moonmilk » instrument-a-day 3

Noisy noises video

ranjit — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:10:19 +0000

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instrument-a-day 28: Baba Yaga’s Balalaika

ranjit — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:26:31 +0000

It's made from a wooden mortar and pestle and some scraps of guitar string. I strapped a rechargable battery to my thumb to use as a slide, just like Baba Yaga used to do.

That's it for instrument-a-day for this year, but Jason, Chris and I will be performing with some of these instruments on Wednesday at Barbes in Brooklyn.

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28 more noisy noises at barbes, march 3

ranjit — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:19:45 +0000

28 MORE Noisy Noises, originally uploaded by ranjit.

A performance with handmade instruments at Barbès in Brooklyn, Wednesday March 3, 2010 at 8pm.

Like last year, I’ll be joined by Jason and Chris of the Glass Bees!

instrument-a-day 27: clock gongs

ranjit — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:33:36 +0000

I collected a bunch of old clock gongs, bells, and chimes from ebay.

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instrument-a-day 26: tick-tock metronome

ranjit — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:13:26 +0000

Metronome, wire, and two circuit-bent pocket voice recorders named "tick" and "tock".

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instrument-a-day 25: man-who-sold-the-world-o-phone

ranjit — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:03:05 +0000

I was listening to David Bowie’s "The Man Who Sold The World" and wanted to reproduce its distinctive percussion.

You may recognize the beads from last year.

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instrument-a-day 24: guitar drone wheels

ranjit — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:44:19 +0000

A modification of the handheld drone wheel (instrument-a-day 13) – now solidly mounted on the guitar.

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instrument-a-day 23: dollarwhistle

ranjit — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:41:19 +0000

It's a pennywhistle made from a can of Coke, which costs a dollar. A little slanted block of wood is glued in the mouthpiece to direct air to the fipple. I only made two holes because it was in danger of falling apart the whole time.

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instrument-a-day 22: tiny kalimba

ranjit — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:35:15 +0000

A teeny tiny thumb piano made from guitar wire clippings and a little tube clamp, on top of a contact microphone.

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instrument-a-day 21: blinky

ranjit — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:03:16 +0000

One of my earliest memories is of lying on the carpet under the christmas tree watching the colored shadows change as the bulbs blinked on and off, and listening to the small tinkling sounds of the tiny metal thermostat timers inside each bulb. For this instrument, I stuck contact microphones onto a bunch of blinky bulbs to magnify those sounds.

The sound in this video is in stereo.

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instrument-a-day 20: paulownia rattle

ranjit — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:41:07 +0000

The paulownia tree, also known as empress tree or princess tree, makes little seed pods that are natural rattles. I picked this one up in Prospect Park.

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instrument-a-day 19: bang on a can ensemble

ranjit — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:26:39 +0000

This actually sounds surprisingly good, considering my lack of rhythm! In case you were wondering, the ensemble members are (clockwise from top left) black beans, chickarina, tuna, italian beans in tomato sauce, and more tuna.

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instrument-a-day 18: paper clips

ranjit — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:22:41 +0000

It's a bunch of paper clips screwed to a chunk of wood with a piezo contact mic. It sounds kinda like 1960s electronic music. Kinda.

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instrument-a-day 17: pickup glove

ranjit — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:09:38 +0000

I took some scrap wire and wound it into coils, which I sewed to the fingertips of a knit glove. I tossed some extra magnets under the guitar strings, and then waggled my fingers over the strings while tapping the strings (still tuned to Open D) with a drumstick. It works ok, not great. The next version will use much finer, more sensitive coils, and probably only on the thumb and two fingers. It's hard to use all five!

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instrument-a-day 16: guitar marxophone (marxotar)

ranjit — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:34:26 +0000

As I said before, I love the sound of the obsolete Marxophone, but they're expensive on ebay. I made this guitar-marxophone with hex nuts glued to street-sweeper bristles stapled to a chunk of wood. The marxotar straps to the guitar's tailpiece and strap button with zipties, and can be attached and removed without any damage to the guitar.

