In Today's Computer Age,

of generated pictures and sound,

I would not have thought that a new musical instrument would be needed or invented, but then I had not heard of the Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, that led to Jonathan Sparks inventing the Nomis pictured above and below,

 in case you do not know loop based music is a powerful way for an individual musician to create a complex, multi-voiced composition by looping and layering melodies in real time, the devices that make it possible to achieve this are powerful, but often lack the expressiveness and clarity that make for compelling live performances, Nomis is an attempt to get that looping capability up off of the floor, out from behind the laptop, and feature it in an instructive and stimulating way,

or how about the the O-Bow which produces a sound by running a regular violin bow over an electronic interface that acts as a violin string, to produce a pitch, the instrument uses a synthesiser that creates an electronic violin sound when pressed simultaneously with the bowing,

OK I give up! as there was no description for this one, but for any would be musical instrument inventors out there here is the details of the 2015 competition the entry of which has unfortunately has passed, but keep it in your diary for next year, the competition has been running yearly for 6 years.