I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people wanting to add a PB filter to their own projects, so I’m now offering the Plague Bearer Barebones pack. Kit as shown in the above picture: $35.00 + S&H, alterations are welcome.
~flight
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Steve Lovelace finished his DIY electronic drumset!
Already discussed on Matrix, he went for the Van Halen thing.
Damn that Krylon Fusion paint!
Loud Objects’ Noise Toy
The Noise Toy is one of the simplest electronic kits I’ve ever seen. It’s an AVR microprocessor on a tiny board–apparently the smallest AVR available. You program it with software to make noises. This requires an AVR programmer and some knowledge of embedded-system programming (although the programming SW they recommend makes it fairly easy).
One thing I don’t get: what’s with the giant power switch?
Vacuum Tube/Neon Lamp Preamp
While not specifically synth related, this features a neon lamp multivibrator, ostensibly for the purposes of creating a suboctave signal to mix in with the straight signal. In this device, it more or less just creates a different type of distortion, albeit a cool one.
The housing is from a fried computer power supply.
Youtube clips to follow shortly:
Ken Rushton is so determined to make an isomorphic keyboard….
…that he’s making silicone rubber molds, and casting new keys himself. He gets an A for sheer determination.
You could do him a favor, and offer to support his project.
The project Google Group is here.
Just pointing out this clever DIYer.
SDIY.org user “Pinky”
I’d call him a serious DIYer.
And for interest: he also runs a Yahoo group for tube synth DIYers. It has a considerable library of old schematics from various pre-1965 textbooks and articles.
Analogic ACS
The ANS – a forgotten pioneering Russian synthesizer.
Theremin was not the only Russian to pioneer electronic music equipment.
There was Evgeny Murzin’s ANS, a giant synthesizer that used photocells to read scratches from rotating glass disks to make music. Somewhat like the Optigan organ, but far more complex. And dating from 1937.
Read about it here, here and here. Yes, Matrix ran it.
Coil used ANS sounds on an album in 2004.
What about the “Mawzer” project?
A French project to create a completely reconfigurable, open MIDI controller.
Sadly, there have been almost no new posts on their forums (which are mostly in English) since 2007.
Someone mentioned American distribution:
http://www.mawzer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14
Yet there’s nothing on Analogue Haven’s site about the Mawzer.
Did it fail?
Alpha-Machine plus ringmodulator
here is an advanced Cacophonator and a Chaoscillator inside, plus a ringmodulator.
info and sounds at:
SubtleNoiseMaker
and
MySpace
cheers,
Sacha
Vacuum Tube Ring Modulator
This is, of course, based on Eric Barbour’s designs, with a few twists.
I built a separate sine/square wave oscillator and have put an input jack on the front of the ring mod for input of any carrier signal.
Basically, the first jack is the straight signal input. It feeds a 6ej7 pentode, then the volume pot below the jack, then pin 6 of the sheet beam tube.
The second jack is the carrier input, which feeds 1/2 of a 12ax7, a volume pot, the second 1/2 12ax7, then the beam deflection pins.
The top switch takes the straight input and switches it to the carrier circuit, cutting off the carrier input. This creates some weird and useful sounds, especially in conjunction with the bottom switch, toggles the value of the 12ax7’s first cathode resistor bypass cap between 10 uf and .01uf.
The third pot is screen voltage control for the sheet beam tube and the last jack and pot are output.
The Parker Steam Synthesizer is finished (and works!)
Lorin Parker’s steam synthesizer was posted earlier, but the information linked was at least 2 years old…
The steam synthesizer has been fully operational for more than a year!!
It generates electronic sound through a modified dynamo, and, well, hisses and clacks like a steam engine.. . No electricity is used to generate an electronic signal. Only fire, heat, steam and metal!
New video, audio and info about the Parker Steam Synthesizer can be found here: http://www.electricwestern.com/stynth.html
Furthermore, Lorin Parker has recently started Electric Western, a DIY oriented site for the dissemination of deviant and expressive electronic instruments. Many other instruments are showing up there as the site grows, and Electric Western will be providing unique kits and instruments in the near future.
Interested in unusual MIDI controllers?
