Silly synths

Paul_C · July 2021

After a week of feeling decidedly ropey (vertigo, would not recommend) I treated myself to a couple of toys to make noise with, namely a Clip Photon Smasher and a Tubbutec Wired Heart

Photon Smasher - CLIP - Make Music with Light

Tubbutec on Twitter quotWired Heart will soon get its own nice box Prototypes arrived today wiredheart gadget electronic synth noisemusic noisesynth circuitbending ataripunkconsole dronesynth dronemusic electronics experiamental https

Any other suggestions for cheap silly synths ?

Stratavarious · July 2021

https://zynthian.org/#build-your-zynthian

https://audioordeal.co.uk/raspberry-pi-synth-a-list-of-the-coolest-diy-projects/

Paul_C · July 2021

Thanks ! I shall go and have a look

Here's album number 60 of 2021

made using the Wired Heart (and a wet cotton bud) into two Zoias.

https://sonickoalas.bandcamp.com/album/heavily-built

personalnadir · July 2021

Not tried any of these, but those Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators or tiny Korg ones might be worth looking at

there’s also those Nanoloop cartridges that turns old Gameboys into synths.

Lastly the Plinky is worth looking at. Amazing value if you don’t mind soldering. Sadly a bit of a waitlist
https://plinkysynth.com/

Paul_C · July 2021

I signed up to the Plinky waitlist the other day

I'd forgotten about the Pocket Operators so I'll have to check them out.

I might get a couple more Korg Volcas at some point too - I need to get my Volca Modular out again and run it through the Zoias

personalnadir · July 2021

I’ve heard good things about the pocket operator sampler, not sure which one that is and sampling isn’t something that has interested me this far, but might be the perfect thing to play with and see if I get the bug.

The plinky looks fantastic. Need to practice my soldering first though.

axisus · July 2021

Paul_C said:

After a week of feeling decidedly ropey (vertigo, would not recommend) I treated myself to a couple of toys to make noise with, namely a Clip Photon Smasher and a Tubbutec Wired Heart

Any other suggestions for cheap silly synths ?

er ........ what?

I don't understand this thread????

octatonic · July 2021

You can do a lot with Arduinos if you can figure out how to program them.

Paul_C · July 2021

octatonic said:

You can do a lot with Arduinos if you can figure out how to program them.

I want to try and avoid programming if at all possible, mostly because I really can't be arsed.

What I love about the Zoia is that there are a number of very clever folk making some cool patches which I can get for free, if I had to make every patch myself I would almost certainly have sold them by now.

I'd prefer to make my abstract noise than spend time trying to work out how to put together a patch

If I'm REALLY honest, the combinations of sounds from the stuff I have now should be enough to keep me busy until I've had enough of making music, but it's always fun to pick up a new toy, hence the request for suggestions for cheap things

personalnadir · July 2021

https://store.attackmagazine.com/collections/studio/products/make-your-own-synth

Only £10!

What do your existing synths sound like?

LastMantra · July 2021

axisus said:

Paul_C said:

After a week of feeling decidedly ropey (vertigo, would not recommend) I treated myself to a couple of toys to make noise with, namely a Clip Photon Smasher and a Tubbutec Wired Heart

Any other suggestions for cheap silly synths ?

er ........ what?

I don't understand this thread????

And what happens when you plug it into a banana?

Paul_C · July 2021

personalnadir said:

https://store.attackmagazine.com/collections/studio/products/make-your-own-synth

Only £10!

What do your existing synths sound like?

I might have to buy that !

Paul_C · July 2021

LastMantra said:

axisus said:

Paul_C said:

After a week of feeling decidedly ropey (vertigo, would not recommend) I treated myself to a couple of toys to make noise with, namely a Clip Photon Smasher and a Tubbutec Wired Heart

Any other suggestions for cheap silly synths ?

er ........ what?

I don't understand this thread????

And what happens when you plug it into a banana?

I haven't got any bananas at the moment, but I will report back next time I buy some (I assume anything that is reasonably conductive would work, potatoes, strawberries etc).

PolarityMan · July 2021

Wait did you say album *60^* this year?

Paul_C · July 2021

PolarityMan said:

Wait did you say album *60^* this year?

Yes

The last one, for example (#63) took around four hours from the start of recording a wav file to work from, using a Tenori-On, a Volca Sample and two Zoias.

I enjoy the whole process and once I'm started it's difficult to stop

I have a bunch of repeatable processes these days which also speeds up the creating of an album - the last one I:

1) copied a segment of the wav file, around 40s to a minute in length.

2) split the stereo track into two and panned them 80% right and left.

3) copied the LH track, raised its pitch by a minor third and then pasted the original after it, slowing it down by 50% (which lowers its pitch by an octave).

4) copied the RH track and pasted, slowing its tempo by 50% (which makes it the same length as the slowed down track but doesn't change its pitch.

5) trimmed the start of the LH track to offset the two tracks a fraction.

Having done that and saved it, I then reversed the RH track and saved it as a new piece - so the 14 track album is made of 7 pairs of tracks.

https://sonickoalas.bandcamp.com/album/utterly-meaningless

thegummy · August 2021

axisus said:

er ........ what?

I don't understand this thread????

Rather than full big keyboards that cost thousands and have dozens of knobs etc., they're more unique novelty things that generate sounds in novel ways but might not be so useful for recreating Switched on Bach.

Paul_C · August 2021

My current favourite is something I bought from the classifieds - a Korg Volca Sample - which is a huge amount of fun and great for providing interesting sounds to run through the two Zoias.

In other news I've just uploaded album #84 (794 tracks)

thegummy · August 2021

Paul_C said:

My current favourite is something I bought from the classifieds - a Korg Volca Sample - which is a huge amount of fun and great for providing interesting sounds to run through the two Zoias.

I looked that up and, man, I was absolutely loving it, especially if there's some kind of wireless audio transmitter so I could lie in bed and play with it, but is the only way to record a sample with an Apple phone?

Paul_C · August 2021

I've not tried making my own samples yet, but from what I've read it should be ok to use .wav files as long as they're

short (and small) enough.

thegummy · August 2021

Paul_C said:

I've not tried making my own samples yet, but from what I've read it should be ok to use .wav files as long as they're
short (and small) enough.

Can they be transferred via the USB port from a Windows PC?

That would still be decent I suppose but would have been much cooler if it had an audio input.

personalnadir · August 2021

I’ve got a Teenage Engineering PO-133 on the way, which has an inbuilt microphone. Would be interesting to compare them

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