Neanderthal Electronics

[macumbista]

I just finished the first two of hopefully many workshops using Lunetta-type circuits, and the results were very good! Some hype and links to video samples follows...

More than 40,000 years ago, our Neanderthal ancestors invented the first music instruments from simple objects around them (bones and stones, sticks and skins...), without reference to any existing music history, and primarily for their own pleasure rather than that of others.

Nowadays, we use complex audio hardware and software which make it "easier" to make music, so long as we channel our creativity into such established and socially-accepted avenues as Western Classical or Minimal Techno. But some of us, deep in our hearts, still long for the Stone Age simplicity of pure noise!

The Neanderthal Electronics workshops are designed for approximately 8 people, possibly with a background in sound, but with no previous electronics experience. They are shown how to use simple objects from our modern environment (resistors, capacitors, transistors, LEDs, integrated circuit chips...) to design and build their own personal, customized primitive noise synthesizers.

Videos from previous workshops can be seen here:

http://www.vimeo.com/album/64426

Lots of Lunetta-influenced madness going on there. Thanks to everyone here for their ideas and inspirations!

In case anyone is curious, main circuit is 4093 Quad NAND gate, the output of each gate feeding the "A" of next. The first of the four gates can be rigged with a TL072-based comparator for AM-like effects, or a transistor-driven "vactrol" (LED+photoresistor shrink-tubed together) for FM. You can see this in the start/end of the video, driven by the little Buddha box. Really, it works! Try it!