From Austin, Texas, a bit of a haven for brilliant custom sound hardware, comes this epic-looking MIDI controller by Mad Zach, the SR MixControl. Covered in blinding super-bright LEDs, and with an absurdly-thorough complement of sliders, knobs, and arcade buttons, it looks as thought it’d be right at home on your evil flying saucer or Mad Max Interceptor.

Here’s what the makers have to say about it in their sales pitch:

The SR MixControl is a highly versatile mix-minded controller designed and built custom for Simon Rodgers of Victoria, Australia. It features high quality black concave arcade buttons, super bright red LED’s, sliders, spring buttons, and super smooth knobs. Tying it all together is custom artwork from Clay Chollar. This controller also integrates an elegant programmer application that enables complex LED functionality and innovative preset memory.

Mad Zach is also running his own custom shop, one of a handful of places that do custom MIDI controllers. I’ll be interested to hear how that business goes. In the case of custommidicontrollers.com, they will work with any combination of sliders and knobs, buttons, switches, touch strips, and LEDs, and add hardwood, aluminum, and acrylic cases along with airbrushed and screenprinted graphics.

More on that:
http://www.custommidicontrollers.com

I usually hear from the makers, but if you’re a reader who commissions something lovely like this, we all hate and envy you we’d love to hear from you and see what you’ve done.

And Austin, what’s your secret?

I’m betting the tacos.

Updated: Livid Instruments confirms the guts of the hardware is their DIY Series, the Builder, including 2 “Brain” boards.

Austin isn’t generally associated with electronic music, but from bands to strictly electronic acts, you see lines blurring all over the place. And amidst the many, many things happening here in Texas in the coming days, we’re fortunate at CDM to help support two events.

Tonight is the Allies Electronic Lounge – 416 W Cesar Chavez, 9-2, no badge and free, with Two Fresh, DJ Vadim, Eskmo, and Mindelixer. I’m especially excited about Eskmo’s music, and wherever you are in the world, you can take a listen, free. (Topspin just launched their media platform for everyone if you want to do the same with your music, and they’re naturally partying it up here in Texas to celebrate.)

http://www.musicallies.com/electronicalounge/

There’s some of the crackly clap sound that the kids love these days, to be sure, but Eskmo has some serious sound design chops, and a vocal style I love, very often reminiscent of Matthew Dear. I’m told Eskmo works with Native Instruments’ Maschine drum sampler instrument live. If you have any questions about how he works, let me know; I’ll be doing some research. Eskmo, aka San Francisco’s Brendan Angelides, has been on Warp and Ninja Tune, but he also has a mean mix of Brainfeeder music:

http://www.eskmo.com/

Friday night, it’s another free event on a rooftop in the heart of downtown Austin. I’m playing at 9pm on the spot to warm things up, so come say hello. Lots of free tech to win. No downloads yet, but again, if you’re not in Texas, let me know if you want any tips or information from these folks — I can sum it up by saying they’re all a bit insane with Ableton Live automation and sound design with Operator and NI’s Massive.
http://academikrecords.blogspot.com/

Analog and digital, gadgetry and module, DIY and ready-to-play, today in Austin we’re blessed with a get-together at the insanely-amazing Switched On music store. Austin’s noisiest manufacturers are dropping in to show some of their wears.

If you’re not in Austin, have a look at the lineup below and see if you have any questions for these makers, and I can bring back those answers to our readers around the world.

The event is free, 4:00 – 7:00 pm. It’s very informal and intimate – just sound geek boys and girls hanging out.

