Remember the hit toy the Furby? It was the first successfully domestically-aimed robot that sold well because all the kids just had to have it. But, just like the Tickle-Me Elmo or any other Christmas time fad, it died off and everyone forgot about it. That is, until David Cranmer skinned a few of them and turned them into a musical instrument that takes no skill to play unlike the Stylophone.

Using four Furbies, David managed to craft some intricate music boxes that wind up to release a kicking tune that proves Furbies are more useful and fun when they’re skinned and mounted. One is even being sold on eBay for a little over $700. If you check out the effort that has gone into making this musical box, you’d know that that price is not steep.
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This project kit is only meant to help get you started but it’s not short on features. If you’ve wanted to create your own SynthAxe-like percussion instrument, just like Futureman from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones did, then this is a great place to start. You’ll need to add your own piezo sensors to use as triggers and can even use audio input to control it.

How does it all work? Glad you asked:

The Tapdrum kit coverts 8 analog inputs to assignable MIDI notes via an Atmel 89S8252. The inputs are intended to be used with piezo sensors (optional with kit) but could foreseeably use a number of different sensor input types, even audio as Deviantsynth suggests.

From the video, this looks like an absolute blast. Don’t feel like building your own? Use a software-based drum machine.

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An instrument called TUIST (Transformable Uber Interface for Stardom) is a combination of guitar, bass and drums all in just one handful. Created by Rui Pereira an NYU student who got too bored with the fact that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is coming out. The custom-made instrument takes up less space than Rock Band and has the ultra-cool ability of changing the way it sounds depending on how one holds it.

The TUIST appeals to the Guitar Hero folk because according to Pereira, anyone can mess around with the TUIST and spawn an interesting sound from it. If you’ve always wanted to make music but have been too much of a lazy bum, then the TUIST is for you. After the jump, a video of the TUIST in action.

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Some people have a hard time getting into one instrument. They set up training and practice schedules, only to be utterly bored within weeks, which leads people to create their own custom musical instruments. The Five Key Keyboard, or “Big Daddy”, is the creation of Michael Robson, described as a “circuit bent keyboard”.

There is no real explanation behind the workings of the 27″ x 52″ x 41″ device, but we envision some sort of pedal system, as well as modulation with the little knobbies on the side of the “Big Daddy”. Bonus points if you can create a piece of music using this machine and the hipDisk. — Andrew Dobrow

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