Mike Ford the creator of beautiful metal sound sculptures has recently setup a dedicated youTube account and uploaded some videos of the new devices hot off the workbench.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO9Si7JqniM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0y8EfSsHOY[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRbtvd6MFUI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tQ90voPC6A[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcrVbOgmG9M[/youtube]
Mike was also kind enough to answer a few questions about his devices.
CM: How did you manage to make the APC do what appears to be fairly set note intervals? Did you mod the circuit at all?
Mike Ford: I had tried the 556 schematic to no avail and had to go with a dual 555 set up. The circuit has been modded to include two rotary switches with various caps, sorta a range setting, I suppose. The other mods are two photocells that act as Pitch and interval. I plan on adding the Vox repeat percussion circuit in the future.
CM:The Nemo beat box is fucking rad! Are you getting those extra sounds through some feedback circuitry?
MF: NEMO is a bent 1980s Realistic/Radioshack beatbox. I kinda love those old drum machine sounds and hope to get a National Panasonic or Univox to mangle (circuitbend) soon! There were some trimmer caps on the board I wired some pots to gain control over the oscillators that were set from the factory.
CM: How are you managing to keep contact capacitance from influencing the circuits with all that metal?
MF: Oops. didn’t consider that!
CM: Lastly, have you ever built a really nice case only to realize that it was not worthy of the sound generator?
MF: Sure. I usually work out the ideas in parallel. Or, that is to say, sometimes things will develop simultaneously. Sometimes stuff sits around collecting dust till the inspiration comes or I am driven to finish something and get on with another project. I think I am about to turn a corner and start to actually perform with the works. After all, my intent was to build stuff I would want to use in a performance setting.
CM: Thanks Mike, we’re looking forward to new and exciting performances as well as devices.