Watching videos of NES enthusiasts playing the Super Mario Bros. theme on weird stuff is always fun, and here's one of musician Randy George on the theremin. What's a theremin? It's a Russian invention that's also one of the earliest electronic musical instruments ever created. Players move their hands around the Theremin's antennas, controlling the sound's frequency and amplitude (pitch and volume). Randy's working on recording a classical Theremin album--I wonder if it'll include his version of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy as bonus material. [Laughing Squid]

Read More »

Cameron, a student at Cornell University, built an analogue amp/feedback system, and then wired his muscles up to the thing via electrodes. It's kind of like a Theramin, but more weird. A doctor in the comments suggests fitting different voltages to each of the twelve muscles in the arm to vary the sound. I suggest shaving your whole body, covering yourself with electrodes, pantsing the analogue amp and then going for a run. Cacophony rules. [Music Thing]

Read More »

Forget the crapness of the Beamz laser-harp music thing with a real touchless music system: the Theremin. The guys at Popsci have a MAKE-style DIY project online that shows you how to build a pocket-sized version of the classic device. Since it uses a light-level input system, it's a little simpler to build than the RF and capacitance circuitry of the "real" instrument. This means it only costs US$18.39 in parts, and about three hours of work if you're neat with a soldering iron. Shaky renditions of "Good vibrations" and the theme tune to "Dr. Who" ahoy! [Popsci]

Read More »

Lev is a thereminbot who last week got a new robot friend called Thumpbot. The thereminbot is a robot who plays the theremin, an instrument which usually has two radio antennas and radio frequency oscillators to generate sounds without being touched. Thumbot, on the other side, uses boxes and other objects to add the percussion track in this amazing interpretation of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, with the "help from a 20-year-old MT32 synthesizer." Ranjit Bhatnagar, the author, says that "Lev is a bit out of tune, but hey, robots!." Still, Ranjit, we absolutely love it. [Moonmilk]