The Victory Grill Cafe
Across from 1111 E. 11th Switched On
Austin, TX

Switched On: a place where your money goes to die, but vintage synthesizers and circuit-bend video machines and other goodies replace it

I’ll kick of the proceedings with the MeeBlip, our fully open-source synth – which, now after several months of use and creative users, I can now say quite a lot about.
http://meeblip.com

Then…

Bleep Labs is a locally owned & operated manufacturer of some of the most creatively unique sound toys, some of which can be interfaced with CV supported hardware. His Thingamagoop 2 light controlled Analog + Digital Synth Friend is a hot item in every store who carries it. Please come check out some of his other gadgets that will blow you away!
http://www.bleeplabs.com/

Livid Instruments has been crafting controllers for electronic music in Austin, Texas since 2004, and offers a line of commercially available control surfaces and DIY products through dealers and distributors worldwide. Livid will be demoing it’s product line with software tools like Ableton Live, Max/MSP, Reason, ArKaos, and Traktor.
http://www.lividinstruments.com/
http://www.lividindustry.com/
http://www.lividdesign.com/

Dann Green of 4ms will demo synthesizer modules, including the Rotating Clock Divider, Shuffling Clock Multiplier, and the soon-to-be-released VCAMatrix. The RCD and SCM are hackable microcontroller-based timing generators for creating complex rhythm patterns, and the VCAMatrix is a 4×4 CV-controllable analogue signal mixer/router.
http://4mspedals.com/

Mickey Delp will be demoing several Delptronics products including the Guitar Meister, which plays real guitar sounds on a PS2 guitar controller; and the Bender Sequencer, a step sequencer designed for DIY synth builders and circuit benders. Mickey will also be showing his custom synthesizer created for Dorkbot’s SXSW event. The synth was sponsored by, and built with parts from Radio Shack.
http://delptronics.com/

bubblesound is proud to be joining this line up a month after we relocated from NYC, and we will be showing off our new oscillator: the VCOb. This is the first time the VCOb will be demo’d in public, so come on down. The VCOb will be joining the rest of the bubblesound line; the SeM20, the uLFO, the cvWS and the LvL+rm. It starts shipping in April.
www.bubblesound-instruments.com

Next week, as the South by Southwest Music Festival descends on Austin, Texas, I’m pleased CDM gets to be involved in a few terrific independent events. No badges, no cover, free drinks and even free giveaways – if you happen to be in Austin, you can save money and then do what I’ll probably do, spend it all at the awesome Switched On synth boutique.

Here’s the schedule:
Wednesday 3/16: Switched On Meet & Greet, 4-7p
The MeeBlip synth meets local electronic instruments at Austin’s legendary boutique synth and sonic and visual electronic shop, Switched On. We’ll be relaxing, geeking out around synths, and I hear word of some surprises TBD.

Thursday 3/17: Allies Electronic Lounge, 9p-2a
Two Fresh, DJ Vadim (and The Electric), Eskmo, and Mindelixir all play live performances. “Powered by Native Instruments” – expect to see some Maschine virtuosity in honor of the sponsor. CDM is a sponsor, and we’ll be talking to artists about their techniques. More details below.
RSVP: http://www.musicallies.com/electronicalounge/

Friday 3/18: Academik Label Launch Event, 9p-2a
Academik launches a new electronic label on a rooftop lounge in central Austin, with Francis Preve (also a writer for Keyboard), Secret Panda Society, William A, Sentinels, and Shreddward. I’ll play an early set, too, and there are giveaways of the M-Audio Venom, Reason+Record, Korg Legacy Collection, Thingamagoop 2, Ableton t-shirts, and more every hour.
Academik Blog Post

Let me repeat. Everything is free, no cover, no badge. And at some events, you might walk away with free drinks or a synth.

More below on Allies and Academik…

Thursday with Allies: Free Live Electronic Music, Open Bar

Click for full-sized flyer. RSVP.

Okay, Eskmo, this is pretty darned trippy. Am I going to be out in the desert outside Austin by the end of the week, basically seeing this?

Eskmo: “Cloudlight” Official video

Eskmo | Myspace Music Videos

Friday with Academik: Free Rooftop Beat Lounge, Giveaways

Click for full-sized flyer. Blog post.

