Remix Contest: Sounds from the Large Hadron Collider
December 30, 2010 – 10:05 pm | 416 Comments

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest particle accelerator that resides in a tunnel 27km in circumference beneath the earth near Geneva, Switzerland.
The purpose of the LHC is to help us understand some …

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Articles in Audio Gear

Trombone + flamethrower = all kinds of awesome.
August 30, 2010 – 7:44 pm | One Comment
Trombone + flamethrower = all kinds of awesome.

Trombone players often get a bad rap, so trombone player/DIYer Jonathan Crawford decided to really step up to the plate and do something about it.
Jonathan took a barbecue ignition system, a propane tank and …

1973 ad for Sony reel-to-reel tape deck
August 13, 2010 – 9:38 am | 4 Comments
1973 ad for Sony reel-to-reel tape deck

This is a vintage ad from National Geographic, April 1973. It features a Sony TC-377 reel-to-reel tape deck, with the phrase:
“Whatever weird instrument your great-grandson will be playing, the Sony TC-377 will capture it.”
Click …

Herbie Hancock shows his Fairlight CMI to the Sesame Street kids
July 20, 2010 – 1:16 pm | 2 Comments
Herbie Hancock shows his Fairlight CMI to the Sesame Street kids

I always loved how Sesame Street brought in all sorts of fantastic musical guests for the kids and viewers. Here’s a great clip of Herbie Hancock showing the Sesame Street gang his Fairlight CMI:

My …

Thomas Dolby’s solar-powered boat studio
July 19, 2010 – 9:03 pm | 3 Comments
Thomas Dolby’s solar-powered boat studio

Keyboard magazine recently did an interview with Thomas Dolby in his home studio, which just happens to be… a boat.
Powered by both solar and wind power, the studio is located somewhere on the north coast …

Double slide controller
July 16, 2010 – 8:49 pm | One Comment
Double slide controller

What do you get when you combine 2 trombones, and Eigenharp, 2 wii nunchucks and Robocop? Evidently you get first prize at Georgia Tech’s 2010 Margaret Guthman New Musical Instrument Competition.

The Georgia Tech Center …

Gloggomobil – the coolest musical toy ever
July 15, 2010 – 9:25 am | 2 Comments
Gloggomobil – the coolest musical toy ever

There are a ton of musical toys out there, such as toy pianos and xylophones. Never have I been so fascinated by such a simple yet creative toy as I am with the Gloggomobil.

A …

Swizzle stick thumb piano
July 14, 2010 – 10:34 pm | 2 Comments
Swizzle stick thumb piano

Robert Patterson Collier, a musician and DIY-er has built a thumb piano (or kalimba, mbira, lamellaphone, likembe) with coffee swizzle sticks for tines. And guess what – it sounds fantastic.
Here’s what it looks …

The Drumssette: drum machine made from an old 4-track
July 13, 2010 – 5:46 pm | No Comment
The Drumssette: drum machine made from an old 4-track

The Drumssette is a programmable drum machine built by musician and circuit bender Mike Walters.

A very creative DIY use of an old four track recorder, it was built using the innards of a Tascam MF-P01. …

Got wood? TreeVerb wooden plate reverb
June 30, 2010 – 6:26 pm | 2 Comments
Got wood? TreeVerb wooden plate reverb

Today I came across something that I’ve definitely never seen before – a plate reverb made of wood, called the TreeVerb.
A conventional plate reverb system uses an electromechanical transducer, similar to the driver in …

The impossibilitron
June 26, 2010 – 8:44 am | 3 Comments
The impossibilitron

x9spaceman built this DIY crazy box out of scrap parts, and it makes some great noises. Part synth, part steampunk idunnowhat, it sports 6 Guitar strings, a bass string, a ship whistle, a jaw …