When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Awesome Electronic Music

Teenage Engineering EP–133 K.O. II. Sampler Composer

Teenage Engineering EP–133 K.O. II. Sampler Composer
Buy

Electronics and industrial design masters Teenage Engineering created the EP–133 K.O. II., a portable synth, sampler, and composer for electronic music. It offers instant sampling with 999 sample slots, six stereo voices, 12 mono voices, a high-res sequencer, real-time FX, looping, and more. Ports include stereo audio, sync, MIDI, and USB-C MIDI. In-depth demo here.

Sweet Dreams on a Giant Sequencer

Sweet Dreams on a Giant Sequencer

Amsterdam’s Our House is a wonderland for fans of electronic music. One of their interactive installations is a wall-sized sequencer, which lets you create your own looped rhythms by pushing its buttons. Here’s a look at it being programmed to play the Eurythmics 1983 hit Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).

Advertisement

Synth-A-Sette Mini Synthesizer

Synth-A-Sette Mini Synthesizer

This pocket-sized musical instrument from MicroKits is an analog synthesizer shaped like a cassette tape. It has a touch-sensitive 13-key keypad, which you can connect to other objects (like bananas) to turn them into keys. It’s got a built-in 1-watt speaker, a headphone jack, and controls for pitch, volume, octave shift, and a vibrato effect.

Chorda Digital Musical Instrument

Chorda Digital Musical Instrument

This unique musical instrument combines a synthesizer, a looper, and a MIDI controller. It has 12 capacitive sensing pads, a bridge for strumming and tapping notes, as well as an accelerometer and gyroscope for gesture-based input. It has drum, bass, chord, and lead modes, and a built-in speaker and 3.5mm audio jack lets you play without external equipment.

Playing Music on Bald Heads

Playing Music on Bald Heads

The members of the Japanese group Bozestyle are proud of their bald heads. In fact, they’ve made them part of their performances. To bring their music to life, they rig their heads with buttons that can be used to trigger electronic sounds. Their version of The Imperial March is one of our favorites, but check out their Instagram for more.

Fred again… Tiny Desk Concert

Fred again… Tiny Desk Concert

DJ Fred again… is known for his energetic performances at dance clubs and arenas. In the more intimate setting of NPR’s offices, he demonstrates his true talents with a captivating and enveloping one-person concert that incorporates marimbas, a piano, looping, sequencing, sampled recordings, and his own live vocals.

More Techno without Computers

More Techno without Computers

Klangphonics previously showed us how it’s possible to make techno-sounding music without using a computer sequencer. We recently came across a few more of their creative live performances, including one that incorporates a pressure washer and another with a rubber duckie and an electric toothbrush.

Advertisement

Chompi Looping Sound Machine

Chompi Looping Sound Machine

This neat little gadget is a sampler and looper with a chromatic keyboard. The Chompi has 7-voice polyphony, records up to 6 hours, and has knobs for selecting start and end points, pitch, attack and decay, and effects like reverb, filters, and saturation. Its tape-style looping engine is truly magical.

Every Robot Wants to Rule the World

Every Robot Wants to Rule the World

The One Hacker Band is a robotic musical group that plays electromechanically-controlled instruments. They recently added a new member – a head that can sing. Here’s the latest line-up of the band performing the Tears for Fears hit Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Need more? Enjoy a little Radiohead.

NMSVE Noise Machine

NMSVE Noise Machine

This palm-sized gadget is a Bluetooth MIDI controller for creating electronic music. It works wirelessly with apps like Koala Sampler, Ableton, AUM, and many others, providing a dozen input buttons, a seven-bank slider, and an effects knob. It has a USB-C rechargeable battery that lets you perform for up to 12 hours per charge.

Everything But the Girl: Nothing Left to Lose

Everything But the Girl: Nothing Left to Lose

After a 24-year hiatus, UK pop duo Everything But the Girl is back. From the sound of Nothing Left to Lose, they haven’t skipped a beat. The first single from their new album Fuse is a song about love, dedication, and desperation set against a sizzling electronic dance groove.

32 Stepper Motor Orchestra

32 Stepper Motor Orchestra

A 32-piece orchestra needs need a pretty big stage for all of those musicians and their instruments. Jonathan Kayne has solved this problem by replacing those pesky humans with stepper motors. The members of his band never talk back, and they play everything from All-Star to Piano Man to The Mandalorian theme.