Controllerism needs your support. It’s obvious they haven’t been updated in a couple of years.
Not only that, I’d never heard of Phidgets before–until seeing their link on Controllerism. Excellent idea.
If you build your own synth modules, you MUST join this Yahoo group.
Members include just about all the well-known DIYers. They post FPD files for their custom modules. FPD is Front Panel Designer, the software used by Schaeffer USA to allow hobbyists to design and order their own machine-engraved aluminum panels. All you do is load the proper FPD file in the program, and then you can order finished panels directly via internet connection. Or, use the panel layouts as masters to design your own custom panels. It’s a very easy-to-use, basic CAD program.
I’ve used Front Panel Designer for prototypes and custom jobs, and the resulting panels are beautiful. They are anodized, and various anodizing colors (and colors of engraved text and graphics) are available.
Some of the panels that group members have made:
Plague Bearer v1.1*
Plague Bearer v1.1 is now available for order!
*picture is of v1.0
Yup, been busy. Here’s more/other info from our July newsletter:
Now that the madness of developing the Parasite is over, we can tell you about some new developments and upcoming offerings.
- Some of our behind-the-scenes business deals were finalized yesterday, enabling us to receive much better volume pricing on many components and services. Now we get to pass the savings on to you as well! For starters, the price of the Parasite is now just $185.00.
- A stash of the enclosures used to build both the Parasite and the Plague Bearer has been discovered! We are happy to announce a run of twenty v1.1 Plague Bearers, at $240 each. Version 1.1 has a few changes, mostly internal – PCB layout tweaks and Power Supply changes. The patch panel will be all 3.5mm jacks as well. The Parasite v1.0 run has been extended to 50.
Upcoming:
- Modular versions of the Plague Bearer, Parasite, and the Infernal Noise Machine are in development.
- The standalone version of the I.N.M and the Imp should be available soon, with custom wood enclosures, which leads us to:
- We have expanded our crony resource list to include a custom cabinetry manufacturer, and will be offering custom wood enclosures soon.
- And a few more things to be revealed in the future…
don’t call it steampunk…
Heres a shot of my modular as of about 12/07. I’ve been working on it off and on for about a year now.
The panels are brass and were etched at home using an electrolytic process.
I just moved, so progress has slowed down, but once this cabinet is stuffed I’m going to start a second ‘controller’ cabinet.
I chose brass because I can cheaply etch it at home. Panels run me about $2 ea. on average.
More pics HERE
crappy youtube vid HERE
The Parasite
I’ve got a new one up – the Parasite. A portable, single voltage-controlled Resonant Bandpass Filter (taken from the Plague Bearer), with two LFOs. I’ll have some samples up soon as well. All comments welcome!
~flight
http://www.flightofharmony.com
Who says you can’t build a steam-powered synthesizer?
Lorin Parker is trying.
(He’s also been messing with tube synthesizer circuits.)
Mike Ford gets some well-deserved attention from Retro Thing.
http://www.retrothing.com/2008/07/new-steampunk-e.html#more
Of course, they are all hyped up by the steampunk aspect. Still does not detract from Mike’s magnificent construction quality. You will NEVER see a mass-produced instrument that looks like this:
sweet petey garbage synth
here’s pretty petey – i made it in 3 days – took another day to get on the panel. panel was a used
panel i had drilled holes into in 2000 (got the panel from weird stuff/nasa) – all pots were pulled
from a dead mixer – all chips and capacitors were pulled from dead electronics pcbs laying around.
the 3372 was pulled from my chroma polaris that went bad years ago (you do the membrane upgrade,
not me). – so vco / noise/vc mixer/vcf/vca with the asm-1 lfo and ian fritz’ ad/ar circuit. the vco is rene’s 4069 VCO – the noise is gravenhorst’s PIC based digital noise – which i had in another unit that i took apart. noise enters the synth through the VCO’s pulse width input via a pushpull pot/switch (pot is pitch) – www.notbreathing.com/peteyjustdoinghisthing.mp3 – crap beats from mpc1k – midi from it to paia midi2cv8 to petey — sorry its not more deviant -b ut it is garbage. sorry the resistors and diodes were new….