BBC4's Synth Britannia was a sufficiently comprehensive look into the electronic music of postpunk Britain, from the pioneering soundtrack to "A Clockwork Orange" by Wendy Carlos, to experimental groups like OMD, Throbbing Gristle, and early Human League...

on to the pop greats that were my first real introduction to synth music, Depeche Mode and New Order. It ends in the middle '80s as synth music transitioned to club music and rave culture, getting nowhere near this decade's full-circle acceptance of '80s synth and chip sounds in pop.

A lovely way to spend 90 minutes, especially for dorks of a certain age who felt a kinship between early synth pop and the captivating other of both Britain and anything electronic. Too bad it's not available for watching on the BBC's iPlayer. You'll have to check the box where you keep your synthesized television experience.

Than these are the instruments for them. If one of your mice is particular and will only play a red Nord Lead pulsewidth will take custom requests. Clearly a lot of love goes into these, and there are pics of several more, including a bitchin' Arp Odyssey, on her Flickr page. [Etsy via Technabob]

Aside from Frampton-esque vocoding, the Voice Box listens for a key from any electric instrument input and then adds a symphony of harmonic backers of a gender of your choosing, all automatic-like.

I know how this will all go down. Just like Auto Tune, it will first be used by Cher, then be adopted by a thousand dancehall producers in Kingston, shortly followed by a dread-locked American hooksman, and finally, the trendmaster himself, Kanye. [Electro-Harmonix via MAKE]

Cool trivia: Jones created the input device for his thesis at the University of Victoria:

Physical modeling synthesis has proven to be a successful method of synthesizing realistic sounds, but providing expressive controls for performance remains a major challenge. This thesis presents a new approach to playing physical models, based on multidimensional signals. Its focus is on the long-term research question, “How can we make a computer-mediated instrument with control intimacy equal to the most expressive acoustic instruments?” In the material world, the control and sounding properties of an instrument or other object are intimately linked by the object’s construction. Multidimensional signals, used as connections between a gestural controller and a physical model, can in principle provide the same intimacy. This work presents a new, low-cost sensor design capable of generating a 2D force signal, a new implementation of the 2D digital waveguide mesh, and two experimental computer music instruments that combine these components using different metaphors. The new instruments are evaluated in terms of intimacy, playability and plausibility. Multidimensional connections between sensors and a physical model are found to facilitate a high degree of control intimacy, and to reproduce as emergent behavior some important phenomena associated with acoustic instruments.

In addition to the video above, Jones has supplied WAV files of each of the techniques he plays in the demo. Check out his thesis and the video for more, including his very happy hands. [Thesis via MAKE]

Bruce Haack is up there with the likes of Leon Theramin, Robert Moog, Kraftwerk and Raymond Scott when it comes to electronic music. Throughout the 60s, Haack produced some of the earliest pieces of music in the genre, and despite not having a tech background, built many of his own synthesizers—including one that made noise by running a current through human bodies. According to the always authoritative Wikipedia, he was doing Mescaline with Native Americans when he was eight years old. That's awesome. [YouTube via Makezine]

[Gieskes.nl via MAKE]

Drums:

Drum Kit Shirt: Sure, you could by a real drum kit—but that can be expensive. This drum kit shirt plays seven drum sounds when you tap different areas and it will only set you back $30. [Think Geek via Link]

Drum Table: Yup...it's a table with drums built-in. The way I see it, this would be a great way to score with the ladies when everyone is drinking at a party. I mean look at this dude, he seems well on his way to a foursome. Prices range from $800 to $2,900. [Musical Furnishings via Link]

DrumPants: By dismantling a MIDI keyboard and hooking it up to his pants with a couple of piezo transducers, Tyler Freeman was able to turn his legs into playable drums. If you throw the shirt on top of this, you would basically turn your entire body into a giant kit. [Link]

Guitars:

Angel Sword Guitar: Slay your fans with rock and slay your enemies with steel. Too bad this nerd axe is a one of a kind item. [Link]

Gibson's Robotic Guitar: If you are too lazy to manually tune your guitar, this Gibson will do it for you at the push of a button. Servos tune the guitar to one of seven presets with A440 as a default and the remaining six based on hit songs. Unfortunately, this limited edition instrument will set you back well over $2000 if you manage to find one. [Gibson via Link]

