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?
7/31/2006
The Parker Steam Synthesizer
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?
Is it a Steamer Parker?
ReplyDeleteThis is like calling a mains socket a synth because it produces 240v at 50hz.
ReplyDeletesteam powered synths are nothing new:
ReplyDeletehttp://mmd.foxtail.com/Calliope/
could be nice with a 100m pipe :)
ReplyDeleteto be able to make sound without noise. But i'm not sure the compressor would be powerful enough hehe
My synth is human - powered. I put some tissue paper over the teeth of a comb and blow through it. It sounds better than this comparatively advanced tech, too.
ReplyDeleteLet's go back to the Good Ol' Days and just hit hollow things with our heads: Brain-Powered Synth!