The Sharper Image, a source of various amusing musical oddities over the years, now has a ready-to-use USB laser harp music controller for PC (Windows XP/Vista), at the price of — wha? US$599? Yes, this is obviously Sharper Image exercising the business and marketing acumen that allowed it to — erm — file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

And, in a move we haven’t seen in years, they spell the name with a ‘z’ instead of an ’s.’ Classy. And they’ve opted for a design that looks like the security fence in Jurassic Park.

The beamz Music Performance System @ Theremin World

Not sold yet? Read this feature and drool:

Choose a complementary rhythm track from 30 original songs in 19 music genres, including jazz, bluegrass, classical, hip-hop, reggae, heavy metal and more.

And it all “brings families and friends together through highly personalized music performances that elicit joy and excitement across all ages.” So, is $600 really so much to ask if it saves your family?

Make Your Own Laser Harp

As it happens, you can make a much cooler (okay, not saying much — a cool) laser harp on your own, as Stephen Hobley has done:

Stephen Hobley’s *awesome* laser harp [ladyada's ranting]

Click through to comments for more details on the project and how-to info.

Updated: Stephen’s site is back up, so go have a look. The project uses the very inexpensive Boarduino Arduino clone. I’m an Arduino vet but just picked up a Boarduino, so I’ll let you know when I do something with it.

“Totally awesome” as this may be, I still feel somehow unsatisfied. And then I know why:

Someone needs to do a laser tag harp. Ah, that takes me back. Anyone?

Free, odd soundware keeps on coming — hot on the heels of faux bent instruments and a tape-recorded Roland 606 and 808, here are more sounds to satisfy your need for unusual sounds.

Stephen Haunts was inspired by the cassette-recorded 808, and writes to tell us he’s decided to give something back. He’s uploaded 22 kits from a Korg ElecTribe ER-1, a kit from a Yamaha DD-10 (pictured amusing the awkward fellow at right from the manual), and a Yamaha PSS-80. The Yamahas steal the show: they’re little toy keyboards with a decidedly lo-fi sound. I always admired the Japanese sound designers for their minimalism on these low-end hardware units. You almost don’t need to circuit bend this.

Free Drum Machine Samples by Creature [Haunted House Records]

Stephen, aka Creature, used these samples for his Distant Horizon album featured in Mike Una’s round-up of music from the forums.

Toy drums not to your liking? How about a toy music box instead?

Our friend Tom at Music Thing has repaired and sampled his Fisher Price record player music box, then uploaded the results to the open source soundware site Freesound:

Sampling a Fisher Price Music Box Record Player [Music Thing]

You may remember said Fisher Price kit from the tongue-in-cheek Fisher Price turntable “review” by DJ Tech Tool’s Ean Golden.

What’s great about both these sound collections is they’re actually different enough to give you some real inspiration musically. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think it’s time to take my handheld recorder around the house and grab some other sounds.

Yes, it’s time to see (tongue-in-cheek, anyway) just how Fisher Price stands up to the competition in the crowded DJ gear market (thanks to producer Ean Golden from DJ Tech Tools for sending this our way):

The ground breaking MBRP-101 from Fisher Price is the best all in one music playback solution for mobile and club djs that need affordable and reliable performance. Visit http://www.djtechtools.com/?p=202 for more info and release dates on this exclusive release.

World Famous Dj Mei Lwun (5 time dade county YMCA battle champ) was kind enough to review the unit for us. Check him out at:
http://www.mei-lwun.com/

Brilliant. Of course, this being CDM, I fully expect:

• Commentary on the terrific tangible interfacing aspects of this design (seriously — look at the tactile quality, the module for storing records, the accessible interface, the minimal design, the bright colors)
• Someone to use this live
• Someone to hack this into a usable DJ controller — maybe adapting it to Ms. Pinky control vinyl, or putting sensors into the plastic tone arm

Brings back great memories as I used to play with this as a kid at day care. Oldskool Fisher Price was the greatest.

