8-bit and robots and odd Max and Reaktor patches and custom visual software and visualizations of data packets and sound made from plants and mutant trumpets and gloves for DJing and laptop music – we’ve got quite a lineup here in New York this week.

Friday night, a live audiovisual lineup from the worlds of createdigitalmusic.com / createdigitalmotion.com invades the HOPE conference, aka Hackers on Planet Earth, the three day-long convergence of tech hacking. $10, open to all, 11-2a Friday July 18 at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. It’s a live digital, technological variety show in a doomed NYC landmark hotel with an audience of famous and infamous hackers. (Think Kevin Mitnick and MythBusters’ Adam Savage and Steven Levy, all in one place.)

Facebook event page; also on Going.com

Here’s a look at the performers and projects. If you can’t be in New York, this should give you a little taste of the range of work people are doing here and in our community in general, and I hope to have more coverage after the event.

Michael Una performing at SYNC Fest 08 from Michael Una on Vimeo.
Robot drummer from Michael Una on Vimeo.

Michael Una’s live-looping, robot-drumming, circuit-bending experience

CDM contributor, Circuit Bending Challenge coordinator and sage of all things DIY and sound art Michael joins the ensemble with robotic assistance:

I will be using custom-built interface devices, acoustic and circuit-bent instruments, and a robot drummer to create a rhythmic, textured and melodic sonic experience on the fly.

http://una-love.com

(Hey, does anyone know why Renee and Michael’s site is being blocked by Google? Was it the beat bike or the prayer wheel? What gives?)

View Larger Map

A reminder to those in the NYC area: CDM again joins up with Etsy.com and Make Magazine for Handmade Music night, a relaxed meet-and-greet of music technologists and people who make noise with things they’ve made. Currently expected:

• Chiptune / game music stuff, including Peter Swimm’s littlepiggytracker setup, Harsid4U SID (a la Commodore 64) synth
• Wii control (I’m bringing a Balance Board)
• Gian Pablo Villamil’s DIY synths, including the brand-new Mutation Synth. (See the previous Rhythmic Synth causing all manner of havoc with Nancy Garcia at the helm, playing with Thurstom Moore at NY’s No Fun Festival. An instrument that may actually inspire fear.)
• New handmade instruments from Ranjit, maker of all kinds of wonderfulness (like robotic Theremins and ironing board instruments, in past episodes of this event)
• A new addition – Roger TSAI and team’s “Groovy Hands” gestural glove for DJing, seen in videos here!

Come join us on the Facebook event page, and drop an rsvp@etsy.com email, but the event is free:

Handmade Music @ Facebook

Gestural DJing Preview

Designer/DJ Roger has created a set of interactive gloves for DJing that I really enjoy, not least because they have a great sense of humor. He built them as part of an NYU ITP class project in collaboration with Tommy TSENG and Eric Chiu.

Groovy Hand Project Site

Here are some videos of the gestures he can produce:

Create Digital Music Night at ETSY LABS from Etsy on Vimeo.

Handmade marketplace Etsy.com, DIY "mook"/blog Make, and createdigitalmusic.com again team up for another Handmade Music Night at Brooklyn’s Etsy Labs! For an idea of what it’s about (or perhaps inspiration for starting something similar in your corner of the world), see the video above.

On tap:

Chiptune gaming systems for music, strange alternative MIDI controllers and sound-mangling custom software, repurposed vintage synthesizer chips made famous by the Commodore 64, digital visuals, a musical Nintendo Wii balance board, and wireless sensing controllers…

And more.

Where/when:

7/8/08 – 7pm onward (free!)
Etsy Labs
325 Gold St., 3rd floor
Brooklyn, NY (Map)

You can rsvp to rsvp@etsy.com to give us an idea of who’s coming.

Bring your stuff!

As always, we welcome projects in various states of completion! So bring in your DIY software / hardware / circuit bending / chiptune / hacking / patching creations and share them with a friendly, relaxed crowd of fellow geeks!

