Deviant Synth

Using two Wiimotes feeding a Macbook via Bluetooth, to trigger solenoid-played drums.
Jazari’s website, and a post on Engadget. (Yes, cowbell.)

Dave Wright found this at a “junk shop” in Tucson. It uses two CEM 3394 chips, plus a PAIA MIDI-CV and a few assorted circuits. It was very well-made, almost commercial quality. The maker’s identity is a total mystery.

Video:
mystery homebrew synth

The Misa digital guitar.

Great idea, and the controller is based on Linux, allowing you to mess with its operation. Mentioned on Slashdot.

(Why does it make me think of the Korg Kaoscillator? Isn’t that odd.)

—if not the decade.

Lambdoma Keyboard

Is it still being made? I can’t tell, the order form was on an AOL homepage, which has since been pulled down.

angelfire genki genki

here is an audio selection

angelfire genki genki face

dave wright

First, did you know that RCA made a vacuum tube that was usable as a phonograph pickup?

Second, Feena Electronics. They introduced an interesting DJ MIDI controller in 2006. Since then, nothing. The last post to their forum was September 21.

Finally, this guy is building a duplicate of the old Metasonix Hellfire Modulator. He’s making a chassis for it out of plain sheet metal, and he apparently mated two toaster ovens together in order to bake powder-coating onto it. DIY FTW!!!

It’s an analogue drone-box with a much vaster range of sound effects than single-box devices can usually do. Simple yet complex.

(It’s strange that this Italian company has no contact info on their site except email.)

(via Matrix)

First, the “Acid Machine”, which generates pitches with a rotating wheel and LDR.

Plus, the Synth-Fan, doing similar business with a small computer fan.

And this, whatever it is.

NYC artist Terry Dame and her “Electric Junkyard Gamelan”. Except for the contact mics, I don’t see anything electric in her shows, but this is a good example of what anyone can do with the most basic (cheap) tools.

There’s been a big stink about the British-made Eigenharp controller, with mention from Engadget, Synthtopia, the BBC, and bloggers like CDM and Matrix. It requires a Mac, however. Hope they sell some and are encouraged to port the software to Windows. Given its complexity, ~$7000 isn’t a terribly high price.

(Just remember that people nowadays routinely pay $50,000 or more for a grand piano.)

Almost forgotten in all this hype was a different controller, the Madrona Soundplane. Looks as though it’s not finished yet.

The Cool Chromaticover. You can’t really tell from these terrible product pages, but this is a standalone MIDI controller with velocity and several slightly different key arrangements available, that just happens to be made to fit over the keyboard on a Yamaha combo instrument. Unlike the Yamaha (or most other MIDI controllers) the Chromaticover appears to be really well-made, mostly metal with metal buttons.
The only dealer selling it (piens.be) is also the owner of the company making it (cool.be). Also strange is that very few people in the accordion world, or elsewhere, even know this product exists. I’ve found very few Google mentions of it.

(This was discovered by the diykeyboard group, who now have their own wiki.)

IT’S A GOURD!!

My favorite part: look at the “Related Videos’ section. It includes a mishmash of weirdness, including a promo video for “Kokopelli Rising” by “Bing Futch”, a bland New Age album. The exact opposite of what Dave Wright does with his gourd.

And now, he’s put it on eBay for sale……..

The work of mad Swedish artists Erik Nilsson and Peter Kädergård. Video here.

If you’re Jeff Stolet, you design software to take inputs from infrared sensors, convert them to algorithms and then to MIDI note data, then send it to the piano. So, he plays complex piano music—by waving his hands in the air. Here’s the result:

More about his project here.

neon lamp osc with doorbell keyboard

goes into a 6au6 via depth/drive knob with a neon as a modulator -

inductor on the plate for tone

goes into a second 6au6 via depth/drive knob and neon as modulator

inductor on the plate for tone

6AL7 magic eye on the outputs

each modulator has rate knob and ‘range’ switch – one setting being

a .015 cap across the neons – the other setting being no cap between the neons

some how this works really nicely

you know i couldn’t do it without barbour’s help!!!

dave wright

www.notbreathing.com

It was built in an East German acoustics lab, and used in soundtracks for East German movies. It predates any Moog or Buchla synth. You won’t find it mentioned in any textbooks, nor is it listed in the famous 120 Years of Electronic Music website.

Luckily Germans have preserved and restored it.

The main website is here.

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.)