Last night's NYC DIY meet-up was a blast: plenty of good people, good food, good drink and, of course, good MIDI hacks. This month's theme was handmade music, and as one would expect there were some pretty fabulous homebrew instruments on display.

Especially great was Jeff Hoefs's Beat Blocks, a 4-track beat sequencer with a tangible interface operated by blocks. Basically, if you put down a block with four stripes, you get four sixteenth-note hits on that beat. It's a blast to play with, which will hopefully be communicated in some way via this video:

For more photos, click on through below. And thanks to everyone at Etsy and MAKE for helping this first DIY meet-up happen. Stay tuned for details on next month's shindig. —John Mahoney

If you live in the New York City area, come to our first meeting of the DIY minds at the Etsy Labs space in Brooklyn, Thursday, March 22 (that's tomorrow!). Phil Torrone of Make fame will be demonstrating and selling some of the Make kits, and Eric Singer, founder and director of LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots, will show of some wacky electronic musical instruments, including something called the Sonic Banana. Get more detail here. Hope to see you there!