Some interesting things I found on May 26th, 2008:

# glitchDS - A free homebrew Cellular Automaton music sequencer for the Nintendo DS. Perfect for creating IDM and Glitch style loops.

glitchDS - a music sequencer driven by the “game of life”

glitchDS features include:

• Customizable Cellular Automaton sequencer.
• Create your own “trigger points”.
• Load in your own sounds.
• Save and load your work.
• BPM settings, or “strum mode” for controlling tempo.
• Up to 6 sounds can be loaded at once.
• Each sound has its own 32 step frequency modulation sequencer.
• Global Distortion setting.

Check this YouTube video to see glitchDS in action.

# Arduino library for Peggy 2.0 - This brings Peggy 2.0 up to the level of having useful compatibility with the Arduino software environment: you can use high-level commands to control what shows up on the Peggy display.

# Chris Graham’s MultiWind instruments - The Mini Instrument (payable in many styles including brass, harmonica and breath controller) and the Woodwind style instrument, which is convertible from the Mini Instrument by snapping on the Finger Unit.

# Beatesthesia - highly customizable WYSIWYG music visualizer - Inspired in motive and design by synesthesia. Synesthesia from the Ancient Greek (syn), meaning “with,” and (aisthesis), meaning “sensation” is the phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

# Noise Toy in a Tea Tin

Becky Stern writes:

I assembled my Noise Toy kit knowing that I wanted to put it in some kind of enclosure, so I made sure to break out all the switches with wires. I found an old tea tin in my father’s shop and he helped me mount the circuit inside. We used a piece of wood to mount the circuit board inside and space the audio jack nearer the center of the lid. The two screws mounting the wood piece sort of look like eyes, and the switches on either side sort of look like ears, if you imagine it as a robot.

Some interesting things I found on May 9th, 2008:

# Somatic Circuits - !Malfunctionator Kit Instructions - The !Malfunctionator was designed to be a handy UFO dector dubbling up as a Electro Music Device to assist in the making of creative electro music. It consists of 3 oscillators each modulated by 3 low frequency oscillators see the signal path.

!Malfunctionator in an phone answering machine, and on the right Jan Czmok’s box

The oscillators are based around the hex invertor IC known as CD40106 aka 7HC04 , the wave froms produced from this logic device are trapazoid . This modulator to oscillator combination allows the user to create a wide range of sounds.

The !Malfunctionator is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

# Create Digital Music » iPod Touch/iPhone for Music Round-up - a look at what people are doing, including some apps you can download right now, and where this might go musically, whether it’s just a couple of fun toys or trying to make that pretty pocket device an instrument.

# Gnaural: A Binaural-Beat Audio Generator - a multi-platform programmable binaural-beat generator, implementing the principle of binaural beats as described in the October 1973 Scientific American article "Auditory Beats in the Brain" (Gerald Oster).

# SubtleNoiseMaker - Sascha Neudeck is selling a bunch of cool homemade synths: Weird Sound Generator, Cacophonator, SNM-Chaoscillator, Stereo Ringmodulator, and the new Alpha-Machine. Wood & Aluminium models available.

# Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Peggy version 2.0 - Peggy 2.0 is an updated version of our "Peggy" light-emitting pegboard display.

Peggy 2.0 - Check this Flickr set for more images

Like its predecessor, Peggy 2.0 provides a quick, easy, powerful and efficient way to drive a lot of LEDs– up to 625– in a big matrix covering almost a square foot of area.

A full Kit ($95, US) includes the circuit board, preprogrammed microcontroller, battery holder, power switch, two buttons, rubber feet and all other components needed to make the pegboard display base, along with full color printed instructions. Just add batteries and LEDs.

Some interesting things I found on April 25th, 2008:

# KlangStufen - „KlangStufen“ is an experiment to show, how much information you can get from the sound of a city. You can experience the urban space auditivly by mounting the different height levels of a city, which would not be possible in the real space at all. You should concentrate completely on the sounds, the visual remains in the background.

KlangStufen (Sound Steps) installation by Christiane Keller

A stair makes the different height levels conceivable to the user. The single steps correspond to the different height levels. So we can use the existing architecture to experience the urban space and to get information about it. The user selects his point of view in the city on a map projected on the wall. Now from this point you move along the y-axis upwards or downwards, depending on which step one is standing.

# Audio Ping Pong - Mike McCracken has a fun little project using an arduino, headphones and an accellerometer.

# Kids Be Gone - Mosquito Device - Are gatherings of teenagers and young adults affecting your business and your profits?
The Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent is the solution to the eternal problem of unwanted gatherings of youths and teenagers in shopping malls and around shops.

# Tristram Cary, Tape Music Pioneer, VCS3 Designer, Composer, Dies - Tristram is credited by some as the father of tape music, originating tape music techniques in World War II. He’s notorious to the general public and sci fi fans as the composer of the music for the Daleks in Doctor Who.

# Puzzlemation - A Dynamic Tiled Display - Puzzlemation divides the digital display into pixels you're free to pick up and re-arrange. It can be used to create things as diverse as modular animated signs, to a uniquely challenging dynamic puzzle.

# LoFi Looping Tape Machine - xelent modified a bedside table alarm clock with a tape recorder into a lofi loop recorder.

Some interesting things I bookmarked on del.icio.us on March 25th, 2008:

• Zoom H2, Marantz PMD 620 And Sony PCM D50: Shootout Down By The River - In part one, Owen O'Malley takes the Zoom H2, Marantz PMD 620, and Sony PCM D50 out on the town to see how they hold up to Chicago's wind.

Zoom H2, Marantz PMD 620 and Sony PCM D50

• SlapYak’s LED Bass Guitar - DIY LED color-changing Bass.
• DIY Cheap-o Looper Effect - Arduino + keychain digital recorder.
• Altoids Tin Guitar - DIY guitar made with an Altoids Tin, banister rail spacers, guitar strings, an old BIC pen, some plastic, bolts & washers, piezo and a 1/8 mono jack.
• AVR based TDA7313 Audio processor control - The idea of this project was to construct independent audio processor which can be embedded in any audio system with ability to control settings with simple button interface with menu preview in LCD.
• Robert Crumb on Collecting - from the book, “Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting” by Brett Milano.