This synthesiser took me about a year to make, half of that time was spent on making it look good. It is a similar design to The Machine.
the main improvement I made to this one over the last one is that this one is a lot more reliable, I had so many problems with the other one breaking down at gigs, this one hardly ever goes wrong. another feature of this one is all the coloured lights, these let me know what switches I have switched on, this is very useful on stage when you need to change from one sound to another very quickly.
A Lovely diagram of what the knobs do
Never again!
This one has 2 ribbons so you can play 2 different notes at once but this is a skill I have not yet mastered. the ribbon controllers are wire wound variable resistors the wire is 1 tenth of a mm, very fine, it is wound onto perspex rods the resistance it about 10k.
Playing with a ribbon gives you a similar sound to a theremin, only it is a lot easier to play because you can see the notes. I much prefer the sound of a ribbon to a keyboard with portamento. The problem with portamento is that you can't time when you glide into the notes only when you glide out of them.
I play the ribbin with 2 sharpened toothbrushes, one in each hand. I find the plastic on cheap toothbrushes slides well on the metal. I have only recently mastered this technique. It is very expressive because you can use a combination of slides and keyboard style jumps.
This synth is fully modular. There is a switch to change it to internally patched. I used minature relays to do this. The internal patch is what I use on stage.
I have made an old fashioned diode ring modulator. This is a simple circuit using germanium diodes and LT44 output transformers. I much prefer the sound of this type of ring modulator over modern designs using multiplier chips. It is normally described as a passive circuit, but I have used buffer amps on the inputs. I found you get a better sound if you get the signal levels just right on the inputs.
Here is a picture of the valve distortion circuit. As I have very little space I decided to use a miniature nuvistor valve. It is a class A triode circuit which means very soft distortion and lots of 2nd harmonics because of the way it squashes the wave more on one side than the other. It also has a germanium diode rectifier. I used germanium diodes because they round off the sharp corners of the waves slightly, preventing the circuit from adding too many higher harmonics.
Please Leave a comment about this machine I will try to answer any questions. You don't have to leave your email address if you don't want to.
Name: Mike E-mail: mcoady@talktalk.net Date Posted: 22:28, 04 02 2010 Message: Hi
Why did you use a third LT44 transformer to feed the centre taps on your Ring Modulator?
Regards.
Mike.
Name: diskarga E-mail: djdiskarga@mail.com Date Posted: 20:33, 04 02 2010 Message: the most incredible aspect about your project and work is that you have actually been able to finish such a madness! beyond cool!! maximum respect
Name: Josh E-mail: tillman.randy@yahoo.com Date Posted: 15:08, 29 01 2010 Message: How much do you want for it?
Name: Syntha E-mail: geekrik@hotmail.com Date Posted: 16:52, 26 12 2009 Message: what a masterpice! your my idol! i wanna be you and have this. i myself have just finished of a circut bent Casio SA-5, but this is just awesome and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cooler. i play in two bands in norway called Pantzwater and the FredHadlemonien. do you sell any stuff? any circutsheet or something? i could really need the inspiration:) keep up with the genuiosomeness!
Name: FlametopFred E-mail: bjwarne@interchange.ubc,ca Date Posted: 22:17, 17 12 2009 Message: You are infected with the kind of madness we all crave to be infected with. Bravo!
Name: Amanda E-mail: four_quar@hotmail.com Date Posted: 22:39, 12 12 2009 Message: Hi, I love your site,the synths are very cool. I've been trying to learn how to build my own but so far all I can do involves arduino or circuit bending. Can you suggest and good books or sites to get me started?
Name: Julian E-mail: moc.liam@nnudsj Date Posted: 06:52, 10 12 2009 Message: Hey I just found your site, awesome stuff. I noticed there are some broken links and there haven't been any recent updates.
Name: fred E-mail: Date Posted: 21:09, 05 06 2009 Message: Amazing
Name: adam E-mail: Date Posted: 09:17, 09 05 2009 Message: I'd be interested to know more about how you have the harmony switches set up. I can guess what they're doing but if you could go into depth about how you have them set up, that'd be great.
also with the wires coiled around the tubes, when you remove a strip of their coating, how do they not all short out? if tthat makes sense...
Name: max E-mail: nycpntr@gmail.com Date Posted: 13:44, 15 04 2009 Message: brillainte!
Name: ed E-mail: eibriggs@hotmail.com Date Posted: 12:05, 06 04 2009 Message: Dude I'm really impressed. These are real works of art. I really like your aesthetic. If you're ever down in Brighton look up A Scandal In Bohemia, Max and the Swing Commanders, or White Tiger. You'll be well received amongst the musical community here. Well done man, keep it up.
