Motherboard.tv has just released the second episode of their Sound Builders series featuring sound designer and composer, Diego Stocco. This is a really nice glimpse into Diego’s fascinating working method. If you’re unfamiliar with Diego’s work, make sure you visit his site and check out the videos of his recent creations, and sometimes destruction.
Although I had seen photos of the Rev 1.2 mushrooms (mine was made prior to Rev 1.2), I didn’t expect to see Chenrezig, the Tibetan Buddha of Compassion, silk screened onto the circuit board of my Sequential Circuits Pro-One, or the Buddhist mantra, “Om Mani Padme Hum”, etched into the board in Tibetan characters. Even better, Sequential Circuits founder and MIDI pioneer Dave Smith initialed the circuit board twice in the upper left hand corner.
I should mention that this is my second Pro-One. The first one was stolen, and I bought the second one to replace it since I needed that exact sound for the band I was in at the time. The new one was missing a mod wheel. Later one of the knobs was broken off at a show or studio session, so I’m pretty excited to have it restored to it’s former glory.
Checkout the gallery to see the photos of the restoration process. The second and final session of the restoration happened the moment I received the missing parts. These included a replacement modulation wheel (although I think it turned out to be a pitch wheel), a replacement potentiometer, and a missing knob.
The first thing I did was install the mod wheel. Then it was time to swap out the broken pot. I had to remove the circuit board to do this, so while I had it out I thought it would be a good idea to clean things up a bit, so that was the majority of time spent. Finally I removed the old pot, replaced it, and reassembled everything, cleaning things up along the way. Before I put all the screws in I gave it a quick listen to make sure it still worked and the new parts were functional. It was an evening’s work, but more like fun to be honest. Enjoy the pics.
What good is a Weird Sound Generator if you’re not using it to make weird sounds? Sometimes it is nice to just hold it on your lap and stroke it gently. That aside, it’s quiet useful once you plug it in and start twiddling the knobs. Here’s a piece I created by tuning the each of the four oscillators on the WSG and then fiddled with the filters. At the same time I made some adjustments to a phaser that I was running it through in Ableton Live and topped it off with ping pong delay.
Four Oscillator Drone
I’ve created a slideshow that illustrates the process of building my Weird Sound Generator, from the unopened box through completion of the project. The third photo in the series (shown below) shows the items that came out of the box including all of the components for the WSG and a CD by Ray Wilson titled Electroluminescence.
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This weekend I completed building a Weird Sound Generator, or WSG, component kit from Music From Outer Space. The kit comes with a printed circuit board and all the electronics, including resistors, capacitors, diodes, ICs, potentiometers, switches, and wires. The rest, like the housing, faceplate, and soldering is up to the builder.
I built a box similar to the recommended specifications and cut the faceplate out of an old computer case. The wood I used was scraps that I held onto and recycled. In fact, I managed built the entire instrument without buying anything beyond the kit itself. Even the stain, nails, glue, screws, and backing board were materials that I had hoarded from previous projects over the years.
It took me about thirteen hours to complete. But, it was a fun thirteen hours of playing with my soldering iron and power tools while following instructions, or coming up with a way to cut through metal, or mount a nine volt battery inside an already cramped case. And, although the case isn’t perfectly square, and the leads are more than a bit tangled, I’m pleased with the little noise maker that I now have at my disposal. In the next entry I’ll illustrate the sequence of events that took place in building this device. Oh yeah… and sounds.