Relive those Super Mario Bros. days with these musical LED sprite pieces

Remember the days of slipping a Super Mario cartridge into your Nintendo console? Who could forget those distinct chiptune soundbites that ensued hitting a power-up? If you recall, the retro game included a multitude of power boosters, such as Starmen and Super Mushrooms, which allowed Mario to morph into Super Mario and experience temporary invincibility, respectively. Inspired by the ‘80s pop culture phenomenon, Maker Baron von Brunk has created mini 3D […]

Dial is putting a spin on the way you control music and movies

This DIY device is a pretty sweet all-in-one media controller.  While the universal remote of yesteryear could control your TV, VCR, cable box and a few other devices, the rise of smart homes is ushering in a new era of controllers that command everything from lighting and blinds to locks and of course, the entertainment system. As our living […]

Wigl is an education robot with a musical ear

A toy robot that teaches kids basic programming and music skills at once. With the emergence of the Maker Movement, we’ve seen a number of low-cost, easy-to-use kits seeking to make building robots a more enjoyable experience. Instead of generating commands using a smartphone or PC, a company by the name of Wigl is looking to make learning as […]

Video: The world’s first interactive album cover lets you spin music

Novalia worked with DJ Qbert to create the world’s first interactive DJ Decks in an album cover. Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ technique used to produce distinctive sounds by moving a vinyl record back-and-forth on a turntable while optionally manipulating the crossfader on a sound mixer. Though scratching is most commonly associated with hip-hop, […]

Making music with JELL-O and 10 other foods

And to think, we were always told as kids not to play with our food! Over the last couple of months, we’ve seen a number of edible musical arrangements from chicken nuggets to sushi. Thanks to Nashville and Atlanta-based ad agency redpepper, we can add one more piece of food to the list: JELL-O. In an effort to “make […]

This smart snowboard changes music based on your tricks

Like with all action sports, the right music can make all the difference when you’re shredding up the mountain. That’s why Dave Lee and the Signal Snowboards crew recently teamed up with Matt Davis from namethemachine, Samy Kamkar and Alex Nano to devise the world’s first fully-programmable ’smart’ snowboard that controls the playback of music based on the tricks […]

Rewind: 30 Maker musical masterpieces from 2014

There’s music making and then there’s making music. From gloves that play tunes to modded printers that blare songs, Makers have proven that just about anything — and we mean everything — can be transformed into sound. And well, as you can tell from our #ThrowbackThursday chippy takes on ‘90s hits, we love music. Not to mention, a […]

This DIY cube turns music into your own LED light show

What better way to ring in the holidays than by transforming your living room into a dance party? With the L3D Cube, now you can. Developed by the Looking Glass Factory crew, the 3D fixture is a true DIY kit allowing Makers to create their own “volumetric” display in just 30 minutes. After constructing the easy-to-assemble box, users can download a number of visualization apps to […]

This obsolete typewriter plays some sweet music

Maker duo Lasse Munk and Søren Andreasen have created a musical typewriter that transforms ordinary sentences into sound. 

Known as D.O.R.T.H.E (short for Danish Orchestra of Radios Talking and Hacked Engines), the platform is constructed out of old, discarded electronics. In essence, D.O.R.T.H.E. can be thought of as an electronic music box — with each word […]

Turning chicken nuggets and sushi into music with MaKey MaKey

While dipping a chicken nugget into sauce or touching sushi may not be the most conventional way to create music, if there is one thing that MaKey MaKey has taught us, is that nearly anything can be transformed into a MIDI trigger. This includes the tops of cats’ heads, plastic mannequin parts, cacti, rubber finger monsters, and old-school Polaroid […]