8 built-in synthesizer engines, multiple effects and LFO’s. And some really unique sequencers ready to explore.
Connect it to your computer and control your DAW with the common play, stop, rec, forward and rewind. Use the 4 rotary encoders and 8 x 2 dedicated quick keys for fast selections.
Record everything on the built in 4-track tape. Match the tape speed to the sequencer clock for some really nice overdubbing with changing pitch. Change tapespeed while recording, or even record backwards in realtime.
The unique skill and taste of an Instrument Maker is what sets the stage for great music. Any object that makes sound can be an instrument, but true music starts with expert design and craftsmanship. Before Miles Davis could play his trumpet, there was a Maker who built his sonic tool.
Circuit Benders can customize and hack technologies to do things they aren't designed to do. They can turn toys into musical instruments or transform household gadgets into things that are truly bizarre. A Circuit Bender explores what's under the hood of the electronics all around us.
The SoundPuddle is an interactive space of visual-acoustic synesthesia. This spectrographically colorful dome creates color and light from sound, illuminating every noise you make on an immersive canopy of light. You will laugh, shout, and sing as thousands of solar powered LEDs unify your ears and eyes.
Sound Synesthesia is the experience of “seeing” sound in shape and color. This mixing of the senses can open our perception of patterns and relationships in sounds. We can see the geometric and harmonic differences between voices and instruments.
I connected two of the piezos in order to test the full path from the DKKAI all the way to GarageBand.
I used a midi keyboard to map out some notes (more on that later…) and I also connected 6 MaceTech ShiftBrites – the Roadie has the ShiftBrite connector and lights up a specific ShiftBrite for each drum pad…
In this video, I’m using the iPad MIDI Monitor app to watch the USB MIDI commands – this lets me see the note, and the velocity for each drum pad hit.
I don’t think a day goes by without a blog post that mentions Arduino. But what if you’re totally unfamiliar with this popular physical computing platform? Where do you get started? To answer that question, we created this video. So if you have a friend or relative who has been asking “what’s an Arduino?” You can point them here. They’ll get an overview of what it is and what’s possible with it.
I’d like to make a piano which spews light, cleverly, depending on what keys are pressed. It should be fairly seamless and not overt, so the workings need to hide inside, but the basic premise is:
Someone plays the keys -> Some magic processing happens -> The music is interpreted, tastefully, in light form and slips out from above the keybed, over the top of the piano and beyond.
Chu Moy designed a very popular headphone amplifier that’s easy to build, and it can be built small enough to fit in a pocket, power supply and all. It’s powerful enough to drive very inefficient headphones to thunderous volumes from even weak sources, and it sounds excellent considering that you can build a bare-bones CMoy amp for just US$20, and a pretty nice amp for under $50. Considering that the cheapest of the worthy commercial amps is $100 and most of them are in the $200+ range, this is a very worthwhile cost difference.