The Guthman Musical Instrument Competition is a cash prize contest for new musical instruments held this month at Georgia Tech, judged by Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk, Harmonix co-founder Eran Egozy, and Georgia Tech’s Parag Chordia. There are some familiar faces in there, but some fascinating, new ideas, too, like a motorcycle engine you can play with a keyboard. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Wired.com has a slide show of images with audio samples and videos for many of the projects:

New Musical Instruments Battle for $10K in Prizes

CDM held a similar contest judged by drum machine pioneer Roger Linn and the members of tech-loving band Freezepop, held at NASA’s Ames Research Center and Yuri’s Night last year. The difference: we offered one Tenori-On; this had $10,000 in cash prizes. Oh, and we sort of had folks show up randomly and judged them partly based on how loud the crowd cheered. But I love the idea, and hope we see more of this kind of spirit of experimentation.

I know we have some Georgia Tech readers here, and I expect a few of the contestents – did anyone get video of the competition itself? Anyone want to send along some additional documentation of your project? Remember, you’re Always a Winner on CDM (SM)!

I quite like this self-contained sampler tool with monome-style controller:

It’s like Mexican wrestling for people who enjoy, um, patching together interactive tools for music and visuals! And on one fateful Toronto day, the open source challenger took the prize.

As promised, a group of music tech geeks challenged DIY multimedia software environments Pure Data (Pd) and Max/MSP to a mano-a-mano contest of wits. These competing patching environments share interface concepts, code, and even a surprising amount of compatibility, but open source Pd and commercial, more polished-looking Max each have their own loyal converts. I’m pleased to offer the results – though I’m already hearing calls for a rematch in this heated rivalry. And there was DIY pong. And some kind of dancing … koalas?

Co-organizer Dafydd Hughes:

The event was a success – lots of fun, good-natured competition, beer and general nonsense.

Pd won 9-6, but several people pointed out that since there was only one person on the MAX team and two on Pd, maybe the score should have been 6-4.5 in MAX’s favour. Before the final Pong match the score was 4-2 for Pd. We then won Pong 5-4 and added the scores together.

We had a really good time and we’re already thinking of ways we could do it better next time and of variations on the theme.

Pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/interaccess/
Video here:
http://www.interaccess.org/blog/?p=743
A great blog post, pictures and video here:
http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/anything-you-can-do-i-can-do-better-midi-software-duel-5

The number one reason, for me at least: tons of bend-able toys and devices can be found very cheaply at secondhand and thrift stores.

Which brings us to this:

The premise is simple:

1. Wait until October 28th with growing anticipation.

5. Document the process and end result, then upload it to the internet in some fashion- Youtube, Flickr, etc, all with the tag “circuitchallenge.” (and createdigitalmusic, of course)

6. The Circuit Master and myself will gather the results and feature them here and at www.getlofi.com.

The winner will receive, um, a token prize of low value, to be decided later. Something though. And we’ll publish your picture on the internet for the universe to see.

Of course, it’s not about winning, oh no. It’s about getting off your keister and bending some circuits!

Never bent a circuit before but always wanted to? Now’s your chance!

So mark your calendars now, and hit up the forums here at createdigitalmusic.com with any questions.

*EDIT: Rodney from Tiger Claw Records has agreed to donate a few Circuit Bending Compilation CDs as a prize, and I’ve got a stack of CDs from FutureKomp to give away as well. If that isn’t enough incentive to get out there and bend on the 28th, you’re in it for the wrong reasons!

**DOUBLE EDIT: The Squarewave Parade has agreed to donate a parasite for the contest! Totally awesome.

***TRIPLE EDIT: HighlyLiquid has donated one of their MIDI kits for the contest! So cool!

No laptops. No CD players. No turntables. The Cassette Jockey World Championships will be cassette tape only. And the rules are tough: store-bought, commercial cassette tapes only. (Dig that Paula Abdul out of your closet — you know you want to.) Sounds dull? Think again: how you play those tapes is entirely up to you, and from what we’ve seen insane circuit benders and mad scientists of circuitry do to tape machines, that could get real interesting.

