Tag: MUSICALINSTRUMENTS

Scientific advancements are considered mature when they can do one of two things: deliver pornography, or play a rendition of the 'Super Mario Bros.' theme. Since nano-scale breasts probably won't have much appeal to the public, scientists instead decided to use the latest in etching techniques to create a musical instrument that can rock out to one of the most recognizable melodies in the world. ...

We've covered a lot of ridiculous DIY instruments on this site, and, for the most part, we're big fans. But this... this... whatever it is just makes us angry. Then again, this guy could try to sell us a foolproof cure for cancer and we probably wouldn't bite. Maybe it's the goatee that makes him look like a roadie for Filter, or the exaggerated widow's peak. [Ed. note: That'd be a devil lock, ...

Share There's nothing new about using cell phones as instruments. We've seen pop songs covered, entire orchestras of Apple handsets and even a ringtone mobile playing Christmas tunes. What we haven't seen though, is one person combine several handsets into a makeshift instrument, and become a one-man Franken-band. That is, until we saw this: the Phone Guitar, assembled from two Android phones, ...

Dear Santa, We know it's quite a bit early, but we wanted to make sure we got our request in before all the other little boys and girls (who haven't been nearly as good as us, by the way). While everyone else is asking for PlayStation 3s and world peace, all we want is the Korg Monotron. The moment we saw video of the pocketable analog synth from the Musikmesse conference in Frankfurt, ...

Learning an instrument can be a long, difficult process, requiring years of dedication. The 'Haptic Drum Kit', shown at MIT's Fourth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, intends to streamline and improve the learning, getting musicians up and drumming in no time. Using both audio and vibrotactile (read: buzzing the wearer) input, the player not only hears the ...

Call us musical Luddites if you will, but we're wondering why people can't seem to leave the venerable, and long-ago perfected, electric guitar alone. Gibson just keeps jamming more and more robotics inside, EverTune has developed a potentially sustain sapping bridge that never falls out of tune, and Worst of CES honoree YouRock Guitar puts half stings and cheesy MIDI tones inside a video game ...

Interactive videos appeared on YouTube in 2008, but most of them have been limited to basic games and puzzles. A new movement in interactive viewing, though, is taking that participatory experience to a completely different, and awesome, level. A user known as kokokaka3000 has uploaded a new video titled, 'Play the Piano,' and the name is not at all misleading. Just let the vid load (after the ...

If Dr. Frankenstein was a musician, he might have produced -- instead of a creature assembled from corpses and reanimated via electricity -- something more like the patched-together Experibass. For his unique creation, Diego Stocco, a sound designer and composer who has worked on such films as 'Terminator Salvation,' and 'Transformers,' attached the necks of a violin, cello, and viola to the ...

Fans of odd, haunting electronic melodies rejoice! With the release of its portable Japanese Premium Theremin, Gakken allows you to entertain, or annoy, anyone, anywhere. In 1938, Leon Theremin patented the eponymous instrument, through which a player manipulates electronic frequencies by waving his hands, or other appendages, over two antennas. By raising and lowering the right hand next to a ...

So this may not be breaking news, but we're still wondering what on Earth made Intel decide that the Beamz laser harp was a good way to show off the power of the Core 2 Duo? (No idea what Beamz is? Check out the bizarre demo video here). Why would Intel, a well-respected manufacturer and developer of high tech products, break out this over-priced pseudo-instrument that was even an embarrassment ...

Technology allowing paraplegics to operate the right pedal of a piano has been developed by a team of scientists in Heidelberg Germany, trumping earlier systems which didn't allow for half pedal or flutter variations. The device consists of a tiny remote module that's placed inside the pianist's right cheek, and a wireless transmitter and motor attached to the pedals of the piano. A small ...

Former Talking Heads front-man David Byrne has always been a bit experimental in his artistic leanings, especially in his solo work (both musical and non). His latest project in New York City, though, takes experimental music to an entirely new scale, turning an entire building into a giant musical instrument that anyone can try for free. The building is the Battery Maritime Building in New ...

Hey all you 'American Idol' hopefuls -- here's your chance to prove that you really are musical geniuses deep inside, by using a program called 'Musical DNA,' which visualizes the relationship between musical notes in a fun and semi-psychedelic fashion. We could begin a lengthy dissertation running circles around how the program actually works, but we'll spare you the eyestrain and ...

For an instrument with such an established history of mainstream popularity and an unparalleled level of cool, the accordion doesn't seem to need any improvements. But Roland recently released the battery-powered FR-2 Accordion, which combines the classic features of the original with new digital enhancements, including built-in drum loops (for adding some percussion to that romantic old tune ...

Yamaha just announced the release of its new Disklavier player piano, which now comes with an 80-gigabyte (GB) hard drive and Internet capability for streaming downloads of 'live' songs to literally play in your living room (these "songs" contain the data needed to make the instruments ivories move). Ever since radio took over the limelight some 65 years ago, real instruments such as the piano ...