Newsletter, 26 Oct 2025
Greetings from an increasingly-dark Lincolnshire. I'm writing this on the day that most people in the UK move their clocks. Since this has always made me feel terrible for a couple of weeks and I hate losing an hour of daylight in the afternoon/evening, this will be the third year that I live through the winter on SST, or Shiela Standard Time, which keeps clocks as they were (BST) through the winter. I recommend it.
Just in time for Halloween, we have some creepy 8-bit-style music, and for making those ghostly sounds, I have some news about e-ther, my e-theremin.
I'm feeling very happy about being able to announce 'e-ther Advance'. This has been in the pipeline for years. Quantisation is a feature that e-ther owners have asked for ever since I've been making e-thers. I've come close to adding the feature as a firmware update to e-ther in the past but it wasn't right, and it really requires a screen and menu system to be usable. This is all now ready, and the additional features of being able to make settings on the device and the display of the current / nearest note have been as popular during the beta period as the quantisation. I've made a track to demonstrate the new version and explain the features.
Also on the topic of spooky sounds, Sam discovered a sensor on the hinge of a macbook and has added a 'creaky door' effect and turned it into a theremin.
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So without further ado, read on for more musical news, views and reviews.
Contents
My world
e-ther 'Advance', plus a track using the new instrument
Work on this new feature for e-ther has been going on for a very long time but has been hard to get right.
e-ther is a theremin-like controller with audio and MIDI outputs. People have always asked for quantisation and now I think I've cracked that.
It was necessary to add a screen and menu system, which allows for all settings to be made on the device. It also allows the nearest or target note to be displayed live while playing and these features have been as popular during the beta period as the quantisation.
The new model is now available alongside the 'classic' model which doesn't have the screen or quantisation.
I've made a video in which I play a track using the new instrument.
youtu.be/DnRJ8J5vSnI
MIDI Inbox
The Paino
Some think that we should suffer for our art. Yann Seznec has built what he calls the 'Paino', a painful MIDI controller with nail points as touch controls. He asks for and receives suggestions for other painful controllers.
oldbytes.space...115371572254352396
Secret Macbook sensor made into a theremin
Sam discovered that the MacBook has a sensor that gives the angle of the screen hinge. His first thought was to make it creak like an old wooden door.
In a subsequent post, he turned it into a theremin.
hachyderm.io/@samhenrigold/115159854830332329
Connect 4 musical instrument
Ben has made a musical version of Connect 4 which is a mashup of a sequencer and game.
He has made a giant physical version - a video (part 1) is embedded on the page, follow through fore part 2 in which he explains how it all works.
The web page has a simulator that you can play. It's very hard to get anything very musical from it (there's a challenge for you) but fun for a few minutes.
neeto.net/connect4
Autotune Kazoo
Although this isn't really using autotune (it's determining the frequency, adjusting it and generating a sawtooth wave) it sounds remarkably kazoo-like except that it's always in-tune!
In this Make: article, Guy walks us through the development process in text and on video. There's enough information there for you to make your own.
At the end of the video he goes into his own feelings about actual Autotune, which are more positive than you might expect.
makezine.com/projects/my-autotune-kazoo
This drum sequencer breaks all the rules
Moritz Klein set himself the challenge of making a minimal drum sequencer (no microcontroller) which is still usable. It sounds remarkably good.
He uses Labor, which is designed for designing analogue synth circuits.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9HKXLPiX0w
"The sound of failure": Brian Eno's diary note about the future of music
This is a retrospective looking back at Brian Eno's career and specifically some comments he made in the '90s.
I think the general point is that out of failure comes new things. The sentence that caught my eye was "...the crap sound of 8-bit - all these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided."
faroutmagazine.co.uk/brian-eno-diary-note-about-the-future-of-music
From a $5 Toy to an unreal professional instrument
I don't think there's anything here that you can't do with a cheap toy and some effects pedals, for that's what this is.
However, the amazing thing here is the beautiful enclosure that Make Something has made. For me, the screen printing is what truly transforms this but every step of the process is enjoyable to watch.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9-D6aOUSWY
Scoring a feature film with a wind harp
As part of scoring a movie soundtrack, Hainbach took a wind harp onto a beach. A new instrument to me and a fascinating one.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v997cTZwl8
Modifying old telephones
Kale has previously demonstrated how to make a lo-fi microphone, a powered carbon mic and a stutter effect, all from old telephones.
