Tag Archives: synthesizer

Modder Builds a Furby Synthesizer Module and It’s as Disturbing as You Might Imagine

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Look Mum No Computer (aka Sam Battle) clearly has some sort of strange obsession with making musical Furbys. You may recall his previously posted electronic organ created using 44 singing Furbys. I think we can all agree that is entirely too many Furbys in the same place at the same time. Well, now the mad musical scientist is back, this time adding a Furby module to a synthesizer board that can be played using the synth’s voltage input. What does it sound like? A nightmare isn’t far from accurate.

Subject 44B, as Sam likes to refer to the Furby Module, is controlled by a variety of switches located on the synth board to its immediate right, including a glitch switch, loop switch, one that makes the Furby respond to a belly rub, one that responds to feeding, and one that makes it think it’s been turned upside-down, all of which have control voltage inputs, leading to an absolute cacophony of sound.

What’s next on Sam’s list of Furby-related projects? Only time will tell, but if it involves artificial intelligence, you can rest assured it will herald the Furby apocalypse and the beginning of the end of humanity as we know it. Obviously, if that does happen, I will have a small amount of regret for ever contributing to Sam’s Patreon.

Roland’s new mobile mixer aims at turning your smartphone into a full-fledged recording and production studio

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The smartphone is already a capable content-creating beast… Roland just makes it better by allowing it to interface with the rest of your pro-recording and production gear.

You can’t plug your electric guitar or studio mic into your smartphone. Believe me, I’ve tried. I fancy myself a bit of a musician and I’ve always wanted to be able to record directly into my smartphone without relying on my phone’s third-grade microphone, but that isn’t possible for multiple reasons – one of them being the fact that tech companies hate putting ports on phones. That’s sort of where Roland comes in with its GO:MIXER PRO-X, a hardware interface that lets you hook multiple recording and musical instruments to your phone, turning it into the ultimate studio. Perfect for mobile-based content creation and impromptu live-streams (something that’s absolutely sparked amidst the pandemic thanks how easy TikTok has made it to be an overnight star), the Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X is a handy, pocket-sized portable mixer that lets you connect your phone to practically every music/performance instrument around you.

Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X Portable Smartphone Recording Studio

Designed to be compatible with iOS as well as Android smartphones, the GO:MIXER PRO-X is a nifty piece of hardware for musicians, performers, presenters, and even podcasters. Just plug it to your smartphone and you suddenly have an entire variety of ports and knobs for all your recording gear. The GO:MIXER PRO-X connects to your smartphone via its USB-C or Lightning-connector interface and supplies power to it too, keeping your phone juiced during your recording/performance. It has dedicated inputs for microphones, guitars, synths, bass, and even drums, while knobs on the top let you control their gain, balancing the audio to your liking.

Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X Portable Smartphone Recording Studio

If you cringe at the idea of having to host a proper professional livestream with AirPods in your ears, the GO:MIXER PRO-X brings back the familiar 3.5mm headphone line-in, allowing you to connect monitoring headphones in to listen to the audio feed going into your phone. You can use it solo, controlling and balancing your sound, or you could switch on your phone’s camera and position yourself in front of it, giving the mixing duties to a fellow colleague or sound-engineer. Instead of needing to have expensive audio/video recording, monitoring, and studio equipment, all you need are your instruments, your smartphone, and the GO:MIXER PRO-X. It’s perfect for musicians, podcasters, radio hosts, DJs, interviewers, and even teachers who conduct online classes. After all, your smartphone’s more-than-capable hardware/software shouldn’t get kneecapped by its inability to connect to pro-grade recording equipment, right?

Designer: Roland

Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X Portable Smartphone Recording Studio

Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X Portable Smartphone Recording Studio

Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X Portable Smartphone Recording Studio

Love Hultén’s foldable synthesizer with a real tape delay and a spring reverb has us excited to create music!

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Artist Love Hultén is renowned for his new take on familiar instruments, and he is a master in this niche craft. His past creations are a testament to that fact. No wonder everyone wants to get their hands on Love’s creations – including me! His VOC-25 synthesizer is a good example, and now he the artist is back with another synthesizer all music creators will drool over. This is the MDLR-37 synthesizer made up of four sections that fold into a compact form factor for easy portability.