Moog Paul Vo Edition: Moog, a company known for their synthesizers, have branched out to the world of guitars with the Paul Vo Edition. What makes it worth $6500 you ask? Well, it sure as hell isn't looks. However, it does claim to have "infinite sustain." Sure, you can already achieve similar effects with pedals, but the Moog product site claims that it is "like no other sustainer; infinite sustain on every string, at every fret position and at any volume. You may have heard sustain before but not with this power (we call it "Vo Power") and clarity." [Moog via Link]

Synthesizers:

Beamz: The Beamz system uses a series of six lasers that play sounds from instruments like the guitar, violin and even the cowbell when the beam is broken with your hand. If it feels like a Sharper Image gadget to you, good call. Beamz was on sale there before the company went belly up. Don't let that deter you though. You can still get your hands on one from the Beamz website for $400. Oh, and this video is the most hysterically uncomfortable thing I have watched in a long time. [Beamz via Link]

Korg DS-10: Unlike Guitar Hero, you can actually use this game to make music. Basically, Korg took their famous MS-10 synthesizer and squeezed it onto a DS. It features a four-part drum machine, six-track (analog synth x 2, drum machine x 4) /16-step sequencer, delay, chorus and flanger sound effects and the ability to exchange sounds and songs and play multiple units wirelessly. Currently available in Japan for 4,800 yen ($48). [Korg DS-10 via Link]

Piano:

Mini Grand Piano: Have you priced grand pianos lately? Yeah, we are talking tens of thousands of dollars. The good news is that this version from Segatoys will only set you back $570. The bad news is that each one of the playable keys is only 4mm wide. It may be mini, but you can still play like mozart with a stylus. [Audiocubes]

"Alternative" Instruments:

Light Up Tambourine: Okay, maybe cool instruments aren't your thing. However, that doesn't mean you can't rock out. Hey, Davy Jones got lots of chicks playing one of these back in the day. Available for $15. [LB Toys]

Air Guitar (Bonus): So you are good at Guitar Hero but you lack actual musical ability. No worries—you always have air guitar. And if you are wondering how you can get groupies doing something so lame, check out the video of air guitar champion Ochi Dainoji Yosuke doing his thing. So the lesson here is that it's not what you play but where you play it. I'll bet groupies are into anyone performing on a stage. Available for around $4. [stuff4me]

[Image via CNET.au]

The Tenori-On is a synthesizer on a 16x16 grid that caters to the novice as easily as the expert. Every button on the grid represents a note. Chords are created by hitting multiple notes in one line, and full pieces are made by placing notes on several lines, which play left to right in sequential order. In addition, each button represents a different sound or instrument, for a total of 256 different built-in noises. Furthermore, samples can be loaded on the unit to make unique creations, and there are several other customization options. The Tenori-On records up to 16 tracks, and files are saved in a format which can be loaded on other Tenori-Ons or edited with MIDI software.

Artists at the event told us that the visual aspects of the device are just important as the musical aspects. Some said they attempt to make songs in a traditional sense, but others were more content to base their sounds on designs and shapes. The Tenori-On can work as a completely visual instrument.

It will retail for $1200 when it goes on sale May 1. Good luck getting your hands on one, because production is extremely limited; Yamaha is testing the US market and only plans on a 1000 piece run for the entire year, available only through the Tenori-On website. We'll have a review unit in soon and tell you about our extended experience with the instrument then. [Tenori-On]

A built-in remix feature allows 265 variations for each pattern and song, which gives more than 65,000 possible overall patterns. Further, the sound engine uses true analog synthesis throughout and the PC board has a new RAM chip, which extends the battery life from 1.5 years to a complete decade. Impressive. Unfortunately, $750 is a little too much for us to pay for a novelty Death Star control panel, but the way synthesizers go, it's not bad at all. [Bornrich]

See Eddie Van Halen launch into his famous solo on "Jump," trying in vain to somehow transpose to this otherworldly key that is nowhere to be found. This travesty of a performance happened earlier this month (in my hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina), and the funny thing is, the crowd was delighted with it. I shutter to think that no one realized something was terribly amiss, but those hometown folks always were overly polite. [RW370, via BoingBoing] (Thanks, Joel Johnson!)

"Despite his reservations about computer recording, Eno has now decided to go further into the computer only world and sell his studio... "

Brian Eno is Selling Lots of Gear [Music Thing]

Groovy Babes [Via Music Thing]

Softcore synth pr0n from Eurythmics [Music Thing]