Multiplayer Wireless Music and the Nintendo DS

Band Brothers, a Japanese launch title for the new Nintendo DS, looks like just another music game. Press the button for your 'instrument' at the right time, a la a game of Simon, and try to keep in rhythm. What makes Band Brothers unique is its wireless multiplayer, which allows your DS-owning friends (all your […]

Game Boy Ensemble: gameboyzz orchestra

Nintendo has its own collaborative Wi-Fi Nintendo DS band, and we've seen solo Game Boy artists. But as for the first Game Boy ensemble, that honor appears to belong to the six-member Polish gameboyzz orchestra. (via we make money not art) Their goal is "to create irony in the electronic music scene with our low-tech […]

Acoustical Art: PVC Pipe Speakers

Urban Spy has the scoop on new PVC pipe speakers from aptly-named Acoustical Art, hand-crafted and just $2500/pair as shown. Spectacularly gorgeous, and the designer has acoustic engineering cred, making this the "beautiful thing we can't afford" of the week. But upwardly mobile readers, please give them a shot.

Sequencing Sound with Colored Objects

The musical installation art / alternative instrument madness continues! Toke Oliver Barters of the UK has created a color scanner that, when linked to a computer, produces sequences of sound from colored objects placed on it. The glass disc rotates, so melodies can be formed simply by adjusting placement of the colored objects; the PowerBook […]

Easy Learning Guitar

In what is likely to be the first and last glimpse of an exclusive Sharper Image product, I have to give a quick nod to the Yamaha Electric Guitar (via gizmos for geeks). No tuning, no frets, and little lights that tell you where to finger chords. It's like air guitar, only easier. Download songs […]

Suggested Listening: DJ Riko X-Mas List, Name that Whistle Contest

Want holiday cheer? (It is Hannukah, after all.) How about a holiday mash-up/mix that has both a song from the infamous Star Wars Christmas special (C-3PO sings 'Christmas in the stars') AND a 19th-Century music box? (Governor Arnold is just a bonus at that point.) Listen here. Don't miss seven minutes of straight whistling song […]

Tiny JamPlug Guitar Amp: Plug Headphones into Your Guitar

DVForge today is shipping its $49.95 JamPlug, a tiny guitar amp you can plug into your guitar to listen through headphones. The JamPlug isn't the first amp designed for use with headphones, but as near as I can tell it's the smallest — by a lot. This thing fits in your pocket and runs on […]

Futureman’s Drumitar: Guitar Drum Kit

It's part drum, part guitar, and it definitely wins this week's odd instrument award. It's none other than the Drumitar. Futureman of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones originally had a classic SynthAxe, but with some serious mods has turned it into a guitar drum kit with piezo sensors that triggers drum sounds via MIDI. (SynthAxe […]

Free CDM Moog/Digital MP3 Ringtone

Exclusive: Corky Berger of the UK-based ONE 40 FIVE Store has been busy cooking up MP3 Moog ringtones (for use as ringtones, startup sounds, whatever you like) via the fabulous Moog Voyager.  Unsolicited, they've been kind enough to make a special ring tone just for us! Corky Burger's Minimoog Voyager MP3 ringtones invade the createdigitalmusic […]

Recycling Alternatives: Build an Audio Igloo

Wondering what to do with all that useless audio gear? Try building a big igloo out of it in a church, "a new home: a habitat for listeners of avant-garde music." There's everything from old speakers to turntables in there. Neat. But creator Benoît Maubrey's description of the sounds from these retired pieces of gear […]