A $50 synth that makes neat noises is fun. But a $50 synth that has a proper housing, audio jacks, and can be MIDI controlled — that’s a whole lot better. So readers were wowed last week as we saw the work MrBook did with his Gakken SX-150.

Now, by popular demand, MrBook shares his techniques with specs, instructions, and code. This isn’t a bad project to get started with if you’ve been thinking of doing something on these lines.

The basic ingredients and process:

• Find the connections on the synth for audio and control, using contact points on the board
• Build a simple circuit that adds MIDI input (control) and audio output – schematic on his site. It’s not a tough circuit at all — this could be fun soldering practice.
• Add the Arduino, the open source, dirt-cheap, accessible microcontroller project board, and some code MrBook has written for you.

That should be fun even for relative newcomers – provided you have basic soldering chops. If you want to get more advanced, there’s room to modify the Arduino code to do fun stuff, or, as MrBook is doing, add a standalone Arduino sequencer or the like to drive your synth in hardware alone. (While I’m still on a crusade to do OSC for stuff that talks to computers, I think MIDI should absolutely be used for what it’s good add – connecting hardware.)

You can also have some fun with the casing. (Someone needs to mod the drab colors on the Gakken, too, I think.)

If you do a project and document it, do let us know! And we’ll be watching for more from MrBook.

You can get your SX-150 kit from our good friends at MAKE. (Nope, I’m not getting any cash for saying that. Hmmm… okay, I need an affiliate account, don’t I? Make?)

SX-150 synth mod instructions, schematics and code [MrBook]

Via Collin Cunningham at MAKE, MrBook has a lovely rig with a modified Gakken SX-150, the synth kit that sells for US$50 in the States and has even been seen as a free add-in with Japanese magazines. He’s added MIDI control and a digital audio converter, and put it into a housing, which makes for a quite-playable instrument.

Really terrific work! Of course, a few thoughts:

• We need an OSC-compatible synth. (Anyone out there?)
• I love you, Live, but this looks like a perfect job for Numerology (for its modular sequencing) or Renoise (for tracking).
• Looks like more controls would make this even more self-contained.

Gakken sx-150 arduino hack number two: Adding MIDI and Audio out

If you have synth projects like this, we’d love to see them.

Interested in experimenting with MIDI, minus the wires? Why not try a DIY hack yourself? Limor Fried aka Lady Ada of Adafruit Industries has posted a detailed tutorial on transmitting MIDI over the inexpensive and relatively friendly XBee wireless module.

It’s a bit of a hack – you force the XBee to communicate at MIDI baud rate, and on Windows, at least, you have to fool the OS into using MIDI’s non-standard baud rate for serial communications. But it seems to work. That’s where you come in: Limor’s got some folks testing this, but we could use some additional real-world tests and a “port” of the instructions to Mac OS and Linux. (I’ll be testing, too, once I get my hands on some spare XBees.)

Tutorial: Using XBees to create a wireless bi-directional MIDI link [ladyada.net/make]

HOW TO – Using XBees to create a wireless bi-directional MIDI link [adafruit blog]

Ingredient list:

• XBee module
• Adafruit’s own handy XBee Adapter Kit (an adapter board that makes it easier to add the wireless module to your own projects)
• Parts for making the MIDI adapter: MIDI connectors, optocoupler, hex inverter
• A computer (Limor runs Windows, but any OS should work)
• Some MIDI gear (see: hardware manufactured from the mid-1980s to now)

How does this compare to commercially-available wireless MIDI adapters? Honestly, I have no idea – that’s where we could use some real-world tests. (Yeah, I know – I’m really helpful. But then, there’s still a compelling argument for wires in many situations.) My guess is, if you’re serious about wireless MIDI, you may want to consider other alternatives.

If you’re serious about wireless, in fact, you may want to look beyond MIDI. Brian Kerr, who brought his own wireless controller to a recent Handmade Music night, chose OpenSoundControl after unsuccessfully testing MIDI. The problem with OSC, of course, is that you really need MIDI on the other end for almost all hardware (like Limor’s own x0xb0x 303 clone). OSC is a better choice if you’re building your own project – you can always convert back to MIDI on the other end, but you have the convenience of OSC over wireless and can use OSC natively with software that supports it. (Visual software, tools like Max, Processing, and SuperCollider, and – I really do believe – soon, music software will work.)

But then again, this is a fantastic way to experiment with the XBee and to try some fun stuff with MIDI gear you’ve already got hanging around – and may be just fine for some applications. I’m eager to hear how it goes. More on wireless control and projects soon – stay tuned. Thanks for the great work on this, Limor!