Advertisement

Halloween on Stylophone

Halloween on Stylophone

The Halloween franchise is really, truly, finally coming to an end. To celebrate the end of the road for Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, maromaro1337 performed John Carpenter’s intense electronic theme on a Stylophone. The driving, repetitive melody seems perfectly suited to the monophonic analog synthesizer.

Google Street View Music Video

Google Street View Music Video

(Flashing Images) With COVID travel restrictions in place, filmmaker Adam Chitayat longed for the outside world. Stuck at home, he collected thousands of Google Maps Street View images, which he eventually used to complement the sounds of musicians Axel Boman, Man Tear, and Inre Frid on the track Out Sailing.

How Thomas Dolby Made “She Blinded Me with Science”

How Thomas Dolby Made “She Blinded Me with Science”

’80s kids all know Thomas Dolby’s hit song She Blinded Me with Science. During a 2018 award ceremony from synthesizer maker Roland, the synth-pop maestro explained the story behind the song, whose voice exclaims “SCIENCE!,” and performed the track live. MikesGigTV captured Dolby’s entertaining presentation. Part two here.

Moog Etherwave Theremin

Moog Etherwave Theremin

The latest Moog theremin has a five-octave range and improved bass response. It can also be used as a pitch, volume, and gate controller for modular synthesizers. It has a hardwood cabinet and quick-release brass-plated antennas, and can produce some amazing sounds – as demonstrated by The Octopus Project.

DOOM Riffs on Stylophone

DOOM Riffs on Stylophone

Stylophone expert maromaro1337 performed a medley of the heavy metal music hidden in plain sight in the corridors of the 1990s first-person shooter, DOOM. The game’s soundtrack swiped riffs from Metallica, Pantera, AC/DC, and Anthrax, among others. See how many you can identify without opening your eyes.

Moog Mavis Mini Synthesizer

Moog Mavis Mini Synthesizer

The Mavis is a build-it-yourself analog synth kit that embodies the spirit of Moog. The compact instrument has a 24-point patch bay, an analog oscillator, a voltage-controlled filter, a 4-stage envelope generator, and a sample-and-hold circuit. It easily integrates with any Moog semi-modular or Eurorack system too.

Making Lo-Fi Beats with Language Machines

Making Lo-Fi Beats with Language Machines

The Language Master and similar devices used magnetic cards to help students learn to speak other languages. The vintage machines have become a favorite among musicians for making lo-fi sounds by adjusting their speed and direction, and even making loops. Hainbach shows off some of their beat-making abilities.

Phone Ringer Rhythm Machine

Phone Ringer Rhythm Machine

The guys from Electronicos Fantasticos! are no strangers to making electronic music with unusual instruments. Here, they show off a custom-built instrument that clangs the bell of an old-school rotary telephone with a circuit controlled by a Korg SQ-1 step sequencer. Now they need to rig the dial with a motor and amplify its clicks.

The First Drum Machine

The First Drum Machine

We always thought that drum machines came along sometime in the 1970s, but it turns out that there was one model you could buy as early as 1959. Look Mum No Computer opens the doors to his personal museum for a look at the Wurlitzer Side Man to see how the ingenious way it made rhythms with electromechanical systems.

Doctor Mix’s Top 10 Synthesizers

Doctor Mix’s Top 10 Synthesizers

Since the late 1960s, synthesizers have become a critical component of music production – especially in genres like alternative, pop, and dance. Musician and synth enthusiast Doctor Mix walks us through the ten most famous and essential electronic music makers of all time, along with examples of the sounds they each produce.

Techno without Computers

Techno without Computers

Most techno music is made with the help of computer sequencers. But the members of Klangphonics show how to pull of the electronic sound live using a mix of basic analog instruments and a pedal-controlled synthesizer for the bass notes.

ADVERTISEMENT

Home | About | Suggest | Contact | Team | Links | Privacy | Disclosure
Advertise | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Sites We Like

Awesome Stuff: The Awesomer | Cool Cars: 95Octane
Site Design & Content © 2008-2024 Awesomer Media / The Awesomer™