littleBits – quick and dirty electronic projects

littleBits makes modular electronic circuit components that attach to each other with magnets. Not much info on audio-producing components yet (they are still getting everything ready, apparently) but they claim to have over fifty modules.

Violin Subharmonics

Mari Kimura is a New York composer and virtuoso violinist whose music includes haunting low notes on the violin called  “subharmonics.”  …Problem is, these sounds aren’t supposed to be possible.
The tones she playes are in the register of a cello, and usually cannot be made from a violin.  Even she is stumped about how it works.  “I don’t really know what it is I do,” she said, because she learned it by “trial and error.”
I don’t know about impossible, but violin subharmonics are certainly gorgeous.

DIY musical instruments

This page has information on how to make several types of conventional musical instruments.

Mechanical Music Digest

The Mechanical Music Digest (MMD) is a moderated forum, published daily on the Internet and distributed primarily by e-mail. Feel free to read our publication and learn more about musical instruments that play themselves.

Experimental Musical Instruments

Experimental Musical Instruments is an information outlet for interesting and unusual musical instruments of all sorts. Here you’ll find how-to materials on instrument making, as well as books and CDs featuring the work of the most inventive instrument makers worldwide. We have all the back issues of the late, great Experimental Musical Instruments quarterly journal available – a real treasure trove of information and ideas. We also carry pickups, zither pins, fretwire, and other specialized hardware for instrument makers.