Current TV has done a video featurette on a Handmade Music event held by CDM, Etsy.com, and Make in the fall. We’re finally getting back to these this summer, but this gives you an idea of the kinds of projects people are up to in the NYC area — hope some of you in the rest of the world can enjoy it.
Via The Storque, Etsy.com’s excellent online magazine. (See their previous coverage of these events.)
We could really use your help raising the visibility of DIY music tech — if you’re a Current member, or can register quickly, you can give the video a thumbs-up and give it a shot of being on the Current TV network. The way it works is, Current takes popular online videos and sticks them on the actual tube. And if you want your own fame and fortune and are near NYC, be sure to check out our call for projects.
Internet Week — Evening with MAKE Magazine: Thursday June 5, 6:30-9:30pm. We’ve already programmed part of this, but there should be a couple of spots left for unique DIY music/visual hardware and software projects. Part of a week-long celebration of the Internet in NYC.
Hackers on Planet Earth Conference: Friday, July 18. This legendary assemblage of hackers at NY’s Pennsylvania Hotel is one of the world’s great geekfests. Tech author Steven Levy is keynoting. We’re throwing a big music and live visuals party, combining forces with some of the local 8-bit community.
Handmade Music with Etsy + Make: We’re re-inaugurating our regular series with Make Magazine and Etsy.com. Dates TBD but we hope to bring this back as a regular event in Brooklyn.
Mystery Event in Boston! If you’re in the Boston area, stay tuned. (Providence, New Haven, you’ll want to make the trip.)
Here’s what we’re looking for: DIY music software, hardware projects, 8-bit, custom gaming and gaming interfaces for music, live visuals, hacked solutions, visualizations and sonifications of Internet data (would seem especially appropriate during Internet week), interactive projects, physical computing, oddities, custom cases, weird stuff … the usual.
For HOPE, I’m particularly interested in keeping with the hacking theme, including open source projects, Linux audio, and unusual projects built with computers. With all the cool stuff happening in DIY electronics and hardware, software often falls by the wayside. And with all of these, I’d love to see more audiovisual projects.
Deadline: Right Now
Sign up here if you’re interested in doing these. I thought about setting a deadline, but honestly, with Make it’s first-come, first-serve, and with everything else, I’d rather know sooner than later, so if you’ve got something in-process, don’t be shy!
A Google Docs live form is embedded in this story below right on createdigitalmusic.com; if you’re reading via RSS, you’ll need to click through to the site to view it properly.
We all make all sorts of promises to ourselves about how when we have some free time, we’re going to get to various projects. Here’s a way to keep the forward progress going: make one thing every day. Our friend Ranjit, creator of the MIDI ironing board, the Mister Resistor ensemble, and a robotic Theremin, is doing just that. Having to make one thing a day means you’ll almost certainly have to simplify what you’re doing, maybe even do some things you don’t necessarily like — but always do something, which could be a great learning experience. My favorite so far: his Matchbox Synthesizer.
Sure, it won’t win any audio fidelity awards, but it’s great fun. It gives me some other ideas for things that could be fit into a space that small, as well. See what the other daily Thingers are doing:
Ed.: Circuit bending too destructive for you? Don’t let that scare you away from this year’s Bent Festival, in NYC, LA, and Minneapolis. Key pioneering circuit benders like founding artist Reed Ghazala are quick to argue that bending is a creative, not a destructive act — though some more radical benders might disagree. You say creation, she says destruction — let’s call the whole thing off: this year, handmade instruments and art of all kinds are welcome, say conference organizers, who are…
… continuing to open the Bent Festival to performers and artists that create their own electronics as well as to those who hack, bend, modify and destroy them
Full details:
The Tank is currently accepting proposals for Bent 2008: The Fifth Annual Circuit Bending Festival:
PAiA, the electronics kit creator beloved by music DIYers, has a fantastic, simple kit that’s likely to appeal to beginners and kit lovers alike. The kit is a “2-Transistor Ribbon Kit,” and it’s the basic circuit for ribbon controllers for music, of the sort found in commercial products like Kurzweil keyboards and invented by Paul Tanner as the “Tanner-in” — the same instrument used in the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.”
Having a kit that gives you a fundamental circuit, adaptable to a variety of projects, is cool already. But PAiA went further: they took the entire circuit, printed it on a business card, and used basic punch holes so you don’t eve have to solder. Just twist together connections, and you can make the “ribbon” itself using a pencil. (4B-8B softness gives you enough graphite for it to work really well; check your local art supply store.)
Best of all, the cost to you is nothing. Write “Free kit for CDM readers” on the back of a self-addressed & stamped envelope, send it to PAiA Corporation, and our friends there will send you a free kit:
PAiA Corporation
2201 North Lamar Boulevard, Suite 200
Austin, Texas 78705 USA
They’ll even send it internationally, minus parts (see complete details). You can include some spare change if you want to help them out.
What I really love about the kit is that it’s super portable and easy to use with people who have no electronics experience whatsoever. Soldering irons can scare people, and that means extra room for assembly and equipment that’s tough to access. With this kit, you can bring a little bag of parts and rock out with just about anyone. So if you’ve read about crazy projects on this site and never tried one yourself, this is a great way to start. And likewise, if you’re one of those people making crazy projects, you can use this kit in schools, clubs, parties, whatever. I took them along to our most recent Handmade Music night in New York, and the results were terrific. (People picked it up with almost no instruction; see the video at top. That’s my partner Jennifer as hand model and assistant instructor.) We hope to repeat that again in NYC, Chicago, and LA; if you do an event of your own, let us know.
