What do you get when you combine 64 floppy drives, eight hard disks, and two scanners? An incredible computer hardware orchestra that can rock out like Kurt Cobain. Created by Pawel Zadrozniak, the Floppotron is not only capable of covering ‘90s hits like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirt,” but can play other tunes ranging from Darth Vader’s Imperial March to the theme song of […]

Russian artist ::vtol:: is no stranger to the Arduino blog. His latest project–which was designed for the Polytechnic Museum Moscow and Ars Electronica Linz–is an autonomous light-music installation called “Divider.” The wall-mounted soundscape consists of seven lasers that send rays horizontally through 42 PC cooling fans, acting as divider-modulators, to turn the light signals into rhythmic impulses. Seven photo sensors on the end […]

Nixie tubes have a lot of fans because of their retro style. They are neon valve tubes, where 10 cathodes shaped like numbers from 0 to 9 are switched on by plasma when high voltage flows through them. Patented in the 1930s by H.P. Boswau, they were wildly popular in the ‘60s and remained so until LEDs became […]

German composer Oskar Schuster recently uploaded a YouTube video showing off a new project he is working on: an Arduino-controlled upright piano. Called Utopiano, it’s described as an electro-mechanical device that replaces the traditional mechanical piano action and enables him to control the 100-year-old instrument with a computer keyboard. Amazing!

Electronic musical instruments are fun for Makers. With some cheap tools, know-how and passion, anyone can become a real synth geek. Just ask software developer Liam Lacey, who happens to also be a sound coder and freelance hacker. He recently won element14’s Open Source Music Tech design challenge for his Vintage Toy Synthesizer project — it’s an acoustic […]

To help promote the TBS show America’s Greatest Makers, YouTuber/plumber/stuntman/inventor Colin Furze recently took on the challenge of building a Mad Max-like flamethrowing electric guitar with a Genuino 101. Because after all, there’s nothing more metal than fire bursting as a rockstar shreds on-stage. To bring this project life, Fruze added a pair of modified blowtorches to the neck of the guitar and sawed off part of the […]

Nick Demopoulos is a guitarist, sound designer and musician. He is also a Maker and the creator of the “SMOMID” — an Arduino Mega-based MIDI instrument that resembles a touch-sensitive guitar with several joysticks and other sensors. Not only does it just look cool, it can even flash LEDs in sync with the music being played for some […]

Calvin Cherry has created a wearable instrument programmed to respond to body movement. The Maker, who is a grad student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, calls his device “Music from Motion,” or “mFM.” It consists of small electronic sensors Velcro-ed onto his wrists and ankles that, with every move, alter a synthesized track playing on a loop over a […]

Whereas most musicians would prefer to program their beats on a computer, Koka Nikoladze has elected to take a different approach. The Norway-based violinist/composer/tech developer is the inventor of handmade analog beat making machines that use springs, coils, wood and metal to create sounds.

Nowadays, it seems like instruments come in all different shapes and sizes. Take Jon Bumstead’s an electronic harp, for example, that plays music by blocking laser beams — similar to how a musician would pluck a stick on the real thing. The project consists of a laser diode, an Arduino, a galvo, several mirrors to reflect the beams, 13 photoresistors […]