Although it’s still possible to grab a couple of friends, guitars, and a set of drums and start making analog music like it’s 1992 and there are vacant garages everywhere yearning for the sounds of power chords, the music scene almost demands the use of a computer now. There are a lot of benefits, largely that it dramatically lowers the barrier to entry since it greatly reduces the need for expensive analog instruments. It’s possible to get by with an impressively small computer and only a handful of other components too, as [BAussems] demonstrates with this tiny digital audio workstation (DAW).

The DAW is housed inside a small wooden box and is centered around a Behringer JT-4000 which does most of the heavy lifting in this project. It’s a synthesizer designed to be as small as possible, but [BAussems] has a few other things to add to this build to round out its musical capabilities. A digital reverb effects pedal was disassembled to reduce size and added to the DAW beneath the synthesizer. At its most basic level this DAW can be used with nothing but these components and a pair of headphones, but it’s also possible to add a smartphone to act as a sequencer and a stereo as well.

For a portable on-the-go rig, this digital audio workstation checks a lot of the boxes needed including MIDI and integration with a computer. It’s excellent inspiration for anyone else who needs a setup like this but doesn’t have access, space, or funds for a more traditional laptop- or desktop-centered version. For some other small on-the-go musical instruments we recently saw a MIDI-enabled keyboard not much larger than a credit card.

Bumper stickers are usually political, crude, or otherwise inflammatory. Rather a more fun example is this digital creation from [Guy Dupont], who made a bumper sticker that broadcasts what he’s listening to on the stereo.

[Guy] found a nice wide 11-inch bar LCD that was the right aspect ratio to suit the “bumper sticker” aesthetic. It had an HDMI interface, so he decided to drive it with a Raspbery Pi Zero 2W. Power for the system was derived from 12-volt lines going to his vehicle’s rear view camera. For an enclosure, he simply stuck the Pi and a buck converter on the back of the display and heat shrinked the whole thing. He also threw some magnets in there to stick it to the car.

How does the screen know what song to display? Well, [Guy] already has his Spotify listens scrobbling to Last.fm. Thus, he just made a script that scrapes his Last.fm page, which runs on a Particle Boron microcontroller, which has a cellular connection of its own. The Boron gets the song data, and spits it over to the Pi via Bluetooth. Then the Pi generates an image for the display.

Oh, and there’s also a neat Easter Egg. In honor of brat summer, the background changes to #8ACE00 green if the system detects you’re listening to Charli XCX. Neat.

It’s a neat build with a lot of moving parts. We’re surprised we haven’t seen anything like this before though, it’s really rather fun. Also, how’s about that taste of the old Internet—when was the last time you heard somebody mention scrobbling? Gosh, we’re getting old.

We’ve featured some of [Guy’s] works before, too, like the amusing Mailblocks project. Video after the break.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when magnetic tape was the primary way of listening to and recording audio. Most of us are familiar with the cassette tape, a four-track system that plays first one side of the tape, then the other. There was the eight-track tape as well which did not have quite as much popularity or longevity but did have a few interesting features that [Serial Hobbyism] took advantage of to make an interactive game.

The defining feature of the eight-track system, beyond the obvious eight tracks on the tape, is that the tape runs in a continuous loop, never needing to be stopped or flipped over. Instead, four buttons select pairs of the eight tracks, moving a head immediately to make the switch on-the-fly. [Serial Hobbyism]’s game plays a trivia-style audio recording and asks the player to answer questions by pushing one of the four “program” buttons to switch tracks. If the correct track is selected, the recorded audio congratulates the player and then continues on with the game. Likewise, if an incorrect track is selected, the recording notes that and the game continues.

Another interesting feature of this game is that it can be played without modifying an eight-track player, as the selectable tracks are a core function of this technology. They can be used in a similar way as cassette tapes to store computer data and a data recorder similar to the eight-track system was used on the Voyager space probes, although these only bear a passing resemblance.

The Macintosh Plus is not exactly known as particularly relevant in the worlds of chiptune or electronic music more broadly. That’s not to say it can’t do anything that sounds cool, however. As [Action Retro] demonstrates,  it’s got some really impressive tricks up its sleeve if you know what you’re doing.

The video centers around “Music Mouse”, a piece of software created by Laurie Spiegel for the Macintosh Plus all the way back in 1986. Spiegel saw the Macintosh Plus as a potential instrument for musical expression, with the then-innovative mouse as the key human interface.

[Action Retro] shows off the software, which is able to create rather pleasing little melodies with little more than a swish and a swash across the mousepad. The software makes smart use of scales so you’re not forever dodging around dissonant notes, so it’s quite easy to play something beautiful. He then makes things more interesting by pairing the Macintosh Plus with his favorite guitar pedal—the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Sunlight. It’s a dynamic reverb that really opens up the sonic landscape when paired with the Mac Plus. If you’re looking for a weird avant-garde setup to take on stage at your next noise show, this has to be it.

We’re usually used to seeing Nintendo and Commodore products in the retro computer music space. The Mac makes a nice change. Video after the break.