Bizarre but adorable, Gibson has turned their iconic 1959 Les Paul guitar into a miniaturized replica, a functioning USB 2.0 1 GB Flash Drive. It will store data. It will not make any sound. But it does have specs that you, erm, don’t normally get out of a guitar: 14Mbps read / 6MBps write, 9 year data retention, LED indicator, and USB extension cable.

Gibson Signature Series Les Paul Flash Drive

No one told me, but Gibson has introduced an entire line of consumer electronics, including HDMI cables, hard drives, speakers, surge protectors (really), and DVD recorders. Odd, but … okay. I’m sure it has something to do with distribution or other business voodoo I don’t understand. Gibson’s a really, really big company with lots of brands, so someone with more knowledge of the company might be able to explain this.

Apparently even this flash drive is just the first of a series of “Signature Series” flash drives miniaturizing classic Gibson guitars. No word on price, but you can sign up to win one free.

I’m not sure what made Gibson decide to get into the flash drive game, but I wish they’d gone with bigger storage. Now I want a (functioning) Theremin flash drive with 16 GB storage. Any takers?

Previous miniature things:

DIY Papercraft Synthesizers: Make Your Own
Tiny Instruments: Strange Pocket Soundmaker Toys from MiJam
Exquisite Miniature Synthesizers, Modular Marimba, Made from Paper
Bob Moog as action figure
Mobile Guitar Studios, complete with Fender keychains
Miniature Studios: Gear Lust Meets Toys ‘R Us

Tiny MP3 players have become ubiquitous, but MiJam thinks you’ll want to use pocket-able toy-like music gadgets that make music. At about US$20 each (according to Technabob, these odd little devices purport to behave as musical instruments, down to what looks like either membrane or very slim buttons for keys:

miJamm Mini Lixx is supposed to be a guitar, with buttons for frets.

miniJamm Mini Drums has miniscule pads for drums.

Mini Keys is a faux-synth, with what looks like eight keys.

Mini Mixer pumps out a beat, digital effects of some kind, “scratch”, and whatever “voice” means, with tempo and volume controls.

miJam minis, via the handheld music making blog Palm Sounds

The idea with all of them is to plug your iPod through the devices, then jam along to tunes. For $20, it seems all they give you is headphone in and/or out and some sampled sounds. But I find myself strangely fascinated by how bizarre the whole concept is … and I wonder if it might be possible to create a device this small that actually was useful (albeit for more than $20).

All that’s missing: the world’s tiniest violin.

Yes, just in time for the summer grilling season. Hercules — known in the 80s for their video cards and more recently as makers of a rather flimsy DJ controller — have introduced a toy-like wireless DJ controller. As a serious “controller,” it’s not much good; it’s only slightly evolved from remote control. As a toy, though, it’s quite cute and I imagine someone would have some fun with it.

Plug a receiver into USB on your Windows PC, and the Hercules controller wireless manipulates included DJ software. Two LCD screens show which MP3/Windows Media WMA track is playing, and there are controls for two-channel mixing and jog wheels for very basic scratching. It’s just over a pound, even with batteries. Apparently for amusing friends, family, children, and pets, there are even sound effects (applause, loops). Hercules promises “House parties, BBQs and family functions will be even more fun than ever.”

Silly as this gadget may be, I’d love to see a serious music controller that’s simple, wireless, lightweight, and battery-powered. So who says you can’t learn something from Hercu–

Augh! My hands were slippery with barbeque sauce and I dropped my wireless DJ controller! It’s on fire! Mmmm … burning plastic.

Wireless DJ Mixing Controller (actual product name, apparently composed from Google keywords; European product site so it says “whilst”)
Via FutureMusic.com, who don’t like things that are white and respond in general, “Yeesh!!”

Not sure about North America, but in the UK it’s £59.00 Inc Vat.

Hulk SMASH — now MIDI-compatible. By hacking a giant Hulk hands toy, AKA Media System has built a unique MIDI controller. Enough with wussy controllers, like waving around Wii remotes in the air: now you can hit stuff. Like your head.

