The Rhythmo BeatBox ($TBA) is a DIY project that was meant to be a cost-effective first step in making music. It uses a cardboard box as a platform and leaves it up to the future performer to assemble it (no soldering required). It can be built in under one hour and uses an array of arcade buttons, knobs, and a joystick for control. A companion app handles much of the sound processing, and it also can serve as a standard MIDI controller. Creations can be enjoyed via the built-in speakers, through headphones, or through external speakers attached to the headphone jack.
The Lunecase is a smart iPhone case that has the capacity to receive notifications from the iPhone and display an icon accordingly to the back to let you know when you've got a new message or incoming call. The geekest part is that it’s powered by electromagnetic energy, which is emitted and surrounds most devices, including your iPhone. In short, it doesn't need any batteries and it doesn't need to be charged to power up. The Lunecase Eclipse is currently up on Kickstarter, where a minimum pledge of $39 will get you one of these. Get more info from Kickstarter.
Your into making music but your looking to take it further. Well if you have an iPad then be ready to bring your sound to the next level with the Performer ($24.99). An app that was made by Konkreet Labs. It allows you to control your music with a unique and intuitive multi-touch interface that let's you reshape your music on screen and in real time. There is one catch though to using this app and its that you have to actually have musical instruments for Performer to control (it connects to "anything that receives OSC or MIDI inputs," according to Konkreet).
So if you have the equipment your in for a fun surprise of making peoples jaws drop. As Creative Applications breathlessly writes, "The heart of Performer is the control object, an abstract graphic element, made out of up to 10 nodes. Zoom, turn, throw, distort and reshape it across the screen," and listen as your synthy symphony bursts into being from your fingertips.
When I was at Bonnaroo they had a workshop in which you could make your own instrument. So within an hour I had completed making my own musical instrument. Which I thought was pretty cool. So when I found this video of Diego Stocco and his Bassoforte I had to share it with you the reader. There is nothing like making an instrument to get your creativity moving.
To create his instrument Diego dismantled parts of a piano he had in his garden and also used some other parts that he had laying around his home and generated the Bassoforte (bass + pianoforte). He states that the neck is from a broken electric bass, as a bridge he used a cabinet handle, the pickups are from a guitar, and the part at the top where the strings are attached is a chimney cap, which works as resonator as well as percussive sound.
If you like harps then check out this bad boy. This will blow your mind it's the Eigenharp Alpha which roughly cost $4,600 to 5,800 dollars. The Eigenharp Alpha is a mixture between a woodwind and keyboard, offering up an unorthodox musical control paradigm that includes a breath pipe, 120 keys, 12 percussion keys, two strip controllers, and multiple pedal inputs, all of which our ran into a Mac to produce a multitude of sounds. Just check out the videos below and see what I'm talking about.
