http://nicksworldofsynthesizers.com/
He even made a gigantic polysynth with just intonation and a deviant keyboard:
And he also made this…..thing:
DIYers, the gauntlet is down……
No one on earth makes more crazy synths…..
…than Dave Wright.
If there was ever someone deserving of the title “evil genius of electronic music”,
Dave wins the big shiny trophy. Most of his DIY stuff is made out of literal junk.
circuitbent megadrive 1
reading the post about video synthesis i felt i had a good an excuseas any to post some pics and screnshots ofthe megadrive ivejust finished….
also can any1tell me how to put a pitch bend onto a casio tone mt 68 iv found pplaces where pitch can be alteredbut none 2 a great enuff effect
A new thingie for the hard of hearing
This thingie i made is called a MinceFinkx. Â the meter tells you how screwed up you are that you bought this as you use it. Â Why did i make it? Â because, grandpa needed to hear me talk to him as he is hard of hearing. Â but first, i had to probe his brain with direct screeches and train wrecks.
to hear this thingie, the MinceFinkx, go hear:Â http://www.buzz-r-electronics.com/Exotic%20Electronics_files/mccain.mp3
to see more thingies, go hear:  www.buzz-r-electronics.com  ta da?
why doesn’t anyone talk about video synthesis?
There’s at least one inexpensive kit for experimenting:
Critter and Guitari Cellular Automata Synth
And people do stuff like this:
There is life in Australian electronic music, after all.
Angelo Fraietta offers some CV-MIDI-CV conversion modules for sale.
They are reprogrammable, and can even operate wirelessly via Bluetooth. Excellent!
And what really gets me is this line:
“This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body” … You’ll never see the US government supporting work like this.
The Riday controller
Riday T-91
Also appeared 2 years ago on CDM and Matrix…..
Anyone know more?
Eric Archer is a cool guy!
I dont think Matrix nor MusicThing has mentioned him.
He is not a typical circuitbender, his devices look like little works of art in soldering.
Flickr group with photos of his gadgets here.
The “Thummer” is a legitimate controller design.
Although I need to note that Jim Plamondon, the inventor and promoter thereof, hasn’t had much luck finding investors willing to bankroll mass production. And it is a shame. A simple version of it would not be very costly to manufacture.
He has been very, very aggressive about promoting his idea. For example: Valleywag, Wall Street Journal, Wired, Engadget, Coolest-Gadgets, and a TV station in Austin TX.
Didn’t anyone tell Mr. Plamondon, a former Microsoft marketing dude, how difficult it is to sell a new kind of musical instrument to musicians? If I were offering advice, I’d tell him to start small. Manufacture a boutique version, get some user feedback. Build the business up slowly, because, trust me, it is the only way.
This IS NOT a mass market. It IS NOT like selling a videogame gadget. Musicians are conservative and spend irrational amounts of time practicing on their existing instruments. Popularizing a new instrument is like invading Russia. Look at Adolphe Sax — he battled other instrument makers in court over patents, and his saxophone did not become popular until well after his death.
Judging from the Wall Street Journal article, which ran six months ago, this is probably a dead issue by now:
“Taking stock of his savings, he says he has about six months left before he’ll have to find a full-time job. At that point the Thummer will be relegated to an evenings-and-weekends enterprise, he says, “and that’s the death of a start-up.””
How NOT to sell your obscure self-released industrial CD.
Matrix ran a link today to this Denver outfit, called Revolution State.
Right there, on the front page, frontman Ben Pebley runs his Livejournal. In which he:
(1) complains that he can’t figure out how Trent Reznor manages to give away his music for free.
Sorry, Ben, with all due respect, you’re doing this incorrectly.
I’ve never heard of you. And since the mp3 samples on your “discog” section are broken links, I still have no idea what your work sounds like. Without some reference, I’m not inclined to drop $10 on your CD. Just trumpeting your love of Einsturzende Neubauten and Coil won’t quite do the job. You still have to get people to notice you. Living in Denver won’t help either–have you toured on the East or West Coasts lately?
Perhaps the “provegan animal liberation revolution” needs some work.
(Message to Dave Lovelace: read their Livejournal and tell me what you think.)
Tomomin…….synth modules in Tupperware.
Adachi Tomomi’s website
A Tomomin in action
Circuit bending is not earthshaking, but on his website he also shows:
why a different keyboard design?
It is funny to see people criticize alternative MIDI keyboards. At least they are meant to be easier to play.
I can prove that the piano keyboard was a bad idea, its easy. See this?
It’s a finger stretcher for pianists. I don’t think there’s a similar torture device for other instruments.
