What’s the cutest conceivable musical instrument? It’d be tough to top an anthromorphic musical note, complete with eight-note flag, whose smiling face opens when it “sings.”

Boing Boing Gadgets (by way of Tokyo Mango) gets the story on this latest creation of art group Maywa Denki and lead creative instigator Novmichi Tosa. The Otamatone is only barely practical as an instrument; it sports a nasal tone from its simple electronic oscillator and, at the end of the video, demonstrates an entirely new way to render the US National Anthem slightly out of tune. (Apologies to Jimi Hendrix.) But it also exhibits sheer genius, like shaking it to get vibrato and adjusting formants by squeezing the character’s mouth open and closed. And it easily trumps those horrible plastic Yamaha recorders we were all forced to play in school.

It’s almost a surprise to see Maywa Denki with something selling at retail, as their previous creations have been designed to be completely absurd. Take the Tsukuba Series of instrumental devices, which includes:

• An instrument built to punch bubble wrap (packing tape)
• A “voice vibrator” you strap to your throat
• A Brazilian percussion robot
• “Guitar-la,” an array of six guitars played by a pedal organ.

You can see those and other creations by clicking through the “Art” section of the project’s site; there are other wonderful (and kawaii) toys, too, called “nonsense toys”:

http://www.maywadenki.com/

I previously wrote about the strange aquatic-themed musical designs, evoking the shapes of fish bodies and skeletons:

Bizarre Fish-Themed Gadgets, Musical Instruments

It’s all pure design genius, and a reminder that designs need not be bereft of personality, whimsy, and the absurd.

Thanks to Tom Betts from whom I stole found this story.

"If they enter the code CreateDigitalMusic.com in the ‘Add special instructions for the Merchant‘ field in PayPal, we’ll extend the offer until July 14th.

Not getting any promotional fees for pitching this; I’m genuinely excited about my papercraft Moog and the album! (Though I think I may have Microscopics buy me a beer if I see them…)

In other news, the band have posted a lovely short video featuring an oscilloscope; you can watch it on Create Digital Motion.

We hope to catch up with the artist, Mat Jarvis (aka Gas / High Skies), soon.

Gas0095, the landmark 90s ambient release by Mat Jarvis (Gas / High Skies), is back in a remastered version. If you know the music, you’re probably already thrilled by the return of this epic sonic world; if not, even non-ambient fans are likely to get a kick out of the spacey, synthy goodness. (Best press quote: “the ideal soundtrack to an IMAX film on the history of space travel.” You had me at IMAX.)

Paul from Microscopics (the label) writes to tell us they’re sweetening the pot with a 1/8 scale Minimoog freebie for all June preorders. (Nanomoog?) It’s brilliant marketing. In Japan, rampant piracy and a general fascination with toys long ago prompted music stars to give away goodies with albums, sometimes dwarfing the size of the album itself. Oh, sure, you could grab album X off a pirate torrent stream – no toy for you. If MSN Music had given away action figures or something, I expect things would have gone differently. Next, I want to see a functioning synth bundled with an album.

Still not sold? Check out this fantastic video for the spectacular microscopic, set to “A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero.” Before Google Earth, the office of Charles and Ray Eames made this poetic statement on scale macroscopic and microscopic, one of a series of short films that came out of their studio in the post-war decades. (And you thought they just made iconic chairs.) The score fits so well with the film, you’d swear they were released together in 1977. (Also seen via Synthwire.)

Gas0095 Music Page 

Album preorder for US$16 (EUR13/GBP10) gets you the Minimoog model, instant MP3 version, free shipping, and good space karma. Also available as FLAC.

Here’s the free track, microscopic:

gas-microscopic.mp3

Updated – offer extended: If you missed getting the free Minimoog model and still want it, Microscopics have extended the offer, exclusively for Create Digital Music readers. Paul writes:

"If they enter the code CreateDigitalMusic.com in the ‘Add special instructions for the Merchant‘ field in PayPal, we’ll extend the offer until July 14th.

Imagine a semi-modular box with glitchy sampler and the repurposed, Frankenbending sounds of electronic toy guts:

The instrument will consists of three main sections: two modified toys and a lo-fi sampler. The first toy is a complex modern educational toy that can be altered to produce amazing organic soundscapes, sweeping orchestral sounds and strange percussive loops. It also has a stereo output, which is rather nice. The second toy, in contrast to the mellow tones of the first, produces harsher sounding staccato blips, crunches and bleeps. This section can also make several different animal sounds. The sampler can record up to 20 seconds of audio, either as one long sound or four shorter ones. This is useful as the unpredictable nature of circuit bending can sometimes make it difficult to recall a particular sound. Last but not least: there is also a loop function.

Norman did the brief, but the hardware-constructing mad scientist is an East London-based fellow named Dave Cranmer, aka nervous squirrel. (See the interview he did with Future Music mag, and the many creative projects he’s working on on his site.)

Here’s a look at the insides, plus a video of another Nervous Squirrel Creation in action:

The following video is not the Glam Machine (I assume we’ll be getting that from Norman soon), but it’s a box along the same lines:

A rehousing of IQ Builder’s Talking Computer+Voice Changer+Unknow Baby Toy, all contained in a wondeful wood box. Live recording with aerial microphone, with the intention to explore this monster capable of creating a huge mass of textures, rhytmins, effect. Unique sound palette, real fun!
Hope U enjoy it listening as i’m doing playing!…
www.myspace.com/shivatribu
www.myspace.com/shivatribubus
nervoussquirrel.com

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?

Photo: carinemily. And they say this whole 8-bit music thing is about 80s nostalgia? I’ll show you 80s nostalgia.

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.

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

A Nord Modular made of Legos
Ten Entertaining Videos about Max/MSP (Not to be confused with 32 Short Films about Glen Gould, made back in 1993 before the Web and digg had made “x-number lists” of things hot.)

Tom also notes that CDM and Music thing were each mentioned in PC World’s 100 Blogs We Love. Thanks, PC World!

Updated: Retro Things beloved, too! James Grahame, friend of CDM and occasional CDM contributor, is also in the PC World roundup, for Retro Thing. Nice to see some of our favorite, lesser-known (compared to the likes of Boing Boing) blogs making the cut in the mainstream press!

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.

Stuff them in your pocket with last week’s pocketable device, the Pacemaker DJ MP3 player

This isn’t the first weird device idea to come from miJam. In December, they unveiled a $30 “scratch mixer” which also turned out to be just a device with some sampled sounds. iLounge reviewed the mixer, drum sticks, and “guitar.” Most were instruments in shape only, and the gizmos are intended as toys, but the ideas are still interesting. Of course, none is as surreal as the interactive iPod-compatible flower: