[sdiy] Lo Fi Munchers (was) Help On Creating An Effect

[Michael Ruberto]

I know this could be done electronically without motors and blades but I'm 
sure some major essence of the sound would be lost to something weird like 
the delay of the sound changing depending on the curvature of the fan blade.
It's an interesting project though and it brings to mind the often put-off 
plan I had to make an effect box which uses a mic and several undersized, 
crappy, and broken speakers mounted in a box with a rotary switch to select 
the one firing at the mic. yes, it's true the E-peasant hasn't made this yet 
although it's within his most incredible realm of slobberingly cool lo-tech 
sound munchers. I had this thing called the Rhythm-Matic 2000 which I got 
for free someplace. It was a home organ accessory which made really stupid 
beats. one day while playing with it the speaker broke and it suddenly 
became one of the coolest bass drums sounds I have ever heard. in fact after 
sampling the sound with my hi-tech (at the time) Casio FZ1 and making some 
tunes everybody into music that I knew wanted that bass drum. I still use 
it! it's just so crunchy. but it was this event that got me thinking of my 
bad speaker box idea. I think the time has come to build it.

another really interesting thing I have employed for Lo Tech sounds is to 
use an AM radio transmitter from an abandoned drive-in theatre to broadcast 
some music or vocals and then tune it in on the crappiest little 1970s circa 
clock radio I can find. of course not tuning to the exact frequency is part 
of the charm!

~M


>From: Glen <mclilith at charter.net>
>To: harrybissell <harrybissell at prodigy.net>, K2com at aol.com
>CC: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>Subject: Re: [sdiy] Help On Creating An Effect
>Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 01:19:28 -0400
>
>At 10:37 PM 7/30/03 , harrybissell wrote:
>
> >Little computer fan an a microphone ???
>
>What about a little flat spinning disc with slots cut in it, to look like a
>fan? The idea is to have the same proportions as the real fan blade, but
>with no curvature on the "blades", such as a real fan would have. This
>should reduce a LOT of the noise, since your spinning disc won't be
>scooping up air and throwing it around like a real fan.
>
>Place a "pop screen" between this and the microphone, to further cut down
>on swirling the air into the microphone. You can also mount the "fan"
>(spoked disc) on the end of a rather longish shaft, and place the tiny
>motor farther away from the microphone that way.
>
>I would use a second pop filter between you and the spinning disc, if I
>planned to sing into the contraption. The pop filters I'm thinking of here,
>look like sheer nylon fabric stretched over a hoop, such as used in some
>major recording studios in front of expensive condenser microphones.
>
>If you experiment with such things long enough, you might even invent a
>"Leslie Microphone", for recording purposes. It would sure be a LOT smaller
>and lighter than a Leslie speaker.   :)
>
>
>later,
>Glen Berry

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