The Folktek website features works and collaborations of Ben Houston and Arius Blaze some of which were up for sale on eBay like the Optic Nerve, Music Box,and Cataract Granulator. Very “mad scientist” looking stuff encased into vintage instrument boxes with brass hardware and radio knobs. I used to be sticker shocked by the $300-$400 price tags on some of Arius Blaze’s instruments, but now it certainly seems more plausible given the amount of work that could go into building devices like this. For the cataract series of devices the internal circuitry is still somewhat of a mystery to me. The description states pitch shifting and granular distortion and after listening to the sample I would go with a Bucket Brigade Delay circuit. Those tend to pitch shift at lower clock speeds and definitely cause distortion. Judging from other samples on the website many instruments also contain Speak and Spell guts and combinations of feedback and strings. Very fun to peruse through. Via [eBay], but also [SubtleNoiseMaker post helped to remind me]
