We’ve seen QWERTY keyboards recycled into various music controllers, but here’s a DIY project that makes actual sounds:

A home-made synthesizer based off of an old function generator and a standard qwerty board. Three wave types–sin, square, sawtooth–and HI+LO outputs. It connects to the keyboard with a stereo 1/4″ cable (TRS) so new controllers can be made.

QWERTY Keyboard analog synth [Matrixsynth]

Funny: after all these years of talking about how great dedicated music controllers are as a way of getting away from your standard computer input, people just keep finding ways of reusing that input. Previous examples:

QWERTY Keyboard Instrument: Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee

Custom USB Keyboard for Controlling Ableton Live

Pimp my Ableton Controller: Custom Keyboards, Custom Paint Jobs

… and, for your feet:

Get loopy with the DIY $10 Ableton Footcontroller (no soldering required)