Primitive accordion-style free reeds, made from basswood and strips of brass. They take a LOT of wind to play – I almost passed out while recording the soundtrack. I also broke one of them, so I tapped and scraped on the reed instead of blowing it.
They have a nice deep tone with a lot of promise, so I hope to work with this technique more. I used this reference while building them.
I didn’t manage to record any video, so the demo video is pretty bland.
I designed some panflute-like whistles and printed them on a Makerbot. They’re disappointing – hard to play, and pathetic sounds. But you can download the design files and improve them for me! www.thingiverse.com/thing:17020 and www.thingiverse.com/thing:17023
Sometimes the old classics are the best.
The tiny sounds of a burning match.
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.
On February 1 I’m embarking on my yearly endeavor to make a new handmade instrument every single day of the month. This will be the fifth year I’ve done this — you can see the results of the previous years here or on flickr. As usual, I’m trying not to plan ahead at all – I have no idea what I’ll make tomorrow.
Here’s a video with highlights from several years of noisy noises:
28 noisy noises from ranjit on Vimeo.
Over at NYC Resistor, we put together a little team to enter the Jello Mold Competition at Gowanus Studio Space. The team members were me, Astrida Valigorsky, Mimi Hui, and Catarina Mota. After a false start or two, we ended up making a working toy piano out of jello (and some electronics). The Resistor JelTone tied for the Creativity Prize, and you can see it in the videos below.
That same weekend, I took some of my homemade instruments, including the 8-bit violin and a second JelTone (built in haste at the last possible minute), to the Solid Sound Music Festival for the CDM/Moog Handmade Lounge. After all my jello melted, on the second day of the festival I rebuilt the JelTone with fruit salad instead, and here it is:
You can download construction plans and arduino code for the jeltone on thingiverse.
The jeltone was a finalist at the 2012 Guthman Musical Instrument competition.
These guys at the Thingamajigs DIY Instruments Tailgate Party really know how to operate a pointy rectangular fiddle!
Thanks, CTP, for the videos.
Plans and instructions for the 8-bit violin are now on thingiverse!
thingiverse.com/thing:6912
