Sonofcastille has published a set of videos demonstrating beautiful steampunk-style synths and noise generators.
Here are a few of the coolest:
WSG
This is Ray Wilson’s Weird Sound Generator circuit off of musicfromouterspace.com, plus audio amp scavenged out of a Radio Shack amp. The case was an old telephone from the 70s.
Captain Nemo’s Beat Box
This is a circuit bent Realistic/Radio Shack drum machine from the 80s.
Radio Free Mars
Simple gorgeous. I wish more synths would come out with these designs instead of mimicking the look from the 70s and 80s (not that those are bad, either :)).
Claudio – good point!
Wouldn’t it be fantastic to work from the helm of a steampunk console, instead of another boring interface like Yamaha’s MM8?
Heck yes! It would definitely make for some stage presence, just as the modular synths did back in the day (and even today). I would definitely pay for something with a nice steampunk look and feel.
These are gorgeous, but I’d like to see this with instruments that are more musical.