Name: Maximus Lazarus E-mail: ucm@sundays.com Date Posted: 22:49, 29 03 2009 Message: Hello,
I can't explain it all fully, but this page gave me SO MUCH JOY. Your adventourus spirit, your very straightforward way of explaining painful lessons you've learned made me laugh loudly! And your machine is JUST SO DARN BEAUTIFUL!!!! It's like magic: all the colors and knobs - it's as if from a dream I had. My favorite samples were the filterditortion and harmonyswitch wavs. Very 80's vintage Dr Who or horror flick vibe - which I simply love to death. Great tone and texture in parts and I wonder how you created your arpeggiation. It makes me want to know more of the dirty bits on how you got those sounds. I originally came to your page as I was about to read some ancient words from 3,000 years ago (Isaiah) but needed some background noise to mask all my cat's licking and picking sounds.
One question: Is the variety in a single modern synth, say the Korg Z1 (which I have) simply a matter of endless hours of programming the roms associated with the chips so that the level of variety produced by a team of Korg developers is unassailable by a one man show like yourself, even if your beast has more modules? Or could your synth exhibit this same variety, even if the wav's don't reflect all of it?
God bless! -R PS - you can see quick and dirty sketchpad upstairs studio if you click the right pupil of the tiger at sundays.com :-)
Name: Robert E-mail: robert.erwin630@gmail.com Date Posted: 01:31, 26 03 2009 Message: Hey tremendous job. I've been looking around on this site trying to find how you built the knobs on a lot of your machines. I especially like the size of them, it seems like it would be much more satisfying to play. How are they made?
Name: Lee Mann E-mail: chipsrecords2@yahoo.co.uk Date Posted: 23:25, 11 03 2009 Message: Hey Nick! Great to see all the synths in all their full glory! Hope you're well dude. Lee
Name: Max E-mail: Plona.7@osu.edu Date Posted: 23:26, 07 03 2009 Message: Hi, My name is max and i came across your site during research for a project i am working on in my sculpture class. I think what you have done is absolutely amazing. What i have is a speaker box with numerous electronic devises in it that have been taken apart, and i pulled the switches and buttons through the top so that it can be played. I wanted to know if you know any simple mods or hacks that i could do that would not be extremely complicated. Im trying to produce interesting electronic sounds. If you could help that would be awsome. Thanks.
Name: nat E-mail: smonkey@gmail.com Date Posted: 04:47, 05 02 2009 Message: I almost never make comments.
But here, I bow before you and say, "awesomeness"
Name: SciFiArtMan E-mail: Date Posted: 21:55, 01 01 2009 Message: Oh man I LOVE this page and your amazing synth!!! I came here hoping to find a VSTi of the online interactive synth, but find all these wonderful pics of your fantastic synth creation! Absolutely wonderful!!!
Name: Kyle Weiss E-mail: killkyleweiss@gmail.com Date Posted: 01:39, 21 12 2008 Message: I don't want to be another fanboy, but really, this is the hottest Inter-mah-net DIY porn for now. I must go clean myself. And cry. Well done.
KW
Name: Samsudi E-mail: sudi76@gmail.com Date Posted: 17:37, 18 12 2008 Message: wow... this is like old mainframe computer on DOD Office :)
Name: Shannon E-mail: milkthistle_@hotmail.com Date Posted: 16:54, 17 12 2008 Message: i saw this on current tv and thought this was so friggin cool, i think you're unique and talented :)
Name: phil E-mail: a@a.a Date Posted: 10:07, 29 11 2008 Message: awesome!! i am deeply impressed :-)
Name: Rudi E-mail: stinkebeest@yahoo.co.uk Date Posted: 13:02, 20 11 2008 Message: Hey man, thanks for taking the time to answer ! and man, the answer was so simple,lol. but that does sound like a tricky ( and indeed tedious and frustrating) process. the winding on its own, but also, if you sans just a fraction too much, the wire would make contact sideways, in other words, bypassing the windings, kinda like my concern in the first place. so guess i just have to be very neat and carefull...awww, that's not my style :( hehe
thanks again!
rudi
Name: Nicks World Of Synthesizers E-mail: A@A.A Date Posted: 21:11, 19 11 2008 Message: Reply to message below
The wire is 0.1mm enameled constantan which I bought from 'The Scientific Wire Company' (east London) I used 1200 grit paper to remove a strip of enamel after it was wound. You can probably get away with 0.2mm wire without hearing steps in the pitch, 0.1mm is very frustrating to work with.
Name: Rudi E-mail: stinkebeest@yahoo.co.uk Date Posted: 18:03, 11 11 2008 Message: Wow, first of all, MAN, you've made some awesome stuff ! second, i've got a question, concerning the ribbon controller. I'm interested in making one, and have been trying with Svhs video tape, but it's flimsy. I do understand the elektronic idea behind it, and i can see those thin copper(?) strips suspendid with the springs, so far so good, but when you press those, how does it make contact ? cause you wrote the resistors are wire wound plastic tubes ? but to make contact,the wire should be bare, but a coil of bare wire wouldn't be a coil really. so, what am i missing ? i really hope to hear from you, cause i love the design, looks very sturdy.
thanks and greetings, rudi
Name: pavel E-mail: walentynski@gmail.com Date Posted: 18:31, 10 10 2008 Message: This synth sounds sick!!!! I can imagine your gigs.. Its gotta be great to play an instruments you made yourself. well inspiring