Handmade Music is our party for people who make things that make music. If you create your own musical tools – whether acoustic instruments and soundmakers, hacks, circuit bends, custom Pd and Max patches, electronics, or code – we want to hear from you.

We’re looking for contributors in NYC, Texas, and around the world:

• Live acts and projects in New York
• Street team volunteers in NYC and to help organize and promote events in other parts of the planet
• Live acts and projects for a special South by Southwest Interactive showcase in Austin, Texas with our friends at Etsy.com

1. If you can get to Austin, TX or NYC, tell us about your project or act! And feel free to pass this along to friends, students, and the like. The calls for artists will be ongoing.

NYC + Austin/SxSW call for works 2011 – direct Google Docs form link

2. Be part of Handmade Music anywhere on Earth: Also, while we’ve hinted at this before, 2011 is the year in which I’d like to really help support people trying to organize similar Handmade Music events in other parts of the world, building on regular events in Austin and Toronto and events held in cities like Amsterdam, LA, and Porto, Portugal.

If you’d like to help make Handmade Music grow in your part of the world, you can sign up for that and we’ll send more information (and yes, we welcome volunteers here in the NYC area, too!):

Handmade Music 2011 Global Organizing

Want to know more? Read an explanation of what Handmade Music’s about.

Handcrafted CD covers for records and mixes, meditative music made in game engines, handheld chip music creations, analog light synths and drone labs, VL-Tone classical music, and more surprises are coming to New York on Sunday, October 10. (Austin, Texas gets its own event, making noisemakers and ring modulators.)

We promise music you can dance to, music you can’t, and tapas (at least in NYC).

And on October 10, a little secret will finally be revealed to Manhattan and the world.

If you’re a citizen of The Internet, we’ve got lots of sounds and creations to explore here on The Web from the comfort of Your Home – scroll on below. There are even great projects you can build anywhere in the world.

For New Yorkers, the lineup on Sunday:

• Immersive music made with game engines, featuring foci + loci (Tamara Yadao + Chris Burke) doing strange and wonderful things with the likes of Halo and Little Bit Planet.
• Drone labs and analog light synths by master electronic sonic maker Peter Edwards, Casperelectronics.
• Classical music on Casio VL-Tone in a cameo by the amazing Annabelle Cazes.
• Chip music by PULSEWAVE, hosted by Peter Swimm. UPDATED – confirmed Rhinostrich +
  exilefaker
• Make + trade handmade CDs (see our separate article, posting tonight). Bring your music or Creative Commons-licensed / public domain mixes.
• A surprise. Or more. At least one.

October 10, completely free
4pm, FREE workshop on handmade music mixes – RSVP | Facebook
7-11pm, party, live music performances, general noisemaking (Facebook)

Presented by CULTUREfix, our new favorite home on the Lower East Side, complete with fantastic tapas, drinks, and drool-worthy electronics

Location

Here’s a first look at the projects, starting with a live performance I’m told gives us a loose sense of foci + loci — hoping to see even more Sunday.

foci + loci – Front Room Gallery June 2010 from glomag on Vimeo.

Drone Lab V2

From Austin – Three Projects You Can Build

That’s right, you’re not from Texas? Texas wants you anyway. Even if you’re nowhere near the Lone Star State, here are three projects you can build/buy — and yes, we’ll need to compile a full guide to all these great projects.

If you are in Austin, Texas, don’t miss the event Sunday, October 10. (We’ll have to Skype from NYC to Austin!)

Handmade Music Austin #12

The projects…

Ring Modulator, Mickey Delp’s great-sounding project, also available as a US$45 kit ($75 assembled)

Ring Modulator
Original prototype with schematics

SimSam, an $8, beginner-friendly noisemaker (complete with specs, the lot).

PicoPaso, a Forrest Mims Atari Punk Synth-inspired stepped tone generator. Schematics + purchase info at Bleep Labs.

