Gearfuse

Once in awhile, I come across an invention that blows my mind in terms of creativity and functionality. Jay Silver’s Drawdio most certainly fits into that category. Drawdio is a pencil that has a simple synthesizer hooked up to the graphite. Based on the conductivity of graphite, drawing on paper will produce various different sounds creating a one-of-a-kind music experience. This is user-interaction on a whole other level.

Believe it or not, you can build your own Drawdio. The famous Lady Ada is selling kits on her website for $19.50. What are you waiting for? DRAW!

Link [via]

So I got my very first Arduino in the mail two nights ago. In less than one day, I was able to create a simple program and circuit that plays back any set of musical notes I want. I can then modify pitch, frequency and delay time all with potentiometers I have rigged up to the Arduino. Coding is extremely easy, so it didn’t take long to modify some free code found on the ‘net. In the above video, I’m demoing the unit on my kitchen table with a 9V battery as a standalone unit. This means that if I ditched the breadboard and connected everything for good via solder, the device would run self-sufficiently.

Anyways, I will post a HOWTO this weekend if there’s any interest in making your own chiptune maker. You’ll need a USB Arduino, some potentiometers, wiring, resistors, a speaker and a breadboard. Some LEDs wouldn’t hurt either. Experiment and see what you can come up with!