The Colmi R02 is one of the cheapest smart rings on the market. It costs about $20, and is remarkably easy to hack. [Floyd Steinberg] took advantage of this to turn it into a rather unique MIDI controller. What makes the Colmi R02 somewhat unique is that the manufacturer did not try to lock out […]
The Roland SP-404 Mk2 is a popular groovebox that can deliver a great beat if you know how to use it. If you’re seeking greater control than is available out of the box, though, you might like to try a custom pedal built by [Romain Dereu]. The concept is simple enough—[Romain] whipped up a bespoke […]
We live in a golden age for MIDI controllers. [rheslip]’s contribution to the milieu is a twisty take on the format, in that it’s covered in an array of knobs. Thus the name—Twisty 2. The controller can be built using the Raspberry Pi Pico or Pico 2. It’s set up to read a 4×4 array […]
You can hear sound, of course, but what if you could see it with a laser? That’s what [Goosetopherson] thought about, and thus a new project that you can see in the video below was born. The heart of the project is an I2S chip and an ESP32. Sound energy deforms a plastic film that […]
Some synthesizer sounds are just catchy, but some of them are genre-defining. We think you could make that case for the Roland JP-8000 patch “Sandstorm”, which you’ve heard if you listened to any trance from the 90’s, but especially the song that was named after it. “Sandstorm” is powered by the Roland Supersaw, and synth […]
In almost every measurable way, a lossless digital audio file is superior to any analog media. This doesn’t mean that analog audio isn’t valuable though; plenty of people appreciate the compression, ambiance, and other side-effects of listening to a vinyl record or a cassette tape despite the technical limitations. To combine the audio technology of […]
Visualizers used to be very much in vogue, something you’d gasp in at amazement when you’d fire up Winamp or Windows Media Player. They’re largely absent from our modern lives, but [Arnov Sharma] is bringing them back. After all, who doesn’t want a cool visualizer hanging on the wall in their living room? The build […]
In a curious historical twist, the “Twelve days of Christmas” are actually the days of revelry that followed the 25th. The preceding period, Advent, was traditionally a fast, not unlike Lent. When and why a fast became an excuse for chocolate calendars we cannot say, but this historical information is presented to explain that this […]
Synthesizing sounds from scratch is all well and good, you just use a bit of maths. However, the latest build from [Daisy] eschews such boring concepts as additive or subtractive synthesis, instead going for a sample-based approach. This build is based around the Daisy Seed microcontroller platform. It was actually inspired by an earlier project […]
If you live in a major city, you’ve probably seen a street performer with some variety of slapophone. It’s a simple musical instrument that typically uses different lengths of PVC pipe to act as resonant cavities. When struck with an implement like a flip-flop, they release a dull but pleasant tone. [Ivan Miranda] decided to […]