield 2 we managed connecting 25 IR sensors, 16 LEDs, 1 knob and a button to a single Arduino board. We needed a quick and effective way to test the experience and by using Arduino we managed to design and build the whole product in three weeks.

Most of the music toys on the market are trying to fake the sounds and the experience of real instruments. Step has a different approach as it’s designed to give children the opportunity to create real loops and beats using whatever sounds they like from objects of everyday life.

Players can record any sounds and match them with  coloured tags, and then  create melodies, loops and and beats by placing tags on the track and by adjusting the tempo!

Check the video below to see it in action:

We love Star Wars and you probably do, too. So here's every Star Wars project we've posted over the last 10 years.

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The post Every Star Wars Project Featured on Make: So Far (Over 100!) appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but for an interactive sound work called GRIDI a picture is worth infinite midi loops!

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The post Create Big Music Mashups on This Enormous MIDI Sequencer Board appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

Now you can recreate the infamous dance scene from Ex Machina with some cardboard, LEDs, and Arduino.

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The post Party Like a Sci-Fi Billionaire with the Music-Sensing Light from Ex Machina appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

Akiba of Freaklabs helped design sequenced lighting like those used in the Wrecking Crew Orchestra shows

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The post How to Sequence LEDs to Music: A Tutorial by Freaklabs appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

Trick-or-treaters are bound to get a thrill when you make this choreographed music and light display that plays each time your gate is opened.

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The post Choreograph a Music and Light Display for the Holiday appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

Anyone with a record player is familiar with the concept of translating irregularities on a surface into sound. And, anyone who has ever cracked open a CD player or DVD player has seen how a laser can be used to reproduce sound digitally. Combining the two would be an interesting project in its own right, but [Dimitry Morozov] took this a couple of steps further with his pyrite disc sound object project.

Pyrite discs, also known as pyrite suns or pyrite dollars, are a form of pyrite in which the crystallization structure forms a disc with radial striations. Pyrite discs are unique to the area around Sparta, Illinois, and are generally found in coal mines there. They have no real practical use, but are a favorite of mineral collectors because of their interesting aesthetics.

[Dmitry] received his pyrite disc from one such mineral collector in Boulder, CO, with the request that he use it for an interesting project. [Dmitry] himself specializes in art installations and unique instruments, and combined those passions in his pyrite disc sound object called Ra.

The concept itself is straightforward: spin the pyrite disc and use a laser to convert the surface striations into audio. But, as you can see in the photos and video, the execution was far from straightforward. From what we can gather, [Dimitry] used an Arduino Nano and a DIY laser pickup on a servo arm to scan the pyrite disc as it’s being spun by a stepper motor. That data is then sent to a Raspberry Pi where it’s synthesized (with various modulation and effects controls), to produce sound that is output through the single speaker attached to the object. Generating sound from unusual sources is certainly nothing new to regular readers, but the beauty of this part project is definitely something to be applauded.

DIY Jukebox is a project made by Mario Pucci to show how Arduino Uno, NFC Shield and Python can be used to build a real jukebox. NFC means Near Field Communication and the NFC shield can perceive objects attached to little chips called NFC tags containing specific messages. In this project, Marco programmed each chip to play a different music genre when the tag is inserted in the cardboard jukebox:

You can download the file of the cardboard Jukebox at this link and the sketches here.

The steps of the tutorial are in italian but you can use google translate if needed! Enjoy the sound of music

I find laser harps fascinating. The first time I saw one was when I stumbled across a video of a guy using using lasers to play the theme song to Tetris. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, but I couldn’t justify the cost of buying one. Instead, I decided […]

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The post Build a Two-Octave Laser Harp appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.