Mark Gunderson, aka Trademark G, is organizing the event at day one of the Maker Faire outside San Francisco, Saturday, May 19. You’ll need a ticket to the Maker Faire — but if you have even a slight shot at access to the Bay Area that weekend, I’d suggest you do that, anyway. (I’ll be there, lurking about, trying not to burn out sensors because I confused +5V and +9V.)

It’s an open call — and if you think you’ve got what it takes to judge, you should get in touch, as well.

Art of the Cassette Tape

Whether you’re going to the Maker Faire or not, I’ve also rounded up cassette tape creations from CDM stories past, just to get your tape juices flowing.

Homemade Cassette Tape DJ Mixers + Max/MSP PC
International Mixtape Project Sharing Tapes, CDs Worldwide
Warhol for TDK Tapes (Okay, video cassette tapes … maybe a VJ session should come next.)
Obsessive Cassette Tape Collection
Homebrewed Game Boy sequencer, via Walkman tape player
Put a Cassette Deck in Your Windows PC

Open Call for Cassette Jockeys

Here’s the full scoop on the “CJ” competition from Trademark G:

2007 Cassette Jockey World Championships
*** CALL FOR COMPETITORS ***

CALLING ALL: Cassette Jockies… Retro-Tech Lovers… Magnetic Media Monsters… Circuit Benders… Multi-Media DJs… Walkman Hot-Rodders… we want you at the:

2007 CASSETTE JOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
at the Make Magazine Maker Faire!

http://makerfaire.com/cj/

In 2003 at a festival in Chicago, a group of retro-tech geniuses organized The Cassette Jockey World Championships. Like the popular DJ (Disk Jockey) competitions with record-toting DJs showing off their turntable skills, the CJ Championships showcases skills and styles in the venerable world of cassettes. Since CJs were encouraged to hot-rod their own equipment, eviscerated boomboxes, disembodied tape heads, and overclocked Walkmans were the weapons of choice… anything that used the standard cassette as its ammo.

Now, in 2007, we’re hijacking the battle and hauling it to the west coast!

Forget DJs, this is for the CJs: The Cassette Jockey Championship is where YOU can show off your skills as a world-class CJ. This is your chance to show the world what the venerable and once-mighty cassette tape is capable of. The CJ who amazes the judges with their skill, technique, and knowledge will become the 2007 CASSETTE JOCKEY CHAMPION!

The Rules

1. One (1) Cassette Jockey at a time – no teams.
2. Competitors are ENCOURAGED to create or alter their own cassette tape decks/players/recorders/etc. to compete on. However, some stock cassette equipment will be provided at the competition.
3. Standard cassette tapes ONLY – no mini-cassettes or 8-Track tapes.
4. Cassettes used MUST be published, pre-recorded, “store-bought” cassettes for source material – No dubbing of CDs/LPs/8-Tracks/MP3s to tape, home recordings, battle cassettes, or found sounds are allowed.
5. Spliced tapes/tape loops are allowed. (But remember Rule #4.)
6. Live microphone usage and live feedback are allowed.
7. Headphones are allowed (supplied by competitor).
8. Competitors may use no more than six (6) cassette devices.

Competition
Competition will be Saturday, May 19, 2007 at the Maker Faire (admission/ticket required). The competition begins at 1pm with an Elimination Round, with each competitor given three (3) minutes to compete. Each will be scored by a panel of judges based on the criteria described below. The top five (5) scoring Cassette Jockeys will progress to the Final Round at 5pm. During the Final Round, each competitor is given five (5) minutes to compete. As before, each will be scored by the judges. The highest scorer is the winner, and receives a prize package and the title of Cassette Jockey World Champion!

Judging
A panel of judges will score each competitor in each round based on the following criteria:

1. (10 Points) Content. Techniques, musical ideas, and exploitation of the cassette medium.
2. (10 Points) Form. Performance style, transitions, overall set structure.
3. (5 Points) Intangibles. Bonus score for anything else the judge deems worthy.