“Your kids will love this Saw figure.” So, too, must have been the calculation of the person who decided to immortalize the film Saw with little toys and figures containing 30 seconds of voice recording, because this toy is now available in quantity for — wait for it — US$2. A $2, 30-second sampler? Now that’s a bend waiting to happen.

Circuit bending blog GetLoFi in 2008 posted a detailed set of instructions for bending the SAW III sampler. Download the full PDF, and you can make one yourself, using the $2 part from All Electronics.

In the spirit of getting everyone in on the noise-making fun, our friends who organize Handmade Music Austin are making this bend the basis of their August event. As usual, you’ll also get a happy Sunday full of learning, making, sharing, and sounds. Details on the Handmade Music blog, if you’re in the Austin area:
Austin #10

What I love about this workshop is that it’s something a lot of people could do. I’m working on assembling a set of projects for beginners so that, if you are planning an event in your neck of the woods, you have an ample set of supplies. Ideas? Requests? Let us know in comments.

New York, we’ll be back on August 29; I’ll have some details later this week.

Austin is whirling with South by Southwest excitement, so why not make some swirly radio noises?

Yes, Handmade Music Austin does have a big blowout party in the midst of South by, with a huge music lineup. Wish I could be there, gang, but I’ll be staying here in NYC.

On the docket:

FREE performances starting at noon by Florene, The Hearts & the Minds, WHITE, The Loud Objects, Bodytronix

$10 for a workshop

Registration and details:
Handmade Music Austin #6 Super Show + update

Eric Archer writes:

I’m rolling out a new kit for HMA#6. Its called Tune In Tokyo and makes swirly noises like tuning an old fashioned short wave radio. Its just a cartoonish version of the real thing, but when I hear it I think OLD RADIO!! As some of the boys have pointed out, there was an .. um .. playground game by the same name, which is explained fully in urbandictionary for the curious. That’s Mt. Fuji on the board art.

The circuit has three square wave oscillators made from a 4584 (same as 40106), and an LFO. The LFO sweeps the frequency of a fourth oscillator made with 74HC4046. These frequencies drive the inputs of a 74HC594 shift register. Its outputs are sent thru a network of specially weighted resistors, which are designed to convert 1′s and 0′s into a sine wave. This digital sinewave generator recipe is an interesting shortcut to sine wave generation and I’ve only seen it in Don Lancaster’s CMOS cookbook (1977). The opamp at the end of the resistor net is just there as a buffer. This circuit gets its sound by abusing the properties of the digital sine wave generator via decimation and aliasing effects.

This is only one of the kits we’ll teach at HMA6; we decided to create a free-for-all where folks can select from a menu of kits and seat themselves at a table where others are building the same kit. We’ll also be offering the Autonomous Bassline, Nebulophone, and some of our beginner kits as well. Should be crazy enough to fit with the SXSW insanity that pervades Austin this time of year!

If you make it and record some of the action, do share!

Last week, what was intended to be a day of posts wound up being several days of updates on events centered around music technology and DIY creation. Here’s a birds-eye view of what we covered, some of the events you can catch in person, and some of what these events reveal.

It’s worthwhile just putting these posts in one spot so you can easily mark your calendar – and you can see, even in this small slice, the amount and breadth of activity happening now.

At STEIM in Amsterdam, I’ll be talking about the state of DIY and open source technology for musicians and artists, and what that means for creative people — both the potential and some of the challenges. So I’d be curious to hear your thoughts before I begin waxing poetic. Readers here aren’t shy, so let us know your concerns in comments.

Now, here’s your guide and calendar to DIY. Tell us what we’ve missed. I’m hoping to devote a permanent spot on Noisepages to an events calendar; anyone with slick WordPress/BuddyPress-based solutions, give us a shout.

The best new inventions.

Don’t miss web-savvy hacks and creations from the music hackday, including an all-JavaScript clone of a popular Nintendo handheld music tool, online Web tools that make musician’s lives easier, and fantastic combinations of Android phones, web listening tools, online data, and physical objects. Meanwhile, if you want to start your own project but don’t know where to begin, Austin is a hotbed of new DIY kits.

