Test of the THERMATRON flame controlled synthesizer by Lorin Edwin Parker from www.electricwestern.com:
The THERMATRON
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58lX3Uu9OOs
Ionized gas, chemicals, heat and applied high voltage conduct through a flame, modulating the impedance across the grid and or plate of vacuum tubes. This applies a control voltage to a Phantastron synthesizer.
by Not Breathing……ugliest old radio I ever saw.
Video here, synched with an Akai MPC.
Also of some note: the work by Snyderphonics. Their Manta USB controller looks like a winner. So buy one.
They build some damn impressive gadgets…..that do something.
And how often do you get to read about Paul Ketoff and his notorious Syn-Ket?
Not to mention its predecessor, the Fonosynth. Yet another great unsung pioneer of music synthesis.
Retrosonik is primitive and looks like it was abandoned years ago, some of the links are busted and there isn’t any information in Whois except the name James Phillips. I must say, his projects are amazing, what little we can see of them. (Although his spelling is awful.)
H-Pi has released a new, updated version of their Tuning Box. It does any arbitrary tuning setup, from Archytas Septimal to Just to Harry Partch’s 43-Tone Chromelodeon Scale to Johnston Enharmonic. You name it, if your MIDI synthesizer accepts pitch bend, this device ($299 is an amazing price) will generate the correct MIDI messages to make any alternate tuning or key reassignment desired. I’ve already ordered one for my own experimentation.
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H-Pi also had something on its website that amused me.
Remember my post about unusual MIDI controllers last March? Well……
The New York Times ran a strangely familiar article four months later…..
His new pitch-CV processor and synthesizer was intended for processing the output of a banjo pickup with separate outputs for each string. Based on a Harry Bissell pitch-CV processor. The quality of the Peasant’s construction will embarrass most DIYers. (Not to mention his homebrew modular synth.) If you like to read about alternate controllers, here is a perfect example. How many other banjo players do you know of who build their own synthesizers?
And not only that, he has a lady friend, who is learning to DIY music electronics.
Clever fellow made a controller with no keys, strings, or gizmos to trigger. You play it by tilting, rubbing, squeezing, shaking, etc……
Wired magazine article here, Gearwire video here, his website is here. Hope he manages to get it manufactured in some form.
A synth made of neon lamps, from Not Breathing.
Videos of the Blinky in action: 1, 2
Quote from the maker:
5 neons in a ring counter type set up with a pot and cap value change for each stage,
a multivibrator modulator w/ 2 neons - rate pot, shape pot - range switch, switch o/off to ring counter.
different one w/out shape pot or range switch - depth pot - switch to power it from b+ or the previous multivibrator and switch on/off to the ring counter.
a third single neon osc as modulator w/ just rate pot, switch from b+ or previous modulator, on/off to ring counter
subosc divider, i grabbed from your vco circuit i believe, w/ a range switch,
and a 12 stage passive low pass filter (the magic part)
A great British DIY circuit-bender. A few of his gadgets have been mentioned on Matrix before, but I just want to direct you to his YouTube page. He doesn’t seem to have a regular web page. Unlike most other circuit-benders, Paul takes great care to make his gadgets look good, as well as sound interesting.
From the YouTube video:
“6 oscs(cmos), 4 ring mods(cmos), passive vca(diodes), passive vcf(vactrol), decay generator, additional passive low pass filter (via rotary), 2 watt amp - some knobs n crap - a lunetta? the vca modulation is skankulation - i have a lil fet s&h between the 6th osc and the vca - no buffer not so good”
I quote the creator:
“ken stone power supply board - caps/regulator/heatsinks/diodes from gutted wersi organ.
ray wilson’s 1v/oct single bus pcb. the keyboard is from a gutted lowrey wandering genie keyboard.
i recycled most of the capacitors in the unit from the genie and a dead tr606
(the rotary switches from 606 and a dead scope)
inside five small protoboards w/ 2 VCOs based on thomas henry’s 3080 vcos
(w/ matched transistor pair/tempco/polystrene caps).
white noise source (based on henry’s PNP noise source) through a Lm386 amp.
passive ring modulator using BAT56 schottky diodes - through their own lm386 amp.
VCF is a CEM 3328 from a dead mirage keyboard following jeff pointus/scott stites schematic - thomas henry 3080 VCA - a 555 based ADSR, two asm-1 lfos.
whew.
each CV section has it’s own modulation matrix rotary switch w/ choice
of lfo 1 tri, lfo 1 squ, lfo2 tri/squ, adsr, noise, gate, vco cross modulation
i didn’t buy anything for this unit.
i used some pretty crappy pots - but used good ones where it counts -
even the wire was from an old medical device
this is my depression era thrifter
the unit has linear FMs to the vcos and voltage controled Q
that are not even available on the front panel 
i also built another lag in the unit - but didn’t need it…
someone can circuit bend it when i’m dead….
used decal paper for the first time to do the panel -
wood was dumpster wood
assembly of a mad man…”
But smarter than most mad men……and not afraid to part out crummy old combo organs. 
Yet another Flickr gallery of pics of a homebrew synthesizer. No idea what it was or if he even finished it. The PC board looks like a kit but I don’t recognize it.
A Swedish DJ who is building a modular synth–apparently.
And here’s a really good photoset from the AHBA synth meeting last September. I don’t think Matrix ran this one.
Finally. Manmachine is a great comic. And features a “homebrew analog synthesizer”. Which the robot-oid protagonist apparently blows up after connecting power. (Scroll to the right using your mouse.) The creator ought to be encouraged to make more.
First, in 2007 Matrix covered Greg Danner’s restoration of the notorious Sal-Mar Construction, an obscenely complex synthesizer from 1969 controlled by digital logic sequencers. What you didn’t know: Greg has a Flickr account full of photos of the restored Sal-Mar.
Also in 1969, Joel Chadabe had Moog build a modular synth along roughly similar lines–no keyboard, lots of sequencers. The innards of the CEMS are documented here.
