You will need a set of steel balls to lay down the beats with Alkex Instrument’s unique eight-step sequencer. Forty-eight steel balls, to be exact, which trigger the optical sensors the machine uses in place of physical buttons. More »
Ooooh—This is a weird one. Using LDR photocells and an arduino, this handheld sequencer is capable of scanning an image and spitting it back out as a sequence of haunting MIDI notes. If you are as interested as I am in seeing how this would interpret a photocopy of the butt, then by all means follow the link and build one yourself. [Gieskes via Make]
If you liked the ball-bearing tangible drum sequencer the other day, you’ll love this: some students at UC Berkeley’s School of Information have created a similar device, this time combining computer imaging and bubblegum balls to create bangin’ tunes. Using a similar sort of hole-matrix, this version uses nifty software which detects the colour and position of the gumballs, which we think must open up the device to a few more drum effects than you can hear in the video, but whatever—it’s worth it to see the dancing. [Bubblegum Sequencer via Technabob]
Experimenting with how musicians physically interact with an electronic kit is not new but this design for a drum sequencer interface by doctoral student Peter Bennett is just awesome. It’s simple too: each drum effect has a track on BeatBearing’s plastic screen, and by dropping a ball bearing into a hole you activate that track’s effect as a scanning light beam encounters it. When you watch a video of it in action, moving the bearings around in real time is like a kind of weird drum ballet:
The Tenori-On is a musical sequencer from Yamaha—basically a grid of LED-lit rubber buttons that lets you create musical loops and melodies. It may look like a prop from a 1970s sci-fi series, but it’s actually a really intuitive and capable instrument that looks simply amazing. Have a look at it in action after the jump. More »
