Sunday 19 June 2011

DIY Kalimba



I had a go at making an electric Kalimba or thumb piano yesterday, using a few street sweeper bristles (yep that's right the bristles that fall off a street sweeping machine..also useful for making a bogata rake ;) ) and an electricians chockblock connector. Add to this a piece of wood a clamp and a peizo pickup and away you go.

I like how this design could allow you to tune the kalimba to different scales by moving the bristles to different lengths before clamping in the chockblock. I will definitely build a better version.

Here's a little recording made with my micro br...I didn't use headphones and so realised to late that I'd recorded with reverb.

Kalimba1 by concretedog

Friday 17 June 2011

Sampling delight



I still love the fact that sampling can take a beautiful yet monophonic instrument and render it polyphonic.