Steim Needs Your Help!

via Tom of Music Thing

"Steim - the Dutch folks who make the Cracklebox and lots more besides - need folks to send emails to the Dutch government, to prove that making electronic music isn't just of interest to a 'niche audience'"

via STEIM:
"Things are not well at STEIM. We are in the danger of losing our structural funding from the government, based on a review from the advisor board which called us 'closed and only appealing to a niche audience'. The outlook isn't exactly bleak, but at the moment our future is unclear."

Click here to help. I did. There is an electronic form you can fill out if you do not have time to actually mail a letter. It took me 5 minutes. Here's what I wrote if it helps:

"Hi, I run http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/. My site and my reader base consists of musicians, technology professionals, artists and more. Since I started the site in 2005 I have had over four million page views. I receive over 10,000 page views a day. These are actual people, not web bots. I have featured numerous posts on the Cracklebox and DIY projects. My reader base and myself value what Stein offers to the community. Many professional developers and electrical engineers are greatly influenced by the DIY community. In a sense it is where interest and careers are built in exploring various technologies and techniques. STEIM nourishes this either directly via the projects they work on or indirectly via the exposure of their projects on sites similar to mine. Young potential engineers may take their first steps after finding interest in what groups like STEIM have to offer. It has come to my attention that STEIM is in danger of losing their structural funding. Please do not let this happen."

Thanks to Tom of Music Thing for the heads up.

CrackleBook by WorthEkik

via Sendling where you can find one more shot and some links. CrackleBook version of the CrackleBox.


WorthEkik - CrackleBook. more info: link
YouTube via worthekik.

ACKLEBOX ANALOG CONTACT NOISE SYNTH

via this auction.
"Simply touch the the metal contacts to make all kinds of chaotic sounds.
User must touch at least two contacts to produce the sounds.
Listen to a sample here.
Check out my other auctions here."

Michel Waisvisz - Touch Sound

Title link takes you to a fascinating post on Michel Waisvisz on We Make Money Not Art. Michel invented the crackle box.

"One of the co-founders of STEIM which co-hosted the MMW, Waisvisz is a composer/performer of live electronic music, who has invented new ways to achieve physical touch with electronic music instruments, for example by literally touching the electricity inside the instruments.

He discussed his fascination for the VC3, a synthetiser that can be used without a keyboard, adding that the idea of the keyboard comes from church music and thus carries a series of connotations with it. He bought a Putney VC3 synthesiser, opened its back and put his fingers inside. He thus used the body to extend the circuitry and modified the sound in ways he found interesting." This led to the invention of the crackle box.

Warning: Do not try this at home kiddies. I'd be a bit too paranoid of getting shocked myself.

via F-mass london

Upated DIY Kraakdoos / Crackle Box Schematic

Title link takes you there.

"UPDATE I have realized that the schematic i originally published here had some errors in it due to misinterpretation of the original i used. While the old version sounds fun too, this is closer to the original. Luckily it is easily fixed if you want to try. Here is the old schematic with changes in green"

Heart Shaped Crackle Box

flickr by Rob Cruickshank.

Title link takes you to more. via Robert in the comments of this post.

"I made my girlfriend one for valentine's day- it's awesome to have the sort of girlfriend who goes "ooh- is it a cracklebox?!" when you give her a box of wires on valentine's."

Lucky guy...

DIY Kraakdoos / Crackle Box

I've mentioned the Crackle Box before, but I just realized I never put up a post exclusively on it and the home page for it. Title link takes you there.
"The Kraakdoos, or Crackle Box, was designed by Michel Waisvisz of STEIM in the seventies, the main concept being that the human body becomes a vital part of the electronics (or the other way around) while playing it. It is a touch and pressure sensitive device that squeeks and makes a lot of noise when played with."

There are samples on site.

synthi.se - johan boberg : electronic music

Title link takes you to Johan Boberg's (JB) website where you will find a number of resources for the Oberheim Xpander, Kraakdos or Crackle Box, EMS Synthi, Buchla (to come), and Modular Synthesizers. JB also provided the Buchla 200e sample in the previous post.

Crackle Box on Sendling

Title link takes you to some nice Crackle Box shots on Sendling. This one reminds of the Peruvian made Zebranologic.

The Music Thing Office

Title link takes you to a shot where you can mouse over each instrument. He even has a crackle box in there. Nice. : )

Via Music Thing.

Oberheim Xpander Site

Title link takes you to a nice Oberheim Xpander site. Make sure to check the "Xpander inside" link to see the differences between the US and Japanese(?) versions. Also check out the KRAAKDOOS (Crackle Box) and the Orange page. ;) BTW, if you have an Xpander and are wondering what version you have but you do not want to open the box, the US version has its lettering over the jacks in the back while the Japanese version has it below. Or... Aeonian on AH posted that his has "SAKATA SHOKAI LTD "Made in Japan" on the serial badge"