Andrew Turley writes to share his microfiche-to-MIDI music maker, which he shared at the Maker Faire. The idea: take the humble library microfiche, and translate light and dark values into MIDI, fed to a Casio keyboard. Sound like a random idea? Well, it would be — except Andrew happens to be in a band called Microfiche. (Check them out on MySpace.) None other than IEEE Spectrum — yes, from the IEEE standards body that brings us stuff like FireWire (aka IEEE 1394) — got hands-on with his project; IEEE Spectrum’s Josh Romero named it one of his favorite musical projects at the faire.

Maker Faire Highlights: Making Music the Hard Way [IEEE Spectrum]

Andrew has more impressions of the Faire on his blog Pillowsopher:

I’ve been there for the last two days presenting some of my projects, such as:

• Unicorn Vs. Dolphin
• my stomp pad
• $2 multitouch instrument (based on the water-in-a-bag design by Erling Ellingsen)
• Rock Band Keynote
• the Microfiche Machine (light to MIDI converter for the band Microfiche)
• the LED VU Meter

Cool, but I’d love to do this with microfilm — especially with the film cranked up to full speed. Wheeeee— click, click … crap. Film came off the spool. (What, am I the only person who’s done old-fashioned library research?)

More Maker Faire Videos

Make: Blog’s resident musicologist Collin Cunningham has a video with more of the music projects at Maker Faire:
Musical interfaces @ Maker Faire from Collin Cunningham on Vimeo.

Anyone else with fun Maker Faire reports, do send them our way. Sorry I couldn’t make it this year — but I’ll take this opportunity to finally edit all this footage I have from Yuri’s Night Bay Area, for more Greater San Francisco DIY Musical Goodness!

This has been making the blog-o-rounds, but if you haven’t seen it, the Yellow Drum Machine is a brilliant musical robot — brilliantly musical, and brilliantly simply technologically. (There’s something to be said for elegant design.) It rolls around, looks for objects nearby, bangs on them, and samples that sound. (Hmm, it’s like a little robotic equivalent of me around my apartment.) As seen on MAKE.

The specs are terrific:

• Cost to build: $120
• Time to build: 20 hours
• Actuators / output devices: 6 geared motors in total, 2 speakers, sound sampler
• Control method: autonomous (very)
• CPU: Picaxe 28
• Operating system: Picaxe basic
• Power source: 4 AA batteries
• Programming language: Picaxe basic
• Sensors / input devices: SRF05, microphone
• Target environment: where ever there is something to play on

By “fritsl” — fritsl, if you’re out there (or anyone else), want to let us in on who you are?

Previously:

Robots on CDM

Robot Drummers, Compared: Like Musicians, Robots are Better When They Listen

Robot Drummer Responds to Human Playing; How They Did It (speaking of which, Gil and company at Georgia Tech, perhaps it’s time for a Haile Mobile?)

Got something cool like this and can get to San Francisco in April? I hope you’re entering our competition!

The exceptional Masayuki Akamatsu, best known around these parts as the maker of the wonderful aka.objects for Max for hooking into Wii remotes, Space Navigators, MacBook motion sensors, and more, gets an in-depth interview over at the Make:blog. They even manage to bridge the language barrier and translate to English.

“Made in Japan” Interview: Masayuki Akamatsu

The digital maestro talks about Max, the future of technology in the micro- and macrocosm, and his live-soldering electronic Breadboard Band.

He also has this to say about the darker side of technology in Japan:

This depends on the generation, but I think that in particular young people in Japan for most part think of electronic devices as being disposable. The pace of consumption and greed is pretty astonishing, and they probably aren’t even aware of it consciously.

I think there’s a growing awareness of this issue here, as well.

One bone to pick: he claims Max, compared to the open source Pure Data, is “overwhelmingly better in terms of function, extendability, etc.” I think that easily applies that to the areas of interface and documentation, but Pd has some functionality and extensibility tricks of its own — more “different” than “better” (and arguably, Pd is better in some areas). But he has done some fantastic things with Max, so I certainly see no reason to argue with his choice of tools.

Thanks, Make, for the great interview. Anyone you’d like to see on CDM’s interview list? Any volunteer translators for people of the rest of the world?

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.

thing-a-day: matchbox synthesizer from ranjit on Vimeo.

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:

ranjit @ Thing-a-day.com

Circuit Bent Casio SK 1 from Gijs on Vimeo.

Note: we are temporarily having problems with Vimeo’s embedded video. (So is MAKE, evidently, so it’s not our fault!) Click through to see the video, or enjoy the lovely garbled characters if they’re there.

Regular followers of the music tech blogs know the wild and wonderful work of bender/inventor Gijs Gieskes (here or all over here), in which Casio keyboards get massive mechanical add-ons and Sega games become fuzzy, distorted video art. Phillip Torrone writes us to let us know MAKE has taken a closer look at the artist:

In the illustrious world of case-mods and console hacking, artists and makers are re-inventing the design and function of these ubiquitous consumer electronics devices by creating hybrid systems and creative artifacts that challenge the corporate status quo. Taking this credo to an extreme with his inventive hardware projects is Dutch artist and maker, Gijs Gieskes. From casting a Nintendo Gameboy in concrete in order to build a garden path with “GameBoy Bricks” to creating an analog version of the hated spinning cursor in the Mac OSX operating system with “Spinning Beach Ball of Death”, Gieskes’ work and live performances are an inventive look at how closely entrenched we’ve become in the world of glitchy hardware and scrambled noise producing machines. MAKE recently caught up with Gieskes to discuss his practice, philosophy, and exactly how important the current crop of hackable consumer electronics might be to future generations.

