[sdiy] Mechanical Synthesis

[Metrophage]

One of my first noisy projects ever was about 1994, I moved in with
some friends who had two crappy old JBL monitors. One day I found a
really long spring, so I decided to make something like mega-spring
reverb with those JBLs. How I went about it was using pliers to open
the end-tabs of the springs to the same circumference as the centers of
the speaker cones. I found some cardboard construction tubes (like for
pouring concrete), and tried to make them adjustable: I removed about 3
CM of cardboard along the length of one piece so it could slide freely
in the other. The slide did not work very well, as the tape, etc I used
to close that length of tube increased its width enough to make it
sticky. I fastened the tubes to the monitor boxes, then I patiently
stitched the ends of the springs to the speaker cones with fine, strong
thread. I put some kind of adhesive on the interfaces to keep the
thread from tearing, might have been silicone.
As a reverb, this was useless. The spring was way too stiff for any
kind of playthrough fidelity. It was an excellent percussion instrument
though! I gouged a hole in the cardboard so I gound fasten a string to
the spring. I could make various twangs by tapping on the tubes, the
speaker boxes, or pulling the string to make the spring slap around in
the case. The whole device was about three feet long, lasted me a
little more than a year. Somebody gave me a PDS-8000 delay pedal which
I loved to run this thing through- I miss the PDS as well.

I love electromechanical synthesis! 
I saw a great performance by Achim Wollscheid in Boston a few years
ago, which was live computer sequences firing solonoids which were
fastened to various metal objects on the walls and in the ceiling.
Interesting rhythms, great timbre and diffusion. 

I love gamelan and gongs- metal percussion is one of original
inspirations towards making music! How I got into synthesizers was that
I am too clumsy as of yet to be a good drummer, and the alloys were too
loud in practice, so I figured I could still do inharmonic, sustainable
drums with electronics- and use headphones! This resulted in less
citations from the police, etc. (even if zoning expressly permits
certain sound levels, often people complain anyway). It has taken years
for me to get this together.

One of my very favorite CDs is Matthew Heckert's "Mechanical Sound
Orchestra", which is a recording of live performances on instruments
which are machines built for music. Ringing steel plates, metal disks
on swinging steel cables, rotors, resonating chambers made of old oil
tanks and even entire rooms and silos. Quite rich and expansive sounds.
I recommend looking this up online to see some pics and read about in
detail.

Kind of a formidable task, but I'd love to make a synth module out of a
Hammond tone-wheel assembly! Probably be a long time before I do though


	
		
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