In this video he works all three of these mods to a dial phone as a commission from a viewer.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WBfuNcsb70
DIY MIDI Bookmark
I'm not sure how practical it is as a bookmark, and I'm not sure why you would want these two things combined, but the Instructable does cover the interesting process of making a capacitive-touch MIDI controller.
www.instructables.com/MIDI-Bookmark
Plantasia by Mort Garson
The late 60s and early 70s were a creative time. Mort Garson embraced electronic music and was one of only a few individuals to own a Moog synthesiser.
This is the remarkable story of the album that he was asked to compose by his friends who owned a plant boutique. They gave away the album with their plants and it wasn't available commercially until much later and after Mort's death.
Fortunately we can all listen to the album now and it is well worth a listen. You may like to play it to your plants as per the original intention.
Track 5 messed with my head for a while until I realised that it sounds remarkably close to Zelda's Lullaby!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s04iBDRp5fQ
Hydraulophone
I came across this bizarre instrument on a page about experimental musical instruments.
It's made of a pipe with finger-holes like a wind instrument, but it's filled with water rather than air, which makes for a very wet playing experience. There's a video on this page showing it being played by a singer for accompaniment.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulophone
Breaking down the MORESCHI / GODWIN CD 1
This portable suitcase device was apparently designed to be used with a keyboard (I think when they say 'accordion' they mean keyboard) but none is present.
Even without the ability to play notes, the presenter manages to coax some impressive music from it. It has its own rhythm and chord generator along with a lead section. There are many settings and it allows some very basic selection of chord.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=thcNWulcvqg
Sound chips and retrocomputing
The Spooky House by Stef Animal
The Pico-8 is a console that only exists as an emulator or virtual machine.
in the spirit of 8-bit computing, it has a 4-channel sound generator.
Just in time for Halloween (Halloween 2019 that is, I've only just discovered this album) The Spooky House is the soundtrack to the Pico-8 game of the same name. It stands alone as an album of creepy 8-bit-style music.
stef-animal.bandcamp.com/album/the-spooky-house
8-Bit Symphony
A stand-out event in my life was the 8-bit Symphony concert in Hull, 2019. 8-bit music was orchestrated for and performed by the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra.
Chris Abbot has since gone on to make a studio recording of the music in Prague.
He has been working on a website dedicated to this project. It's still a work in progress but it already contains lots of audio, video, articles and even the sheet music.
www.8-bit-symphony.com
Products and reviews
Roland announces analogue drum machine
Roland have announced the TR1000, their first drum machine in nearly 40 years to have analogue voices. It has 16 circuits from the classic TR-808 and TR-909 recreated using modern components. These sit alongside digital sound engines and sampling.
Altwire has the story.
altwire.net/roland-tr-1000-rhythm-creator
Circuit Punk Zine
I've just discovered Circuit Punk, a music technology 'zine.
Each of the two issues so far are available as a hard copy, saddle stitched, satin paper, gloss cover. They're also available to read for free electronically.
They contain an impressive amount of music-related content; hacks, electronic projects, tips and techniques and interviews.
circuitpunk.neocities.org
The minichord
You may have already seen Benjamin Poilve's Minichord - a miniature recreation of the classic Omnichord.
The Minichord is open source (attribution, non-commercial) but also available for pre-order.
In this video, Alpha Chrome Yayo demonstrates the device and shows how to make a y2k-style coloured translucent enclosure.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8r_ghGsJtE
Performances
Farandole
Crabe Vert uses a looper pedal to lay down a very simple rhythm by strumming and tapping a violin and then plays a playful melody on top using his MicroFreak.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9hvvUuxC7A
Traditional and acoustic instruments
Charango is a guitar made out of an armadillo shell
David Hilowitz had to pay a price for this, but it is a remarkable instrument. It's a guitar-like instrument made from the shell of a real armadillo.
He dives into the history and tuning of this and related instruments, records music using his Charango and then converts an acoustic guitar into a tres, a guitar with six strings arranged in pairs.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=65p7FWxvRyc
Making a tube record player into a Leslie speaker
Not a Luthier converted a record player into this combined amp / Leslie speaker.
The build is an enjoyable watch, the device looks amazing. The result is more subtle than I expected, but with careful listening to the off/on comparisons I could hear the chorus effect.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJyzHlloDxc
All that remains is for me to thank everyone who blogs, vlogs, writes articles or posts pictures on the subjects I'm excited by.
Nor can I do the things I do without your support, so thank you for that.
If you're on the email list then please forward this to anyone who may be interested. If you've received this email from a friend, then please consider joining the list, the sign-up form is below.
It's always good to hear from readers for any reason and I'd particularly like tip-offs about about any relevant stories, video, websites or social media accounts that I should be following.
Happy music-making!
Shiela Dixon - Editor / curator
shiela@peacockmedia.software
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