Tired of conventional instrumentation? How about toy robots named Freddy and Teddy, a violin with a bow made out of cassette tape, and a synthesizer assembled from a 1960s electric guessing game?
We have a special guest performance for the next Handmade Music party, organized by CDM in New York with Etsy.com and Make Magazine. The Mister Resistor ensemble features various musical oddities — electronic and acoustic — created by students at Parsons The New School for Design.
The course is taught by Ranjit Bhatnagar, who’s been a regular at Handmade Music with robotic Theremins, MIDI ironing boards, and other alternative instruments. Ranjit explains how the course works:
Background: for the last few years I’ve been teaching a studio class in Parsons’ department of Design & Technology (that’s the multimedia & physical computing department). The class is called Mister Resistor, and it’s about making homemade instruments and performing with them. I introduce the students to circuit bending, simple acoustics, synthesis, and the like, and get them making and playing their own instruments. The “final exam” for the class is a public concert. Last year’s class did their concert at the Flux Factory gallery in Queens, in the midst of a giant sound sculpture I’d worked on.
I know we have other instructors out there, so if you use similar techniques in your class (or would like to), let us know about it!
I’ll be flying all the way from Australia back to New York to co-host Mister Resistor on Sunday at another installment of Handmade Music. Various other reasons this one is special:
I’ll be hosting a free workshop using a ribbon controller electronics kit from PAiA Corporation. Even the kits are free to makers, until we run out. (More on that kit and how to get it wherever you are soon.) You can do the whole thing without soldering, even if you’ve never done this before.
It’s in Manhattan, not in Brooklyn — our friends at Etsy Labs hooked up a fantastic space in SoHo called openhousegallery, 201 Mulberry Street near Spring Street.
It’s in the afternoon (2-5p), rather than at night. And you can still catch the NYU ITP show Monday. (Just go; you’ll understand.)
As always, if you’re in town, stop by and bring your own projects for show and tell if you like. (Hint: they don’t even have to function properly. We’re relaxed like that.)
Once again, that’s Sunday, 12/16, 201 Mulberry Street in SoHo, completely free, you’ll hear great music, and you’ll learn to make electronics without soldering even if you never have before.
Speaking of events, there’s been so much awesomeness and I’ve been so very much in Australia that I’ve gotten way behind, so apologies about some cool events I didn’t get up. I would be remiss, though, in not pointing to another ensemble, partly because you can go while I’m in a 747 over the Pacific, but mostly because I hope by second semester we’ll have massive battle of the band competitions between these things. NYU’s own NIME ensemble after the jump.
Oh, and to the 95% of readers not in New York, a calendar for CDMworld is definitely in the works so we can share the love.
In anticipation of the Circuit-Bending Challenge later this month, I’ve rounded up a few great resources to inspire and inform those of you who’d like to get started in the wonderful world of Circuit Bending.
Circuit bending is the creative short-circuiting of low voltage, battery-powered electronic audio devices such as guitar effects, children’s toys and small synthesizers to create new musical instruments and sound generators.
Second: It’s quite easy and fun, and you’ll be able to produce interesting results very quickly.
Third: To kick things off, I’m going to defer to the esteemed Reed Ghazala, considered by many to be the Father of today’s movement. Y’know, like how James Brown is the Godfather of Soul?
The circuit-bent instrument, often a re-wired audio toy or game, is an alien instrument: alien in electronic design, alien in voice, alien in musician interface. Through this procedure, all around our planet, a new musical vocabulary is being discovered. A new instrumentarium is being born.
So I was having a little chat with the Circuit Master over at www.getlofi.com about how and why we both got into circuit bending.
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.
2. Bicycle, walk, or swim to your nearest secondhand store.
3. Locate and purchase a cheap electronic noisemaking device.
4. Take it home and bend that thang!
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!
Okay, music fans: reach the very vanguard of geekiness, and you can become an entirely new demographic — the Nerdster. Or so says direct marketing guru Lauren Bell for DMNews, who much to my surprise reviewed the most recent CDM + Etsy + Make “Handmade Music night in Brooklyn”:
Last night, on the not-so-anonymous urging of a PR company that represents Make magazine, I went to “Handmade Music” at Etsy Labs in downtown Brooklyn…
On handmade music night, super-nerds, artists, and the edgy, in-the-know, 20-something crowd converge on the Etsy labs, drawn by promises of newly-invented instruments, techno music, and free pizza…
Although it seemed a bit exclusive (the hipster-to-non ratio was rather high), I thought it was an interesting and entertaining way to spread brand awareness.
Brand awareness — uh, sure! I won’t even touch “in-the-know”, “edgy”, and “hipster” (uh … yeah … that sure describes me, at least), but nerdster is a word I can get behind. Even if we’re probably not actually playing “techno” music. And Lauren, it’s not exclusive; do come back. (I’ll make sure CDM’s own, massive PR department follows up with her.)
In addition to direct marketing mag coverage, the most recent event attracted the attention of a site that largely does video podcasts about football fans. (Hey, you can solder a new MIDI controller during ad breaks.) Bre Pettis, the vodcasting superstar from Make, shows how he turned an electronics kit into a soundmaker, a quite-fun project:
Via realfans.tv — the guy there was really a nice dude, too; hope to see him back.
Next NYC event 9/27: Mark your calendars: we’re doing another Handmade Music event on September 27 in Brooklyn. If you’ve got a project, even a small one, we’d love to see it. Drop me a line.
And we really are working on a way of showing projects off virtually from around the world. If you’d like to chat about ideas for that, drop me a line. Otherwise, stay tuned.
0
