Fotosis No. 007, Noise Generating Synth.

YouTube via lavieenjaune
"Ok this is our latest creation, its a very complex home made electronic noise maker that we built for a friend of ours who was looking for an instrument that was a bit outside of the norm.

It took about three months to complete and there are still a few little modules that we are still working on but here it is in all its weird noise making glory. The modules include an optical theremin a passive ring modulator, sample and hold effect, low pass filter, phaser, square wave noise making circuit, three channel mixer and built in amp.

More information can be found on our website" specifically this post.

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Design: Fotosis No. 005

"Fotosis instrument No. oo5 will be a hybrid guitar / synth, but not 80's keytar style. Actually it will have everything our previous instruments had with a special sort of experimental guitar added to the control panel. That means square wave noise maker section, optical theremin, passive ring modulator and a weird stringed instrument all in one. The picture on the left is my first drawing of the proposed device. I suppose it'll look and play a bit like a lap steel guitar."

Title link takes you there.

fotosis

Remember this post? Title link takes you to the fotosis blog where you can find more info on their creations. They have a new device featured in the video below. Note that it is up for auction as well.

Optically Controlled Synth / Ring Mod / Noise Maker



"Part One: This is actually three devices in one, its an optically controlled synth (Optical Theremin) a passive ring modulator and a square wave noise generator. Each individual piece can be used by itself or combined with the other sections to create a myriad of weird and wonderful noise. The ring mod. can be used to modify the sound of other devices (Laptop, guitar etc.) and you can use the on board oscillators as the carrier signal.

For more sound clips visit...
http://in.solit.us/archives/download/... and... http://in.solit.us/archives/download/..."

Optically Controlled Synth / Theremin

Click here for shots via this auction.

Details:
"This is an optically controlled noise maker (Sound Synthesizer). It comprises of three LDR's that control the sounds produced and the microprocessor controlled effects. There are three control knobs the forst is for LDR switching speed where the sound synthesis chip alternates between two LDR's measuring their values producing two different tones depending on the level of light falling on each. This effect creates strange sixties sci-fi sounds. The second knob controls the sine wave intensity which is handy when you apply effects like distortion and fuzz to the signal before amplification. The third knob controls the output volume.

There are several toggle switches on the unit. On the left hand side the first sets the device either for high or low pitch sounds ranging from low rumbling drones to high pitch chirps and whines. There is a power switch in the centre to turn the synth on and off. And a switch to select the LDR switching effect. The knobs on the right engage the microprocessor which measures values on the first LDR and does one of two things. The first thing it does is only allow the device to produce sound when a certain level of light has been reached which is useful when you don't want the unit to play itself (Be silent until you interact with it). The second microprocessor controlled effect toggle again sets a threshold which keeps the device silent until a certain level of light has been reached but this time it pulses the sound on and off increasing the speed of the pulses when the level of light on the LDR increases sort of like a built in tremolo effect.

There are three LED's the centre LED indicates power on and the other two the state of the two microprocessor controlled effects.

The unit is housed in an antique (19th century) handmade French jewelery box stamped with the mark of Pierre Dujardin Paris. I restored the box to make it as robust as possible and left the weird repairs and different layers of paint that had been applied by the many previous owners that give this device an authentic aged vintage look sort of like an old piece of lab equipment or a prop from a mad scientists lab.

Various other visual garnishes have been added such as the leather straps that hold the lid open and the foam that lines the inside of the lid.

(the inside is coated in a latex based plastic like preservative and pine sections have been added to the interior corners using epoxy)

This synth/noise maker theremin thingy runs off a 9V power supply, I'm including a brand new Boss PSA-230P (Still in box) with the unit.

The output is loud as its at about line level when the sine wave intensity is at max and the volume fully on.

The unit can be played with your hands or with light sources. Bike light produce the best effects, techno like beats can be created by selecting the flashing settings on the light and by placing them directly over the LDR's. I've recently discovered that by running the unit into an Electro Harmonix Guitar micro-synth a whole range of other sonic possibilities were presented.

If you require other sound samples I will be more than happy to supply them just email me at johncavanagh(at)gmail.com just replace the (at) with @

Ill actually ship to Europe and the US I if you contact me first so I can figure out postage, just email me and we can discuss postage etc...

Ill be including a sort of guarantee of my work with the unit where I will agree to fix any problems with the device for free for a period of 18 months within reason. Like for example if you reverse your car over it it may be beyond my abilities to fix it other than that give me a call."