Cracklebox

Acoustic Synth Screen Recording

via taskent99:

Live recording and screen capturing with Steim Cracklebox, Keypad Cigar Box Synth and BugBrand Board Weevil.

Image: Paul Lindeboom

Saturday Synth Porn: This is a great shot of the Kraakdoos, or Crackle Box, designed by Michel Waisvisz of STEIM in the seventies.

The main concept of the Crackle Box is that the human body becomes a vital part of the electronics (or the other way around) while playing it. It is a touch and pressure sensitive device that squeeks and makes a lot of noise when played with.

If you’ve used the Crackle Box, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Music Thing’s Tom Whitnell put out the word that Steim – the Dutch experimental music organization behind the Cracklebox – needs help to avoid getting shut down by the man:

Steim is the Amsterdam-based electronic music lab best known around here for inventing the Cracklebox. They’ve done a great deal more – lots of work on experimental interfaces, touch, gesture etc. And now, Steim is in trouble:

Things are not well at STEIM. We are in the danger of losing our structural funding from the government, based on a review from the advisor board which called us ‘closed and only appealing to a niche audience’. The outlook isn’t exactly bleak, but at the moment our future is unclear.”

If you’re part of the ‘niche audience’ for Steim (i.e. you enjoy doing interesting musical things with electricity) then please click here and spend two minutes filling out an email form to write a letter to the Dutch government. Thanks!