This wasn’t a plug-and-play job: it involved some soldering to adapt the inner workings of the hands, made easier by some labels on the circuitry. Then, you need a way to get control data into the computer. AKA used the Create USB Interface or CUI; see some information and commentary here on CDM from last year. The Arduino board would work equally well if not better (and, as AKA notes, has more documentation). Via the CUI’s inputs, data from the hands can be fed into Max/MSP and either used in Max or output as MIDI. AKA used a Korg ES-1 for drum loops, but other hardware/software combinations would work (and certainly via the Arduino, you don’t necessarily need Max, though it’s a good option).

Excellent work, and if you felt like trying the same thing — or learning some techniques that could be applied to other toys — each step is carefully documented on Flickr:

HULK$MASH by AKA Media System [Flickr photoset]
Via the growing Create Digital Music Flickr pool

Got some DIY music hardware projects of your own? Be sure to join the CDMu and/or CDMo Flickr pool if you haven’t yet and upload new projects. We’ll have some new networking features for music and motion DIYers coming very soon, and I’d love to keep track of what you’re doing.

The Musini began its life as an award-winning toy. The product description is hilarious:

A perfect gift for rambunctious toddlers, the Musini music box provides a constructive way for children to channel their physical and creative energy. While kids step, jump, turn, and tap, the Musini’s patented MusicSensor detects their every move and translates it into a totally unique musical response, teaching cause and effect. A Style Dial encourages children to explore the five different musical styles, ranging from jazz to classical, and musical variation buttons offer four different interpretations of each musical style.

(Some of us rambunctious toddlers here on CDM require decidedly more expensive toys into which we channel our physical and creative energy.)

Of course, the results are interesting, but not as interesting as they could be, so circuit benders have set about modifying the toys. A couple of weeks ago, we saw chronovalve’s ambient musini bend, alongside a very lovely, post-apocalyptic-looking keyboard. Jonathan Williams write in to share his own circuit-bent musinis. His designs may have inspired other benders’ musini hacks; even if not, he’s gone through several generations and added some powerful features:

The problem with iPod DJ mixers? They’re generally pointless toys that are a poor substitute for real DJ gear. The wonderful thing about iPod DJ mixers that actually are intended as pointless toys that are a poor substitute for real DJ gear? For only US$30 or so (check Froogle for some last-minute deals), you can pick up a scratching, mixing, multi-effects processing toy and plug in your homebrew software-running GameBoys and do some … unspeakable things to the sound. What? You don’t think the good folks who manufactured the mi Jam had that in mind when they set up shop? Hmmmm, you’re probably right …

The existing b2 line relates directly to the burgeoning market of digital music devices such as I pod and mp3 players. Future development of the line will center on the music and entertainment industries and strive to offer products that enhance these experiences.

That sure doesn’t sound like much fun. I don’t think they fully understand their market. So I’ve taken the liberty of rewriting the copy on their product description. Good people of b2, feel free to add this to your website — seriously, no charge. It’s my pleasure:

Now here’s a great device that really lets you make the music your own ^some crazy, f***ed up s*** ^. The mi Jam™ Mixer will have you mixing like a DJ ^terrifying your dullard DJ friends in no time^ and is so portable you can take it anywhere.

The Mixer functions with any digital music device, such as iPod® and MP3 player ^a hacked Game Boy or home-built synth circuit^, and can even work with stereo player ^Theremin^ and personal computer ^Commodore 64. Each mi Jam™ Mixer features two scratch discs which work in both directions with a variety of ^wonderfully cheap-sounding^ effects.
Also included in the Mixer are two programmed rhythm selection buttons, digital voice, techno effects, tempo and volume controls ^which you should distort as much as you possibly can^.

Just like all other mi Jam™ products the Mixer works either as a standalone Mixer or accompanies your favorite music ^Ableton Live set^ so plug it into your music device ^Max/MSP patch^ and jam away. You can even add the mi Jam™ Stage Mic to add vocals for the complete DJ ^toy-based music^ experience.

The mi Jam™ Mixer is so versatile, portable and easy to use that you can use it to develop your very own sound which you can record onto a PC or similar device and podcast it or add it to your personal blog. ^circuit-bend it into an evil effects processor. It looks really nice painted in Jackson Pollack-esque camouflage. With giant googly eyes attached.^