instrument-a-day 1: westminster doorbell
Day 1: the Westminster Doorbell, made of a couple of steel rods suspended over a guitar pickup. I’m learning how to get more overtones out of it, but I haven’t really figured it out yet.
photoblog
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the Music Box Orchestra, New Orleans
Here’s a teaser video of the New Orleans Airlift’s Music Box Orchestra, a big crazy sound art/architecture project I helped out with. My contribution was the squeaky moving floor, which you can see providing the bass line as the performance starts.
The Music Box – Oct 22 from TungstenMonkey on Vimeo.
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the voice extruder
Video: Adam Mayer helps test an almost-finished version of my project for Artbots Gent: the Voice Extruder makes a shape from your voice, and then prints it out for you on a 3d printer.
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JelTone update
All the plans, instructions, and source code for the Resistor JelTone are now available on thingiverse!
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busy summer!
Last month I went to the Lightning Field, brought Sketching Device #1 to the Peabody Essex Museum, and spoke at the Sketching in Hardware conference. Now I really have to get to work.
In September, I’ll be making a wave-powered sound sculpture for the Dumbo Arts Festival (September 23-25). Also showing a bunch of big prints from my produce scan series in the show “(Un)Still Life” at the lobby gallery at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch (September-December). And going to New Orleans to install a sound sculpture in Swoon’s musical house project (opening October 15th). Hopefully I’ll have time for Maker Faire in there somewhere (September 17-18). And I’ll be sending good vibes (and probably laser whistles) to the Festival of Music for People and Thingamajigs in the Bay Area (September 22-25). Then in October, I’ll be going to the Netherlands to speak at VU University Amsterdam and to show a piece at Artbots Gent (October 7-9), and in December, I’ll have a couple of pieces and maybe an installation in Phyllis Chen’s Uncaged Toy Piano Festival in NYC.
So now I’d better get some rest.
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8-bit violin played by real fiddlers!
These guys at the Thingamajigs DIY Instruments Tailgate Party really know how to operate a pointy rectangular fiddle!
Thanks, CTP, for the videos.
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8-bit violin plans
Plans and instructions for the 8-bit violin are now on thingiverse!
thingiverse.com/thing:6912
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instrument-a-day 27: bent buddha box beat
a little oscillator that triggers the box to switch to another chant over and over again.
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instrument-a-day 26: bent buddha box
Du Yun brought me this box from Shanghai, and I opened it up for a minor lobotomy.
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instrument-a-day 25: water bowl
I always liked the sounds I got while washing big steel bowls.
Trivia: the musical instrument called the Waterphone does contain water, but is named for its inventor, Richard Waters.
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instrument-a-day 24: handmade electronic noise
squeaky exercises from the pages of the book "Handmade Electronic Music" by Nic Collins.
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instrument-a-day 23: mechanical synthesizer
This trick was used as far back as the 19th century to synthesize musical tones. The gears have 24, 27, 30, 32, 36, 40, 45, and 48 teeth, so the notes are all related by simple fractions – that makes this a just intonation scale rather than equal temperament.
There's plans and instructions on thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6662
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instrument-a-day 22: baseball chimes
In honor of the start of spring training and in the hope that spring weather will be here soon.
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instrument-a-day 20 & 21: 8-bit violin
A working violin made from maple and oak craft wood. The design is all 90 degree angles except the fingerboard. The tuning pegs are literally square pegs in round holes.
The thing's tuned two half-steps low until it gets used to the tension.
I have never played a violin, so many thanks to Bre Pettis who dusted off his 15-years-neglected fiddling skills to test-drive this violin! (Hey NYC violinists! Want to help test & demo this thing? Contact me.)
I hope to get all the designs uploaded to thingiverse soon – keep an eye on moonmilk.com if you're interested.
