Bored with keyboards and drum pads? How about light-sensitive photocells with customizable control options, all in a spacey case that looks like it escaped from Sun Ra’s Arkestra? Tony Amendolore of ElectroKraft has a new MIDI controller creation he calls the Lunar Module: Multiple photocell “portholes” light up blue for feedback; use as a Theremin-like […]

Amos responded to my call for people who’ve actually built the Sound Lab Mini-Synth discussed yesterday. Check out his lovely work setup: very neat and tidy. If you check out Amos’ blog skyline-7, you’ll see he’s had more luck with guitar pedals — actually, that’s probably a better first DIY project than tackling a whole […]

Our informal “DIY day” continues here: Fabienne Serriere follows up her how to get started with Csound tutorial with a walkthrough on how to build your own MIDI hardware, complete with custom sensors. It’s quite nice, but the aesthetics are a wee bit on the unfinished side (think raw, open breadboard). Now we need her […]

Now that this time I actually did my homework, more on Fabienne Serriere, the talented sound hacker who’s given us the two-part tutorial on custom MIDI control and Csound (see previous post.) From whatthehack.org: “multichannel audio specialist and futurist fabienne serriere (aka fbz) is a franco-american software, hardware and embedded interaction designer. she believes in […]

For fans of dub, there’s just nothing like a delay loop, with feedback cranked up and echoes going going going going going going going . . . okay, you get the idea. Our friends at Audio Damage have just created a US$39.95 plugin that gives you all you need for trippy dub effects: Audio Damage […]

Two things most people don’t care to understand: physics and how the heck your car works. But you’re different. Why, you probably already know that phase cancellation occurs when a sound source is delayed slightly (by a real-world reflection, or in recording and mixing), so that two coherent waveforms of opposite phase are superimposes and […]

Tokyoplastic’s Flash animations have won them widespread acclaim, including a Sundance Online award for their film drummachine. Their animation is hip, sexy, and centers around fabulous sound design with dramatic musical cues. Don’t miss the drum machine in particular — because nothing can compare with watching someone use their head as a mallet. To find […]

MAKE:blog reports on a build-your-own synth project that could be just advanced enough to be interesting, just simple enough that you’ll get through it without a disaster: Sound Lab Mini-Synth [Music from outer space] Looks perfect — a simple but capable design. And if for some bizarre reason this is too easy for you, you […]

Christopher Scheidel has been hard at work cleaning up his sophisticated Apple Logic Pro Environment template, which he uses to manage his guitar + keyboard + Mac Mini rig while performing. He’s been nice enough to share it with us: Logic template [Download] See Christopher’s site for further information. He promises more soon, including a […]

A USB audio interface these days is about as exciting as a pair of knee socks, and unlike the latter, you don’t really need multiples. But this particular box is actually interesting. Trio USB [Mindprint] First, the Trio delivers all the hardware effects you’d need in a channel strip: mic inputs, low-cut filter, “vintage” 2-band […]