If you want to give us some advance warning / do a short performance, you can fill out our summer "call for works" form (assuming you haven’t already). (See previous story and scroll down; direct Google Docs link. If you have trouble with the Google Docs form, try our contact form.)

Elsewhere:

Handmade Music Night returns! – 7/8/08 [makezine.com]

Handmade Music Night Featured on Current TV [Etsy's The Storque]

Here’s the one you’ve been waiting for. MIDIFY is a DIY board that lets you add MIDI to any Nintendo handheld game console – DS, DS Lite, GBA, GBA-SP, and (with some extra parts) other devices – even microwave ovens.

US$34.99, a scant 2 oz, and you even get a MIDI cable. Wire that sucker in, and you can assign MIDI messages however you like, including either omni or channelized modes. This is a very direct solution: the board actually outputs signal directly into whatever you wish to control.

Midify Product Page; story broken by hahafresh 

It’s fitting that in this twenty-fifth anniversary year of MIDI, the MIDIFY would be used to turn a microwave oven into a MIDI-controlled device. Synths and corn dogs – yes, folks, MIDI is truly delicious. (via Matrixsynth)

The world this week lost one of its great musical innovators, Bo Diddley. DIY instrument builders and anyone who enjoys abusing their guitar (or, perhaps, any instrument), you owe a great deal to "the originator." In the service of his unique and powerful expressive imagination, Bo Diddly hacked and attacked guitars, producing for the first time many of the effects we take for granted as part of the guitar language.

And, of course, there was also his signature, rectangular "Twang Machine" guitar, which is just plain brilliant.

I believe the instinct to experiment with sound is the same, whether it’s with acoustic instruments, electronic instruments, DIY creations, or software. So it’s comforting to know that people continue to look for sometimes-bizarre ways of pushing the envelope of what guitars can do. Here’s a sampling.

Virtual Guitar Sounds

One of the wonderful things about software is that it can be used to create combinations that are impossible or difficult in the real world. I talk a little bit this week on our Kore/Komplete minisite about how I like to add simulated Guitar Rig effects to synth sounds, then continue to modify them in the digital space:

Sound Design for Imaginary Instruments: Kore, Guitar Rig [kore.noisepages.com]

As it happens, none other than Keyboard Magazine just did a feature on the relevance of guitar effects to keyboardists and synthesists. Craig Anderton has some terrific tips, plus a spot-on survey of the relative strengths of available packages for different applications. There are some great bargains in there if you’re looking for cheap sets of multi-effects for computer use. You can read the whole article online, free:

Guitar Amp Simulators In Keyboard? [Keyboard Magazine]

Guitar as 8-Bit Instrument

Philadelphia-based artist Animal Style (Joey Mariano) has developed a unique way of making his guitar into an 8-bit, Nintendo-style instrument. Using a custom foot controller and 8-bit fuzz pedal, he feeds his guitar into 8-bit land and triggers pre-programmed chiptune loops programmed in homebrew Game Boy music system Nanoloop, running on a Game Boy Color. That means unlike many Game Boy artists, you’ll never see Joey hunched over the buttons of his game machine; everything is at his feet.

Meta-Harp Guitar + Computer A/V

Derek Bell (known on YouTube for his Ableton Live driver’s license controller and other projects) has been hard at work building the ultimate meta-guitar. Here, his MIDI harp guitar is controlling:

Different patches tuning using touch sensors

Ableton Live’s Sampler as sound source, with Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig 3 for effects

Quartz Composer for visuals, as sequenced in Ableton Live

This is an early demo — he’s now combining this with additional projects for a massive meta-guitar. We should see the results at the music evening we’re hosting at the HOPE hacker conference.

For more on the Guitar Rig 3 hacks, here he is working his way through Guitar Rig presets using onboard MIDI controls on a hacked electric:

Custom Guitar Controls Guitar Rig Directly [kore.noisepages.com]

I think there’s no better way to honor the history of guitar innovation and the memory of the greats than to keep on plugging on whatever it is you’re doing.

Bo Diddly photo (CC) Diego’s sideburns.