jumango made a synth you can tuck in so it goes to sleep

Soundmaking and music can fill you with energy, so much so that you might miss out on the importance of a good night’s sleep. jumango has engineered a solution: tuck this DIY synth into a blanket, and it falls asleep.

Coffee cups, pizza boxes, everything’s an instrument: watch clipping. play

You know the game “I spy…”? Every object in the room becomes a musical instrument, activated by the robotic MIDI percussion of the dadamachines automat toolkit. Watch this brilliant performance by the ensemble clipping., led by producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson, plus turntablist Kid Koala, on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts.

Peter Kirn - November 7, 2025

Code turns MacBook hinge into a creaking door, Theremin

Apple’s MacBook series has had sensors in the hinge since 2019. One developer, Sam Henri Gold, decided to put that to use, first transforming the hinge into a creaking door, and next a playable Theremin.

Peter Kirn - September 8, 2025

Endlesss is making a limited-edition Beat Machine full-sized arcade cabinet

Peter Kirn - February 23, 2023

This drum machine turns children’s heartbeats into music, raising visibility of kids’ heart defects

Peter Kirn - February 15, 2023

Pirouette machines: sound and computation from screw cans and fluidics, with Ioana Vreme Moser

Peter Kirn - January 30, 2023

bela Gliss: expressive touch meets computation in crowd-backed Eurorack module

Peter Kirn - December 8, 2022

Watch Troika Ranch’s history in dance technology, then dust off your Wiimote with Isadora

Peter Kirn - July 6, 2022

Dart, a line of open source MIDI and DMX controllers, in wonderfully wacky variations

Peter Kirn - April 6, 2022