News: Make music with candy

This creation is an intuitive engineering masterpiece. In the video titled "I Eat Beats", creator Kyle McDonald can literally consume his music. Halfway through the video, this wild demonstration really heats up. He loops together three different people's improvisations to create an addictive and dynamic song.

"But, I don't like Skittles," you say. "Do Raisinets work? Snocaps? Grapes?" No, no, and no. This magic requires many colors of the rainbow to make music. The webcam interprets the candy's position and color, activating a MIDI response or sound. So, unless you prefer to hear only snare drum, a colored candy is necessary.

THE INSPIRATION:

This creation is an intuitive engineering masterpiece. In the video titled "I Eat Beats", creator Kyle McDonald can literally consume his music. Halfway through the video, this wild demonstration really heats up. He loops together three different people's improvisations to create an addictive and dynamic song.

"But, I don't like Skittles," you say. "Do Raisinets work? Snocaps? Grapes?" No, no, and no. This magic requires many colors of the rainbow to make music. The webcam interprets the candy's position and color, activating a MIDI response or sound. So, unless you prefer to hear only snare drum, a colored candy is necessary.

THE INSPIRATION:

This contraption is a physical step sequencer. It employs the same science seen in commercially made sequencers found in clubs, classrooms and electronics stores. The innovation is in the intuitive design. This video's elaborate dissection of the candy sequencer in action is the work of Hannes Hesse, Andrew McDiarmid and Rosie Han. The three conceived and constructed the sequencer while graduate students at Berkeley's School of Information in 2007.

Thanks to Alex at Neatorama for the tip!

THE HOWTO: