For better or worse, there are a few instruments that have been pigeonholed into specific genres of popular music. For example, banjos are often heard in bluegrass or folk, harmonicas in blues, and a sick horn section will take many of us immediately to third wave ska. Similarly, there are certain styles of synthesizers tied […]
[Jakub] is a musician, and found himself in need of a simple way to trigger samples via MIDI when on stage. So many commercial solutions exist, but most were overkill for the job or too messy and complicated to justify their use in a live environment. Thus, [Jakub] worked up Samplotron to do exactly the […]
If you’re a diehard fan of the chiptune scene, you’ve probably heard endless beautiful compositions on the Nintendo Game Boy, Commodore 64, and a few phat FM tracks from Segas of years later. What the scene is yet to see is a breakout artist ripping hot tracks on the Sharp PC-E500. If you wanted to, […]
Before it became viable to distribute and play music tracks on home computers, the use of FM and Wavetable synthesis was very common, with MIDI Wavetable-based devices like the Roland MT-32 and SC-55 still highly sought after today. The Creative Midi Blaster MB-10 that [Yeo Kheng Meng] reviewed and tore down for an analysis isn’t […]
The Haxophone is an open source MIDI saxophone project that has achieved some popularity. It’s caught the attention of [Shieladixon] not because she is a saxophonist but because she plays the recorder and is dissatisfied with existing MIDI recorder peripherals. She’s set about modifying the device to produce the Haxocorder, a better MIDI recorder. The […]
The guitarist Jimi Hendrix had a unique sound which has influenced countless musicians over the decades. He achieved it through mastery not only of his instrument, but of the complex feedback relationship between amplifier, environment, and guitar — coupled with a series of effects pedals including some then-unique ones made for him. Musical commentators have […]
The Yamaha DX7 is one of the most iconic synthesizers that emerged in the early 1980s, and is still very popular today. That said, with even the newest of these having left the factory back in 1989, the average DX7 can use a bit of tender love and care. In particular the battered DX7 that […]
When you’re livestreaming, it can be tempting to fire off all kinds of wacky sound effects like you’re a morning radio DJ back in the heady days of 1995. If that’s who you want to be, you might like this soundboard project from [Biker Glen]. The build is based around an RP2040 microcontroller. It’s paired […]
[James]’ Mechanical Organ of Dutch origin has been around longer than he has, but thanks to being rebuilt over the years and lovingly cared for, it delivers its unique performances just as well as it did back in the day. Even better, we’re treated to a good look at how it works. The organ produces […]
If you purchased an E-mu Audity 2000 ROMpler back in 1998, you almost certainly got a rig with the 1.00 firmware. It was fine, if a little limited, particularly where upgradability was concerned. E-mu would later offer firmware upgrades over MIDI with the 2.00 firmware, but to get the 2.00 firmware, you needed to ship the […]