A Parts Bin MIDI Controller In 24 Hours

Part of the reason MIDI has hung on as a standard in the musical world for so long is that it is incredibly versatile. Sure, standard instruments like pianos and drums can be interfaced with a comp…

Digital Audio Workstation In A Box

Although it’s still possible to grab a couple of friends, guitars, and a set of drums and start making analog music like it’s 1992 and there are vacant garages everywhere yearning for t…

Doing MIDI With Discrete Logic Is Neat, If Not Particularly Useful

MIDI is normally baked into the chipset of a synthesizer, or something you use a microcontroller to handle. But that’s not the only way to speak the language! [Kevin] decided to have some fun…

Get More Freedom With This Guitar Pedal

When the electric guitar was first produced in the 1930s, there was some skepticism among musicians as to whether or not this instrument would have lasting impact or be a flash-in-the-pan novelty. …

AI Image Generator Twists In Response To MIDI Dials, In Real-time

MIDI isn’t just about music, as [Johannes Stelzer] shows by using dials to adjust AI-generated imagery in real-time. The results are wild, with an interactivity to them that we don’t no…

The Last Instrument To Get Auto-Tuned

Various decades have their musical signature, like the excessive use of synthesizers and hairspray in the 1980s pop music scene. Likewise, the early 2010s was marked by a fairly extreme use of auto…

MIDI Controller In A Cubic Inch

MIDI as a standard has opened up a huge world to any musician willing to use a computer to generate or enhance their playing and recording. Since the 80s, it has it has revolutionized the way music…

A Simple Laser Harp MIDI Instrument

Craig Lindley is a technical author and a prolific maker of things. This simple project was his first attempt to create a laser harp MIDI device. While on vacation, Craig saw a laser harp with only…

Harmonic Table Keyboard Brings Old Idea Back To Life

If you missed the introduction of the Axis-49 and Axis-64 keyboards by C-Thru Music, you’re definitely not alone. At the time it was a new musical instrument that was based on the harmonic ta…

2024 Business Card Challenge: Tiny MIDI Keyboard

The progress for electronics over the past seven decades or so has always trended towards smaller or more dense components. Moore’s Law is the famous example of this, but even when we’r…

This MIDI BoomBox Takes Floppies

You might have had a boombox back in the 1990s, but probably not like the Yamaha MDP-10. As [Nicole] explains, the odd little device played MIDI files from a floppy disk. Technically, it wasn&#8217…

MIDI Spoon Piano Is Exactly What You Think It Is

Pianos traditionally had keys made out of ivory, but there’s a great way to avoid that if you want to save the elephants. You can build a keyboard using spoons, as demonstrated by [JCo Audio]…

MIDI Bookmark Marks The Spot Where Work And Play Intersect

Have you ever wanted to take a break from reading or studying to just rock out for a few blissful minutes? If you’re anything like us, you like to rock out most of the time and take the occas…

Yamaha QY10 - Wikipedia

2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: A Piano-Controlled Smart Home

There’s a scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where a little flap in the wall flips down to reveal a small organ embedded there. Gene Wilder plays a bit of Rachmaninoff on the orga…

Ancient Instrument Goes Digital: The Digi-Gurdy

The hurdy-gurdy is a fascinating string instrument dating from sometime around the 10th century. There is an active community of modern enthusiasts, but one can’t simply walk into a music sho…

Bluetooth Wearable Becomes Rad Synth Controller

Once upon a time, a watch was just a watch. These days, though, smartwatches have all kinds of tricks built in, from heartrate sensors, to accelerometers, gyros, and tons of networking capability. …

TuneShroom Is An Artistic Mushroom-Themed MIDI Controller

Most MIDI controllers are modelled after traditional instruments, like pianos, flutes, or guitars. [Oliver Child] went in a different direction for the TuneShroom, instead modelling his DIY control…

High-Resolution MIDI Controller

For an older standard, MIDI has remarkable staying power in the music industry. It remains the de facto digital interface between computers and instruments thanks to its open nature, but its age do…