The hand-crafted musical instrument comprises a couple of Korg synthesizers – one is analog and the other a classy digital. To be exact, these are the Korg Minilogue and Korg microkey 37. The synth also includes a digital Synthesizer in pedal form – the Meris ENZO pedal. For effects, Love has fitted the rig with a T-Rex Replicator analog tape echo and the Doepfer A-199 spring reverb Eurorack modules. The latter has a real spring too. The large oscilloscope (most probably a magnifying glass over a small digital scope), wooden faceplates, actual tape delay, and a spring reverb make it a unique creation!

These instruments fit nicely into the foldable wooden case, which has the speakers and waveform display built-in. Though the synthesizer is foldable to stow anyway when not in use, would you actually want to do that since it’s an eye-candy piece for your studio or living room? However, the foldable function comes real handy when you’ve got to take it to the outdoors with you. Once again, Love has created a fun mod for all music composers out there – Vince Clarke will love to explore it, I’m sure!

Designer: Love Hultén

Creepy Baby Doll Theremins and Synthesizers: Rock-a-Bye Baby

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You know what your band needs? Sure, probably a practice space, a bass player, and a cool name, but who really needs those things if you don’t already have a BabyBot baby doll light theremin or electronic synthesizer? No band I’d pay money to see, that’s for sure.

You may recall the previously posted XLPC Photo Theremin that comes in the form of a doll head, but now you get a whole baby doll. And a whole doll is way cooler than just a head. Ask anybody. Well, except maybe Sid from Toy Story.

Crafted by Moonlight Armada, the dolls are available in light theremin (red) and electronic synthesizer (purple) models, and cost around $300 apiece on Etsy. That’s significantly cheaper than raising an actual child, especially if this one comes out of the box ready to rock. Plus just think of all the money you’ll save on diapers. It really is a no-brainer if you don’t think about it.

[via BoingBoing]

Poly Effects Beebo review: A versatile and complex touchscreen guitar pedal

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It’s not enough to have a pressure cooker, you need an Instant Pot that’s also a slow cooker, and a rice cooker, and a yogurt maker. Your video game console is also now a media center and live streaming platform. And if your printer doesn’t also m...

Love Hultén’s macabre little synthesizer features 25 singing dentures!

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I can practically see myself playing Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes on this!

Meet the VOC-25, a rather weird little synth from our favorite mad-scientist, Love Hultén. It sports a 25-key synth that’s directly hooked to a, well, display and control board that sports 25 plastic teeth that open to sing out the notes you play on the keyboard.

Inspired by a musical instrument originally created by Simone Giertz, the VOC-25 takes things to quite another level, with controls that let you fine-tune the synthesizer’s sound. Four mod-knobs below the teeth allow you to tweak the sound, while a circular display works as an oscillator, showing you the waveform. The surrealist synth comes with an Axoloti Core microcontroller board on the inside, that’s hooked to a 25-key keyboard. Notes that you play are sent to the controller board as MIDI signals, which are then converted to DC currents. These currents control individual solenoids inside the 25 plastic teeth, allowing them to open and close when you play a note.

The VOC-25, as experimental as it is, is quite an ingenious toy! It lets you build your own ‘choir’ by recording RAW vocal audio samples and editing them on the fly. Gives a completely different meaning to ‘backing vocals’, doesn’t it?!

Designer: Love Hultén

Novation Circuit Tracks is a worthy successor to a beloved groovebox

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Novation’s Circuit groovebox is a pretty beloved piece of entry-level music making gear. And with good reason. Its two polyphonic synth tracks and four sample-based drum tracks give it a surprising amount of flexibility for something that’s only $329...

This portable, rechargeable synth focuses on the pretty side of modular

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Normally when people talk about “modular synths”, you probably envision a giant Eurorack system with thousands of dollars worth of modules and rats nests of patch cables forming impossibly complex networks. But, over the past few years companies have...