Wonderful things happen when you invite lovers of noise together in a room. Musicians and non-musicians, electronics geeks and first-timers, folks pick up a soldering iron — often for the first time — and cause utter mayhem. So we again had a fantastic time at Handmade Music last month. I’ve just gotten the photos in, so decided to share.

We’re looking for folks to bring stuff to Handmade Music on 4/16 – see the bottom of the article and give us a shout if you have software or hardware creations to share. They don’t even have to work, entirely – this is the place to find people to help give advice, so we like even partly-functioning inventions.

Even if you live far, far from Brooklyn (like back in Old Amsterdam), the featured March projects are within reach:

• Loud Objects Noise Toy was the star of the evening. Lesley Flanigan and Tristan Perich of Loud Objects — superstar composers and sound artists themselves — were onhand as patient teachers and guides in the ways of Noise.
• glitchDS on PC and Mac: The DS homebrew creator Bret Truchan delighted with not only his mobile gaming creations, but a netbook running a new PC cellular automaton MIDI sequencer, ported to Processing. More on that soon. (See the image captured by Make Magazine’s Collin Cunningham.)
• Pulsantes I got Jaime Munarriz’ strange Processing + Pd pulsating rhythmic toys working on a PC – thanks, Jaime, for the virtual contribution!
• jReality Peter Brinkmann demonstrated the sonic capabilities of audiovisual virtual reality framework jReality. Intense stuff – you don’t even need to use Cartesian coordinates. Elliptical, baby!
• Networked Objects: Eric Beug brought by his DIY wireless synth modules and an iPhone for control. This progress is under development, so I hope it makes a repeat visit.

By the way, in case you wondered what happens when a bunch of people play all their newly-built Noise Toys at once? It sounds something like … this (and sorry, my digicam mic was entirely incapable of capturing the resulting sonic chaos):

More photos from Collin Cunningham and our event co-host MAKE Magazine:

Hey, You! Yeah, You!

So, folks in automobile / railroad / Zeppelin distance of New York, we’d love to see what you’re working on, be it a Max/Pd patch, Processing sketch, circuit-bent instrument, DIY controller, sensor project, or wearable SweaterSynth. Definitely bring cables, and (if you’ve got one) a portable PA; otherwise plug into our PA and projector.

Next engagement: Thursday, April 16 (this coming Thursday).

Form below, or head directly to our form on Google Docs:
Handmade Music Call for Works: Form

Make:Television has done a really lovely piece on CCRMA, the research center at Stanford University that works on problems ranging from acoustics and sound to musical instrument design. CCRMA is really just one microcosm of the whole music tech making scene around the world – a lot of increasingly beyond the walls of academia. But what a microcosm it is: I don’t think it’s understatement to say this is just the kind of institution a lot of us dream of. Among the highlights from the MAKE video that I could pick up:

• Ge Wang, professor and creator of ChucK programming language and certain popular ocarina-themed iPhone apps, and Stanford Laptop Orchestra director
• Carr Wilkerson: Electronic “Rub Board”(?) with a nice accompanying Pd synth patch
• A very nice Max/MSP app that everyone seems to be using for signal analysis
• Edgar Berdahl: a one-handed drum that “hits back”
• Nicholas Bryan building the legendary hemispheric speaker (incidentally, no one seems to be able to tell me who invented that)
• A giant interactive musical playground, with a Wii-powered teeter-totter (with one somewhat silly patch, and then another very lovely bowed-sounding patch)

Thanks to patospurlock on Twitter for the tip. I know at least some of you CCRMA students read this site, so feel free to chime in and identify your colleagues.

The featured Feedback Piano project is a hybrid with a bit of acoustical design (a piano), electronics/recording (mics), and digital/computer design (the Max patch that completes the circle). The results are really striking, and while it’s a lot less portable than a convolution reverb, it’s certainly very different having an actual piano into which you can play your saxophone.

Make followed up with directions on the Feedback Piano (please use a truly broken piano, thanks!) and we’ve got some video, as well:

HOW TO – build a feedback piano [MAKE Magazine]

feedback piano #1 from Alloy Electric on Vimeo.

Alloy Electric has more Vimeo videos of the feedback piano and other projects. (Nice footage, as well! Actually, I think, a bit artier than what Make:TV shot!)

More on Chris Warren’sblog and project website.

By the way, does anyone know why educational programs about Science always have to have some geeky-sounding guy shouting at you? (See the condensed history of all music tech at the end.)