Entry
For an entry form and up-to-date information about the 2007 Cassette Jockey World Championships, send an email to: cjchampionships@gmail.com
Entry Fee: $20 (payable at contest; does not include entry to Maker Faire)

It all sounds … hard. If only there were a way to meditate on tapes themselves. You know, get into what it means to be the tape. Okay, take it home, Andy. (I’ll leave it to you to apply this to audio tape as well as video; I’m off to find someone’s unwanted dual-VHS deck for my next VJ gig):

Johan Larsby points us to a developer contest at the mind-bogglingly comprehensive audio plug-in site, KVR Audio:

KVR Audio Developer Challenge

Developers are competing for a prize fund donated by readers and users, currently up to US$1770 (probably more than you’d make from a small plug). Developer entries are currently closed, but that means voting is on. There are 31 entries; the contest is pretty Windows-biased with only 5 Mac-compatible entries, which makes me suspect that cross-platform developers will have a major edge in voting.

Of course, the upshot of all of this is that you get to take advantage of lots of free software — just leave a few dollars in the hat to keep the thing going. Here are a few of the more unusual contributions:

1. Bram Bros Lunchbox Battles: “Play drum contests in your lunchbreaks and earn street cred from your coworkers with your block rocking jams!”
2. Videovst by Metamorphosis: “Videovst is a freeware VST plugin for playing back MPEG1 movie files in time-sync with your favourite audio host.”
3. Pondular by Mopiskevin @ Mopis-Synth.com: “Pondular is a unique way of interacting with a synth. The grid on the screen is your “pond.” Playing notes or clicking creates ripples in the pond.”
4. Collide and Play by NuSofting: Standalone program for Windows designed to compose ambient music in realtime by the interaction of animated graphic elements

There are also some very mature-looking instruments and effects in there, including some feature-laden pattern sequencers, compressors, and synthesizers, as well as the usual experimental stuff and a random plug-in featuring a picture of a voluptuous woman in a Catwoman outfit to “sweeten” your sound.

Updated: Johan’s own submission is one that should interest a lot of you: Repeatler is a real-time “sample accumulator” for adding loops from prerecorded or live sources. I’m constantly getting requests for plug-ins just like this, so the fact that this is simple, elegant, free, and Mac/Windows compatible probably means you’ll want to check out the download!

Not that I’m necessarily endorsing them for victory, but I find it interesting that there are unusual new, game-like interfaces with built-in physics, as I think you’ll see a lot more of this in the future. (From me, even, if I can keep practicing my ActionScript skills.) I had to picture those, because I’ve seen enough of the usual plug-in interface fare.

May the best contribution win!

PSP Rhythm, the homebrew drum machine for the PSP, just keeps on rolling. The song contest I covered in July is now complete. Ah, but what kind of music can you create with a lowly PSP homebrew app? Something like this:

Tobias K: Nearly Flying
Tobias K: Nearly Flying

Isti: Summer Breeze, Summer Freeze
Isti: Summer Breeze, Summer Freeze

Horace: Plasma
Horace: Plasma

Has a sort of retro-90s game music feel to it, especially in comparison to the glitchy 80s-vintage of Game Boy musicians. I’m still partial to the latter, so I may not be running out to buy a PSP just yet, but this shows what fun you can have making mobile music. The winners all got Memory Sticks so they can make more music.

In other PSP Rhythm news, version 6.1 is here with pattern tap tempo and MIDI file export, making this an effective performance tool and sketchpad for your main computer music app. PSP Rhythm on the road, Fruity Loops at home? Sounds good to me. There are also new skins, tutorials, and forum posts; just scroll down the page for everything:

PSP Rhythm

UF Design Contest

Now, I have to admit, I am a little disappointed, because when I first read the press release from CME I thought they meant we got to design the whole keyboard instead of just the skin. My mind flashed to a musical equivalent of Homer designing a car on The Simpsons. Let’s see, my keyboard will have 9 octaves, cupholders, an espresso maker, and a detachable wireless flexible ribbon controller.

But designing a skin sounds just as good to me. You’d better get in there fast, because so far the entries all look ridiculously ugly. Apparently, the goal was to put as many graphics on a keyboard as possible, even if it means combining images of an Apple Airport with those Nintendo hamster things. Or, at the opposite extreme, turning the monstrous, control-laden CME keyboards into something pink and flowery, as pictured here. I think we need to get our site designer Nat on this one for something with some subtlety. I’ll buy a Natboard.

Now, if we can just get CME to run a contest to redesign their website so we can actually navigate and read it . . .