//// pictures of our sound-making machines ////

[andrew]

@AlessandroBonino is right! They’re Sifam “Intellijel-style” knobs from Thonk! I bought them for a massive DIY project that seems like it’ll be on hold for the foreseeable future, and I figured it would be fun to ditch the blue to match the color-scheme a little better.

I think that Sifam knobs ARE actually the Mannequins knobs, so if you wanted, you could get even closer resemblance than I did.

the FM knob on sisters - ‘SMALL’ or ‘TALL’ ?

https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/intellijel-black-knobs/

[alanza]

they’re definitely not tall.

[squim]

[T.Jervell]

Nice setup! And a Chimera bC9! I’ve been lusting one for years…

[yoyosandshoes]

I picked up this glorious looking instrument last week. I’m learning to love it and think the lower end has some warmth and I think I’ll make some loops to start with and probably play them slower and lower again. Does anyone know about these chord organs? It’s electric and had a loud fan noise from the back. I assume it is blowing air through some reeds or something?

[Starthief]

Yes, I had one of these as a kid and took it apart to see how it worked There’s a plastic chamber with valves that let air slip past plastic reeds. They are pretty lovely and I’ve thought about picking one up again.

[yoyosandshoes]

Thanks! This one has some extra vibrations on a couple of the lower notes. It sounds like sympathetic vibrations but is probably some faulty mechanism or plastic somewhere. But it is all charm

[Cementimental]

They are fun if you take the whole keyboard assembly off so that when you turn it on it just plays every note at once continuously

[rklem]

CV controllers would be dope

Imagine a 16n version of it!

[squim]

I’ve had it for years and mostly used it for drones. Feel like I’m only starting to use it’s real potential.

[yoyosandshoes]

So can you get your hands in and “play” from there? I imagine muting areas, bending pitches etc putting other objects in there to rattle around…

[T.Jervell]

Yeah! I’m sure the possibilities to choose whitch parameter to route the CV-ins are pretty handy/cool. I’ve got a bC8 which has it’s own internal sort of sequencer, but I’m missing the abillity to sequence it externally…

[Cementimental]

kind of, the keys just lift stoppers which cover a row of holes… it’s like a giant harmonica with all the notes playing at once. The one i played with years ago (half-broken dead-spider-filled cheap one from a car boot sale) I didn’t get all that interesting results really. You can’t really bend notes at all, unless you messed with the actual reeds + pipes/chambers behind the holes somehow

my idea which i fortunately never tried was to make a small jet engine to replace the fan which powers it

[Starthief]

I don’t know if they all do this, but mine gave some nice breathy tones by just barely pressing the keys, especially when playing dense clusters.

[DoS]

my idea which i fortunately never tried was to make a small jet engine to replace the fan

That sounds like a great idea!

[philmaguire]

Is that a complete voice design of his, or a collection of ‘modules’?

[jacobino]

[LLK]

I won’t disclose how long it took me to make it.

And yes the eyes are the encoders, the nostrils are the buttons and the mouth is the screen.

It’s Nyorns Cat.

[jacobino]

Hahaha thank you for this

[LLK]

I knew I had it in me to be a UI designer too. I think this is as high as I’ll ever go though so might as well stop when I’m on top of my game.