Here’s something I’d very much like to see: a hackable, kit step sequencer.

nostromo tips us off to a blog item on his site on the project. The creation of Monowave maker Paul Maddox, the 8-step sequencer is based on an Atmel Mega16 micro chip. The whole thing is looking very compact, which could make a nice little unit or might integrate well with other projects (like a synth).

The other good news to me: new DIY hardware could be a great way to run clock into software. Previously, that job has fallen to somewhat dull consumer drum machines. With DIY projects, even software lovers may soon be hacking new features into hardware and manipulating software sequences with that.

Planned features include “rock-solid timing” (sounds good), plus:

• 4 sequences with parameters
• Steps with pitch, velocity, gate on/off, and two Control Change messages (CC1/CC2) on a selectable channel
• Adjust tempo, base note (including via MIDI), sequence and step length
• Legato mode
• Send MIDI clock out, MIDI sync in (currently input isn’t done – input is usually trickier than output, but output may actually be more interesting to people)

nostromo already has some ideas for how to make this interesting when combined with chip trackers like LSDJ and LPGT, so worth reading his original post (thanks!):

Meet Gorf [mustakl]
GorF Project Page at Paul’s site Vaco Loco

Anyone out there worked on a similar project? (I’d sure love to have a DIY sequencer or two at our Handmade Music events in NYC!)

Lovers of the sound of the original Nintendo Game Boy, the Minimoog of game systems with its distinctive, rich 8-bit sound, this may be the best solution for integrating it with other music gear.

Our friend trash80, aka Timothy, has completed a project with open-source code for the affordable, easily-programmable Arduino electronics platform. To make it work, he’s built his own custom cartridge, adding standard MIDI communication with other devices. An 1/8” minijack plugs into your Game Boy cart, but you get standard MIDI DIN on the other end for connecting to keyboards, computers, and the like. With all the code available, you should not only be able to build your own MIDI Game Boy, but apply some of trash80’s techniques to other MIDI hardware projects, as well.

Full documentation:

Flickr set

Code, project detail, and docs at Google Code

That’s the full Arduinoboy shield below:

Updated: As Smithers notes in comments, this is similar to the Pushpin project. Pushpin is actually quite a lot more compact, using only a MIDI cable. The downside: Pushpin requires a Game Boy Color, while this project works with the other Game Boy models. Also, the Arduino aspect may make this project a bit more accessible. Worth looking at both, of course.

I received my Arduino Diecemila in the mail last week and have started to experiment with using it to synthesize audio and video. I’m not very experienced with programming microcontrollers, so I’ve been doing a lot of research to see what’s out there, and it’s greatly encouraging to see that people are taking this little kit in fun directions.

While I wasn’t able to find many “finished” projects, I did find a whole lot of ideas that deserve further exploration:

First up is a simple but effective “Arduino Theremin” from Alberto Bietti. Looks like this one uses an ultrasonic rangefinder rather than an RF field to effect pitch. The squelchy FM-like tone is a little screechy but could work well with a little bit of filtering:

Here’s a very nice MIDI Sequencer from beamercola, being played by IDM darling Tycho. The LEDs are a nice touch, and the stability as he ramps up the clock indicates a solid design. The end result is extremely musical and could stand on it’s own alongside some very pricey commercial counterparts:

Here’s a circuit-bend from octopussss using the Arduino to adjust the toy’s clock rate. Super freaky:

Sebastian Tomczak of little-scale has a very promising drum machine design. I’m sure he’s working on a newer version that doesn’t use those terrible DIP switches for controls:

Sebastian’s also got an amazing VGA synthesizer rigged up that is controlled by what looks like MIDI data synchronized to a beat made in Ableton Live. So awesome, and very portable. I could use one of these at my next live gig:

On a related note, here’s a project from iperry that uses the Arduino to separate incoming audio into frequency bands, then uses those signals to control the color/brightness of a few ambient orbs. Nicely done:

What’s great about these projects collectively is not their functionality, but the breadth of their intents. I’ve yet to see a fully functional polyphonic synth powered solely by Arduino, but I think we’re seeing the components of such a system coming together one by one. And because the Arduino is open-source and nearly all users share their data and experience, we’re only going to see more and better projects as time goes on. I think we’re just at the start of a long journey, one that will certainly delight and amaze as it unfolds.

