Knifonium Joystick Manipulations ‘Pure, Unadulterated Tube Madness’

Composer and sound designer Drew Neumann shared another video of his experiments and explorations with the Knifonium vacuum tube synthesizer:

“[I]stripped the Knifonium down to two slightly-detuned saw waves. Manipulating filter cutoff with the Y-axis of the joystick, and 12 semitones of pitchbend with the X-axis. Very little resonance on the filter. Output amp set to pentode, VCA boost disengaged.

There is NO POSTPROCESSING on the Knifonium with the exception of mild limiting, which was applied to the output of the track as a whole. Other than that, no compression, EQ, or other effects have been used.

This is pure, unadulterated tube madness. utterly satisfying. Other than the unfortunate wubby dubstep feel to the whole affair.”

The Knifonium, made by Jonte Knif, is a unique 25-tube monophonic synthesizer, with a fourth order ladder filter and a ring modulator.

16 thoughts on “Knifonium Joystick Manipulations ‘Pure, Unadulterated Tube Madness’

  1. Checked out the previous synthtopia link for Knifonium , and overjoyed to see the negative keyboard vision with TortoiseShell “white keys”.This is the synthesiser I need to combat the harsh winter cold prevalent in my God forsaken abode , as I would definitely use the top surface to warm my hands and a bowl of Borscht.
    Otherwise ..could nt help thinking ..why doesn’t this guy Drew just wobble the joystick with his left hand and play keyboard with his right? I used to do this ,back in the day but found I encountered severe breathing difficulties when trying to play the very highest Octaves with my left hand..

  2. Nice sound. But what really struck me are two things. First, those white keys look really dirty! Second, why is he playing single notes with his left hand and then reaching all the way over with his right hand to modulate? That’s awkward.

  3. OK, I get the sound, in the first five seconds, nice piece of antique looking kit. But after that, this must be the most boring video on Synthtopia ever – or are there competitors?

  4. just a note – this isn’t actually drew neumann, it’s me, chris morgan, darkenergymedia guy. i don’t think drew would make something so dubsteppy and wubby. i was mainly just playing around but the thing sounded so good even making crappy music…

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