February 17. Amsterdam, NL. (event)

Handmade Music kicks off in Amsterdam at the STEIM research center. The action starts at 8p. I’m making a stop there on my way to Stockholm, and hope to provide documentation next week for the rest of the world. Details.

February 19. Toronto, Canada. (event)

Handmade Music hits Toronto.

What they teach us: Why is it a “great time to make electronic music?” Toronto’s organizers point to the fact that makers are spoiler for choice of platform, with monome and Arduino on the hardware side, and ever-more-mature Max/MSP and Pure Data on the software side.

February 28. Austin, Texas USA. (event)

Austin shares all their latest musical inventions, plus resources for those wanting to work on making noises with the Arduino.

What they teach us: beginners can get in on these events, with the aid of newbie-friendly workshops and easygoing, noise-making parties. Oh yeah, and the advanced folks can create terrific, usable music hardware.

March 8. Brooklyn, NY USA.

Handmade Music starts a new series at Galapagos Art Space, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. Details.

February 14, April 3, May 28. Porto, Portugal + worldwide. (call for works)

Digitopia seeks the best Max+Pd patches, dream ideas for musical inventions, and miniature music. I’ll be there in June 2010.

What they teach us: the twist here is making an open source hardware controller the prize, and sharing the how-to with the world. Plus, all the competition entries are required to be open source, meaning the competition itself generates tools for the community.

March 1 deadline; March 12 event. San Francisco + Worldwide.

One-button Game Objects challenges designers to make self-contained sonic and visual interactive art — all using just one button. If you can ship it to San Francisco, we can show it. And in March, we’ll be looking at other ways that just one button can make a musical interface. Call for works info.

Wherever you live, you can enjoy the DIY and open hardware inventions coming out of Texas. Or, as the famous song goes: “That’s right, you’re not from Texas / Texas wants you anyway.”

Austin, Texas may be associated with the strum of guitars. But it’s also populated by some of our favorite electronic music hardware inventors on the planet, led by the likes of Bleep Labs, 4ms, Eric Archer, and more. They’ve taken the idea of a “Handmade Music” and come up with the best formula for building a community around DIY hardware I’ve seen yet:

1. Get beginners – even if they’ve never soldered before – making noises with a beginning kit workshop.
2. Do an advanced workshop that pushes the envelope with new hardware.
3. Turn that noise into a performance/party: i.e., “After all the kits were built, we plugged in to the PA and partied until the amp overheated.”
4. Provide your specs and software freely.
5. Make a kit available for people to buy.

Notice that it’s possible to make “free hardware” (open sourcing part or all of the code, publishing specs and circuits) and still sell a product. And it’s possible to act locally (workshops in Austin), and sell globally (sharing documentation online, and shipping kits everywhere else).

And notice that it’s possible to make events beginner-friendly. In fact, this isn’t just to teach experienced musicians how to solder. I find that many people who are too shy to make music via traditional means find there’s a freedom to a glitchy, blippy electronic thing that makes noise. After all, through the ages music was never intended to be exclusively the domain of professional specialists.

Here’s the latest on their activities – and a chance to meet the hardware that has come out of their series.

For more, stay glued to handmademusic@noisepages.

First, let’s meet the devices:

Meet the Beasties

Thingamagoop 2

Bleep Labs’ Thingamagoop seems as much electronic creature as electronic instrument; its sounds seem like the vocalizations of an alien and, yes, it’s darned cute. The new Thingamagoop 2 is more usable (easier-to-access battery), sounds better, and has more features. But it’s also more open in every way. CV in and out lets it interface with analog gear. A programmer jack lets you reprogram it with your Arduino, if you so choose (the Arduino isn’t required, but it does let you reprogram the sounds on your Thingamagoop). And now the sonic effects — sample and hold, arpeggios, noise, and bit crush — all use open-sourced code. That makes what was already an ingenious soundmaker more open to hacking by advanced users.