Ed.: Terrific finds, Mike! But I’m surprised — you missed one of the biggest projects. It’s not polyphonic, mind, but it sounds fantastic. The Critter and Guitari folks, whom we already loved dearly for their video synths and organs and DIY video kit, have built a shield for the Arduino adding on synth capabilities. -PK

This is a board for making the Arduino into a portable stand alone music synthesizer. It plugs directly into the Arduino board and provides 25 multiplexed keys (2 full octaves), 4 pots, status LED, reset switch, digital to analog converter IC, and a RCA audio jack. The Arduino board with its powerful AVR processor is more than adequate for a wide range of sound synthesis techniques. We have experimented with additive / wave-table synthesis, frequency modulation, ring modulation, sampling, polyphony, various arpeggiators. The whole thing can be powered over the Arduino’s USB port for convenient experimenting.

Pocket Piano Arduino Shield Project Page

Here’s a hands-on demo, as captured by Make’s Collin Mel Cunningham :

My favorite project — the creators built a housing and fuzzy keyboard membrane out of felt, as pictured at the top of this story.

Felt Pocket Piano Enclosure How-To [Critter and Guitari]

Collin walks through the whole process of making the Pocket Piano project on MAKE:blog.

Build the Arduino Pocket Piano

Collin has also tried building his own synth project, as reported previously on MAKE.

I’m guessing that, with the Pocket Piano out for a few months, there are other projects we’re missing. So, fair readers, if you do have cool Arduino-based projects of any kind — or, for that matter, want to tell us that you really prefer a different kit or microcontroller platform — we’d love to hear from you! -PK

How 2.0: Pipe Organ Chair from My Home 2.0 DIY on Vimeo.

Pipe Organ Chair Project Page

The other project, by way of the multi-talented Allison Lewis (the creator of SWITCH, a DIY show for young women, and some brilliant fashion + technology work), is a wall harp. Think infrared sensors plus MIDI, using the MidiTron kit by Eric Singer, which is seen regularly around these here parts.

How 2.0: Build a Digital Wall Harp from My Home 2.0 DIY on Vimeo.

I wish that, in addition to the DIY portions, they had spent more than two or three seconds documenting the results. But I think this may be in New York, so maybe I’ll have to go over there and try it out myself.

If you’ve got your own favorite projects involving pipes or infrared sensors, let us know. And maybe this will inspire some of your own work.

Side note to Verizon: please stop torturing us poor New Yorkers with how awesome Verizon FIOS is when we can’t get it. Hurry up with that build-out, already. I can send you my address. You can come over with the fiber optic cable today, even; I’m pretty good with a wire crimper.

There’s a growing appetite for using custom controllers or creating DIY controllers from scratch. Why not, after all, get exactly the number of knobs and sliders you want, in just the layout you want? Where a lot of these projects stumble, though, is in the enclosure. That’s what made the appearance of machinecollective, an polished-looking modular system of just the kinds of enclosures you’d want, so exciting when we saw it last month.

Well, here’s some good news: Machinecollective may be coming to you very soon. The site has launched in beta, and prototypes are scheduled for shipping early next month. And the kinds of modular casings look just as tasty, with possibilities like:

• Arrays of knobs and faders


• Monome and Sparkfun keypad faceplates (ideal for those Monome kits, for instance — in whatever arrangement you like
• LCD screens
• A patch bay for banana plugs / body contacts

I’m personally most excited about that patch bay. Korg toyed briefly with analog patch points on their Korg MS-20 Collection Controller — but it only supported that software, and it was a limited edition. Imagine non-analog software (hello, physical synthesis) with conventional patching, hooked up to whatever you like.

The Shape of Things to Come?

Just doing casings would be nice, but Machinecollective is also putting together lots of documentation on prototyping. It could be a really fantastic resource on a topic most musicians and visualists know little about.

With Machinecollective and some other developments, building on increased interest in microcontrollers and platforms like Arduino, we could be seeing the beginning of a DIY ecosystem for enterprising musicians and visualists. Obviously, hardware hacking isn’t for everyone — but the Web and smart, open-source tech platforms have a way of amplifying the power of niche communities. Fortune Magazine profiles the emerging DIY movement in a feature. Curiously, music gets no mention at all, despite the fact that Theremin kits were among the most popular back decades, and musicians have often been at the forefront of electronics hacking and custom hardware. (In fact, Bob Moog might never have become interested in sound had he not assembled one of those kits.)

Machinecollective News
Prototyping Modules Details

Pricing and Availability: Webshop launch “expected Early September.” Pricing: “We have not set official kit pricing yet, but expect a basic module (top panel kit + base kit + bottom panel kit) to be priced between 25 and 35 euro’s.”