Modding consumer electronics devices into DJ tools with Gijs Gieskes

The author of the interview, Jonah Brucker-Cohen, is an artist himself, so for a little meta-interviewing, check out Regine interviewing Jonah for we make money not art.

Of course, if you’d like to challenge the likes of Gijs and think your bending kung fu is better, get applying to this year’s Bent Festival.

And if you’re in London, MAKE also points to what looks like a really cool toy bending workshop there. Let us know if any of you go!

I’ve always been fascinated with the evolution of species. Ever seen those bizarre, short-lived organisms in textbooks, the ones that look like they have twelve eyes and a hundred really tall legs and a spindly tail that serves no purpose? I feel the same way about new instruments, interfaces, and music software. Sometimes it’s the evolutionary aberrations — whether practical or not — that are the most interesting, and that perhaps tell us the most about the more dominant species. (Hello, guitars.) And with an open door policy for DIY instruments, we’ve seen some wonderfully unusual experiments at the Handmade Music event series along just these lines.

Continuing our performance series, with assistance from Make Magazine and Etsy.com, we had some special guests last Sunday at openhousegallery in SoHo, New York: the Mister Resistor Ensemble. Headed by Ranjit Bhatnagar, the inventive sound artist who brought us robotic Theremins and MIDI ironing boards, this group of students from Parsons is lucky enough to spend a whole semester building fun instruments with hardware and software. The results are clearly experimental, but that’s the point. Some informal video clips:

Handmade Music: Mister Resistor from Create Digital Media on Vimeo.

A big thanks to our beverage sponsor, Function Drinks, and the lovely venue, openhousegallery New York, for making the event possible!

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.

Mister Resistor - the video from ranjit on Vimeo.

Mister Resistor Preview 1 from ranjit on Vimeo.

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.
• We’ll have free beverages, supplied by Function Drinks.
• 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.

Invite and ensemble details + music, misterresistor.com
Handmade Music Event on Facebook

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.

Collin Mel brought some wonderful soundmaking projects to Handmade Music last week. Face-to-face community is a beautiful thing (if loud, crowded, and prone to elevator failure — I like to think the Etsy elevator was slashdotted). But it’s also nice to keep up with Web documentation of projects. Collin’s got a great blog with updates on his latest, and some lovely Flickr photos. Included: boxes with lots of knobs that make sounds, and giant, clear, tube-shaped enclosures. And extra points for hacking together an amp and calling it “Ol’ Crappy.”

He also has some nice words about the Thursday party, which I hope will help inspire setting these up, even informally (invite a few friends!), in other parts of the world:

What made this event extra fun for me was the fact that it was the first time I was able to demonstrate some instruments I’ve been working on to a very supportive and interested community. I have to say, the positive feedback I received (regarding the atari tube in particular) warmed my heart. I have spent so much time learning the language of electronics over the past few months - toiling over wire and solder - that I almost forgot how good it feels to see someone else enjoy something that I’ve made. What I see as a noisemaker with a couple of knobs on it becomes an instrument once someone else picks it up and begins to play. That is a very good thing.
A big thanks to everyone who came out to the event - Hope to see you again soon.

A Heart-Warming Night of Noise
Narbotic [Collin's blog]

Last night, a reasonably-sized mob squeezed between workbenches at Etsy Labs to enjoy the latest Handmade Music night, organized by myself and CDM, Etsy.com, and Make Magazine. At this point, I’d normally try to explain what the concept behind Handmade Music is, but, like so many things, it sounds way cooler in Spanish. Mangas Verdes writes (responding to the latest video from Etsy):

Son músicos, son artesanos y son modernos. ¿Quién quiere pagar miles de euros por un sampler o un sintetizador? ¿Quién dijo que en en el campo de los instrumentos musicales tampoco hay nada nuevo bajo el sol? Handmade Musical Creations: interesante, irreverente y divertido. Luthiers, pero en versión tecno.

Luthiers de la música digital

And yes, luthier means in Spanish exactly what it means in English. I love it.

In a night filled with handmade circuits driving tape players, webcam MIDI controllers, a giant wall of switches, and a din of bleeps and bloops, one could well say “this sounds like chaos” or “aren’t these all just gimmicks?” I wouldn’t argue — quite the contrary. “Weird device that makes noise” is, after all, the first stage of any musical instrument. Already, people were practicing with these instruments as you would a cello. A cello takes years to master. So I’m eager to see where all this leads.

Last night’s highlights: an extended ambient-esque set from Richard Lainhart, a hand-wired cassette Mellotron from the good folks at Make (more on that coming later today), the public debut of the Monome 256, a great 40h performance (very different from Brian’s last time, showing the versatility of the instrument), Eric making the world’s least-practical yet most-fantastic controller in the form of a giant wall of household switches, and all sorts of unusual sound-making boxes.

One of the wonderful things about music in general is that basically anything can become a musical instrument — digital, electronic, or otherwise. The barrier to entry is neither skill nor means, but will. (or is that general craziness?) Musician and builder Eric Johnson surprised us at the last handmade music get-together in Brooklyn with musical crutches. Realfans.TV has again pre-empted their usual programming of American football fans to capture the moment (even most of the locals missed this one, as he didn’t pull them out until after all but a few of us had left):

Click To Play

(Via billcammack.com)

We’ve got another event coming up next Thursday, September 27. I’ll repeat the description I wrote up for MAKE (plus read on for a very cool companion MAKE:nyc event likely to be of interest to CDMers):