Despite my unpracticed fumbling with the guitar marxophone and Open D tuning, I think this thing has a lot of promise. Hey manufacturers! You can have the idea, but I want credit and some free product! (Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if someone else has already had the same idea.)

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instrument-a-day 15: mute accordion

ranjit — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:08:42 +0000

I stuck a microphone inside the bass end of my accordion, where the vent is, so I could amplify its breathing and creaking.

I first played mute accordion with the glass bees. Speaking of whom, I'll be playing with them on March 3rd at Barbes!

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instrument-a-day 14: musical saws

ranjit — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:27:41 +0000

What could be more beautiful than the sweet, pure tone of a musical saw? How about FOUR saws? Being bashed with drumsticks?

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instrument-a-day 13: EGurdy

ranjit — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:30:21 +0000

Who needs an EBow when you can have an EGurdy? The spinning disc is coated with rosin to bow the guitar strings, kinda like the wheel inside a hurdy gurdy.

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instrument-a-day 12: oak ocarina

ranjit — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:55:14 +0000

I had a 20 by 1.5 inch slab of oak, so I designed an ocarina that could be assembled from cross-sections that would fit on it. I cut the parts on the laser cutter, glued them together, and it still didn't work until I took Bre's suggestion and coated the entire thing with glue to plug up any tiny holes.

If you have access to a laser cutter, you can get the plans and assembly instructions from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1816

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instrument-a-day 11: bottlecap rattle

ranjit — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:00:14 +0000

It's a bunch of bottlecaps on a string. It sounds ok, looks pretty (I love the colors), and smells like a party!

p.s. I'll be performing with many of these instruments at Barbes in Brooklyn, Wednesday March 3rd, along with Chris Williams and thing-a-dayer Jason Das, who are the Glass Bees!

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instrument-a-day 10: aluminum scrap metallophone

ranjit — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:01:16 +0000

Some aluminum bars from another project, string, rubber bands, and a
fruit basket I found in the trash. I didn’t tune the bars, just
picked my favorites from the pile.

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instrument-a-day 9: rubber banjo

ranjit — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:52:39 +0000

The traditional rubber-bands-on-a-box instrument, with a piezo contact
microphone. I didn’t try to tune the strings, just worked with what I
got.

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instrument-a-day 8: walnut rattle

ranjit — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:50:55 +0000

I don’t know why I kept all those walnut shells. Finally, here’s a
use for them.

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instrument-a-day 7: second try horn

ranjit — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:54:01 +0000

Since my first horn was a failure, I tried again, this time in
acrylic, with a narrower tube and larger holes. But it still doesn’t
work as anything but a kazoo. Third try soon!

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instrument-a-day 6: wave scraper

ranjit — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:32:16 +0000

Can you take an audio waveform, laser-cut it into a piece of acrylic,
and then play it back by scraping the waveform?

(Spoiler: NO.)

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instrument-a-day 5: bass horn

ranjit — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:49:44 +0000

“bass” because it makes a low note and because it’s made of basswood.
The reed is cut from the plastic lid of a takeout soup container. The
thing only makes one note – I put in some random finger holes but they
make no difference! I suspect the horn is way too wide for its
length– I’ll try to make a skinnier one soon.

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instrument-a-day 4: remote interference

ranjit — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:17:46 +0000

picking up noise from the guts of remote controls.

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instrument-a-day 3: monomarx

ranjit — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:18:58 +0000

I want a marxophone (video) but they go for hundreds of dollars on ebay.
This is a proof-of-concept test for making my own marxophone…
someday…

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instrument-a-day 2: glaciophone

ranjit — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:33:07 +0000

I pulled up some chunks of ice from a frozen puddle and bonked them
with another bit of ice.

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instrument-a-day 1: scratchlight

ranjit — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:24:17 +0000

A warm-up instrument to start the month, and preparation for my
upcoming fun with coils workshop. I assembled a simple magnetic field
amplifier kit and used it to listen to the motor of a wind-up
flashlight.

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