Hack N Mod - Amazingly Cool Hacks, Mods, and DIY Projects » music

DIY Football Hero Using the Arduino

Joe L — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:56:54 +0000

We’ve seen plenty of guitar hero projects and even a laser harp hero, but now we have a football hero (Soccer for us Americans). Made for the music industry, the director pulled together a team of DIYers and football players to make the game a reality. Using some piezo sensors to detect impact vibrations using the Arduino, he projected the game on a warehouse wall to play.

More details on the project’s background can be found in this video. Not too much detail of the project such as source code is available, but setting up piezo’s with an Arduino is pretty straightforward. Check out some of our other Arduino projects below:

Fantastic Interactive Laser with Sound Effects

Saikat — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:48:34 +0000

It’s almost like playing with a firefly. This awesome interactive laser effect creates a seamless combination of sound and light. It is an interactive example of smart 3D laser tracking technology which allows the laser follows the contours of any object placed in its path. What is surprising is the way the laser picks up any line drawn done in real time on the paper and follows its contours. Amplifying the effect is the tempo of the music which corresponds to the laser’s movement.

The equipment behind the ‘magic’ is a laser diode, a pair of steering mirrors, and a single non-imaging photodetector called the smart laser scanner. The laser is non-hazardous with half the power of a normal laser pointer.

This magic of sound and sight in the video is a brainchild of few guys from The University of Tokyo. Smart laser tracking has fantastic applications and is really a cool way of playing with light. Playing with laser is fun and our range of laser projects will continue to light up your interest.

Most Popular Laser Projects:

Making Music with the Virtual Laser Harp

Saikat — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:13:47 +0000

Laser harp inventor Steven Hobley is back with another exceptional project.� We covered his outstanding laser harp build last year and was also included in our Top 40 Arduino Projects.� So what’s so cool about a harp anyways?� It’s just the incredible cool factor of a classical instrument meeting the future with wicked bright lasers now combined with a “Harp-Hero” video game interface.

A single 450-milliwatt green laser beam reflected by fast moving motorized mirror ‘creates’ multiple beams very rapidly. The variation in hand movements through the laser beams creates the flux. This symphonic change in the beam is picked up by sensor arrays connected to a Nintendo Wiimote. An impOSCar VSTi software synthesizer on a computer interprets the signals via Bluetooth and that’s how hand motion becomes music.

The innovator has shared some of the details on his website and the above video.� If you are looking for more laser projects beam over to view all of our laser projects and buy lasers from our store for your next laser project supplies.

Stream your Entire Music Library to Any Computer

Saikat — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:32:41 +0000

Serious audiophiles like to be close to their music. Our previous DIY Multi-Room Wireless Music Remote was just one way to take your music anywhere you want. With these two free programs and a bit of configuration, you can stream your own music from anywhere you’d like. With the two program setup, you can also stream songs over the internet for friends to enjoy.

The tutorial guides you through the 6 steps of launching your stream:

Install an Apache server

Setup your PC as a server platform with the installation of Apache. Use XAMPP, the open source and cross-platform web server package. XAMPP packages MySQL, PHP and Perl in a single zip or exe file. Download and run with minimal configuration of the various components that make up the web server.

Install netjukebox

netjukebox is an open source, flexible, web based Winamp/httpQ media jukebox. It can be configured as a client/server to stream music from any computer that’s a part of the network. The downloaded netjukebox needs to be extracted in XAMPP’s htdocs directory. Provided codecs along with netjukebox go into another subfolder. The login screen of the media jukebox is accessed by typing a URL in the browser.

Secure your server

Securing your server installation is a priority. The tutorial walks through the steps needed to setup a secure admin username and a root password for the XAMPP and MySQL host. Passwords also sets-up XAMPP directory protection for protected access through browsers.

Setup netjukebox

The media player is configured (just a few lines in Notepad) to locate the music library and read the codecs. This step also configures web access for the administrator with the correct server password.

Link your music library

Log on to the netjukebox administrator page with the browser and use the configuration panel to index all your songs in the music library. The user friendly program also updates your music collection with album covers automatically or manually using online databases.

Stream your music remotely

Log in to your music library from anywhere using a browser and typing in your IP with the /netjukebox/ extension. Dynamic DNS is another option to access your songs without the hassle of IP addresses. For those behind a home router, the port forwarding technique solves the issue.

The how-to goes into each step in detail. Using the flexible freeware and a comparatively hassles free setup, you can play your tunes anywhere.

We have a vast gallery of tutorials for audio enthusiasts to enjoy. Check them out!

Extreme LED Synthesizer Piano Mod

Joe L — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:38:12 +0000

Take an old upright piano, gut the innards, stuff a high tech synth and keyboard inside, add sexy blue LED lights and presto, you’ve got yourself one incredible pimped piano synthesizer. The author has some great documentary photos of the entire build process which took him a whopping 250 hours to complete.Â� For more fun with light and music, see our Laser Harp tutorial.

Dont miss: Our massive collection of LEDs and Lights projects.

Build Documentary:

Learn how the entire piano was constructed, showing the inner mechanics that make it function.Â� Buy project supplies (including our famous dirt cheap LEDs) for your next project in our store.

DIY Multi-Room Wireless Music Remote

Joe L — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:26:37 +0000

With the help of some external hardware and a handheld wireless device such as an iPhone or iPod touch, you can build your own wireless music remote. It’s a bit spendy if you don’t already have an Iphone/iTouch and a router, but there’s a step by step tutorial to guide you through the setup build.

Part’s you’ll need:

iPhone or iPod touch: $199 (8GB iPhone minus wireless costs) or $299 (8GB touch)
Linksys WRT54GL Wireless Router: $50 (not the only supported router; see below)
Headphone-to-RCA Cable: $2 (local RadioShack)

We have plenty of other iPhone and Audio projects. Don’t miss out:

Turn old iPods into Custom Speakers

Joe L — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:02:24 +0000

Learn to build custom speakers by installing bare speakers in two of the original iPods where the scroll wheels normally are.Â� Instead of gutting your old iPod, you can purchase iPod front panels and back panels on eBay for a few bucks.Â� Just add a simple amplification circuit and you’ve got yourself a pair of custom iPod speakers.

Rocker Scale Measures how Hard You Rock

Joe L — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:12:22 +0000

As you rock out with Guitar Hero or Rock Band, build a Rockerscale which using your crowd’s volume level, movement, etc. to measures how much you rock.Â� The project was created by the BBC and is fully documented on their website.Â� By the way, it uses the Arduino, of course.

Rock Band Hacks:

Guitar Hero Hacks:

How to make a Rubens Tube (Music to Flames)

Joe L — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:06:42 +0000

Maybe you’ve seen a Rubens tube before. Well I’m sure you haven’t seen one this festive. All it takes is some wood, some hardware you can pick up in any neighborhood, and a few common tools.

More amazing Audio projects:

Make a LED Jack-O-Lantern that Flashes to Music

Joe L — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:49:09 +0000

Make a jack-o-lantern that plays, and flashes Multi-Colored LED’s to everyone’s favorite Halloween song.