Lorin from the Mojave desert built a steam-powered synthesizer. "This project started as a discussion with my friend Lewis Keller. I kinda joked about the absurdity of a steam powered synthesizer, and how strange and inefficient it would be. Well, the idea stuck in my head and a year later, here is the Parker Steam Synthesizer." It's really a steam oscillator, which uses a steam engine to drive a dynamo. The output from the dynamo oscillates and it produces a rough sine wave. I'm slightly disappointed that there's electricity and amplifiers involved. I was hoping for some kind of steam organ which could produce square waves, followed by a steam filter and a steam envelope generator. Still, it makes Eric's Tube Synth look a bit modern and 20th century, doesn't it?
Posted by Tom Whitwell. 
: 11:49 pm : 2:14 pm