Supposedly Robert Schumann ended his playing career with one of these by injuring his right hand.
Face it, the traditional piano keyboard is a BAD DESIGN. Its great that some companies are taking a chance and offering a better design.
Tapdrum — a DIY kit
http://www.tapdrum.com/
It’s been around for several years. There is an AOL homepage from 1999.
The guy who runs this is named Urip Wisnuardi, I think he’s Indonesian. He also sells OEM GPS modules.
A Tapdrum board accepts up to 8 analog inputs from piezo sensors (or whatever–you could feed audio into it if desired), from which it generates MIDI note and velocity data. More than one Tapdrum circuit can be daisychained together to obtain more than 8 inputs….video here.
Anyone built this? Share your experiences.
The Tonal Plexus IS shipping….
I just heard from Aaron Hunt, the head of H-PI Instruments. He says that their Tonal Plexus MIDI controller has been shipping since last October, in the 2-octave and 4-octave form.
$1292 is really not much to pay for a PROGRAMMABLE microtonal keyboard that can do ANY scale, with 422 keys (!). In fact, that’s a steal.
Think about it–the next instrument up that can do this, the Haken, costs THREE TIMES as much as the Tonal Plexus. Not sure if the C-Thru can do programmable scales.
Plus, microtonality makes it more flexible than the other alternate keyboards, which H-Pi lists here.
(No idea the Terpstra cost $10,000. Still no idea if they shipped any.)
I am very tempted to get a 2-octave Tonal Plexus. No, this is not an advertisement. It would be interesting to see if it can give full effect with popular MIDI-CV converters like the Kenton.
Aaron’s site also has a section on microtonal keyboards of the past. READ IT.
This is cute. The “Kromatron”.
Of course it’s for Ableton. How stupid of me to ask.
If it has MIDI out, it SHOULD be usable with hardware too.
Here’s video of the creator at last year’s Maker Faire.
(Are you gentlemen going to manufacture this or not?)
AXiS-64 review
I’m jfm3, a Software Engineer with a fascination for alternative controllers. This is a review of the AXiS-64 MIDI controller from C-Thru-Music. I’ll assume you’ve read the literature on the c-thru-music.com web site about the AXiS-64, and skip a lot of basic description. Continue reading
The Ohm
Apparently is now shipping–announced last year: The Livid Ohm Controller
Pretty! Sexy too! Unfortunately I can’t tell if it can be programmed to put out MIDI note-on and note-off from the keys. It is oriented toward DJs who use software, specifically Livid’s, which is included, in which case an $899 price is a screaming bargain. (Don’t ask about Linux usability.) They also have another key-to-MIDI board for DIYing, which is “shipping soon”:
What makes me sad: when CDM ran an article about the Ohm last year, their comments section filled up with sleazy trolling. Scroll down to read it. Little shits. It’s a miracle that Livid manufactured this controller, most software-oriented companies can’t be bothered to make hardware. No wonder there aren’t more alternate controllers available…..put one out, stand back and watch as faceless bastards attack you in comment areas.
Still looking for an alternate MIDI controller
Forgot to check Doepfer. It’s great that Dieter is doing something different, and for that I salute him and encourage him.
The CTM64 is not only available now, you can even buy the separate parts and piece them together as needed. It handles up to 64 button inputs.
If you want to make an alternate controller, this looks to be the least costly way. The CTM64 main board is $135 from Analogue Haven. The 8×8 square matrix button board is 125 euros direct, ask Analogue Haven if they have them. You can always create your own. I’m thinking of getting a CTM64 and designing a PC board for a keyboard with a staggered key arrangement, using these tact switches. Caps are available for them—in 6 colors.
Now, if only Dieter would put out that touchplate keyboard he keeps showing……
crackionet
http://www.notbreathing.com/thecrackinet.mp3 – audio sample (work friendly)
combo cracklebox with the analog peasent’s idea of using electret mic
played like an ocarina – right hand holds and plays mute pushbutton
right hand holds unit and plays the contacts
sing/blow into microphone
made with a few trash spare pcbs and some standoffs
so its like some kind of wind instrument my ass
Betcha never heard of this MIDI controller.
The Opal controller
By reading this guy’s site, one gets the feeling that he was the original designer of the C-Thru controller. And it looks as if he and C-Thru had a falling-out. So now he’s making his own version. It appears to be the same key layout as the C-Thru. No prices are mentioned. (Not likely to be a bargain.)
I only found out about this because an Opal owner put his hamster in a plastic ball and let the little bugger roll around on his Opal controller. And put it on Youtube. (I really do wish the “Web 2.0 Revolution” would allow us to tag Youtube videos for stupidity.)