The Thingamagoop 2 debuted to the world at Austin’s Handmade Music. Now, perhaps we need some hack sessions to get people working on reprogramming this and other sonic oddities.

Full info on the Thingamagoop 2
Arduino code
Circuit diagram

I expect to get one of these soon, so expect a hands-on.

Nebulophone

Nebulophone is a coming kit that builds on the Arduino platform to create a playable, DIY Stylophone-style instrument. Having debuted at Handmade Music Austin #4, the instrument features “adjustable waveforms, a light controlled analog filter, LFO, and arpeggiator that can be clocked over IR.” Yes, you read that last bit right: it’s all part of the new wireless, infrared sync revolution these guys are leading.

Official site has code, schematics, instructions – so you can actually make your own – plus sound and advance info on the coming kit. I expect a video and more on the kit soon.

SimSam

The SimSam is a noisy, glitchtastic product.

It’s also the subject of a beginners’ workshop, a chance to get people working with electronics for the very first time.

And its cost – a tiny $8 in parts.

It’s also a brilliant use of the ATTINY85, an ultra-compact, 8-pin AVR chip. (AVR chips also live at the heart of the Arduino platform.)

And the SimSam debuted at – you guessed it – a workshop at Handmade Music Austin #4.

Tons of info and everything you need to build your own:
SimSam

There are actually some details that could use improving, so have a look and see if you can do an updated version.

Autonomous Bassline Generator + Andromeda Space Rocker + MIDI-IR Sync

The Autonomous Bassline Generator…

…can sync up with drum modules like this Andromeda Mk-4 by Eric Archer:

…and sync together via infrared, wirelessly, connecting to each other or slaving to a MIDI clock signal generated by Wooster Audio’s MIDI-IR.

Together, you get the Andromeda Space Rockers: a whole little galaxy of wirelessly-synced sonic gadgets. And all of the above are available as kits, so you can sooth your soul by assembling them yourself.

The creators have debuted and jammed with these gadgets through Handmade Music, and presented workshops on the technologies and concepts that underly their creation.

Arduino, Sound Libraries, and Resources

I asked Dr. Bleep himself (John-Mike) about what resources might be useful for working with the Arduino platform (and similar architectures) and sound. The main secret is, use Pulse Width Modulation to accomplish sounds with a minimum of code:

Here are a few of the pages I used when designing the code for it:
http://www.cs.mun.ca/~rod/Winter2007/4723/notes/timer0/timer0.html
http://arcfn.com/2009/07/secrets-of-arduino-pwm.html
http://blog.wingedvictorydesign.com/2009/05/29/generate-real-time-audio-on-the-arduino-using-pulse-code-modulation/2/

http://little-scale.blogspot.com/ is a fantastic source for “Oh man why didn’t i do that/ this guy is incredible!” projects.

I’m also not the first to mate the stylophone with arduino
http://hackaday.com/2009/08/25/arduino-based-synthesizer/

The two biggest/ earliest arduino synths were :
http://code.google.com/p/tinkerit/wiki/Auduinohttp://www.critterandguitari.com/home/store/arduino-piano.php

One difference with the Nebulophone is that it is very low part count. No multipexers or DACs. Just PWM out to an two opamp analog filter. This does limit the number of keys and controls but makes for a tiny, simple pcb.

Handmade Music Austin, in Videos

How do these events go down? Here’s a look at some of the sonic mayhem.

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Handmade #4 lacks a video, but we’ll watch for #5 when it happens.

The next Handmade Music Austin is on February 28. Details aren’t up yet, but I’m told you can expect an advanced workshop on building a digital delay by Nathan/Wooster Audio, plus a simple, light-controlled noisemaker for beginners. Stay tuned to:

http://handmademusic.noisepages.com