Candy Castle and Other Oddities – Synth Journal
Or where old men wave fists at clouds...
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Finding the weird stuff that slips past our regular news gathering antics, it’s this week’s Synth Journal with Candy Castle leading the way!
Maybe I’m just too old and long in the tooth for some of the stranger things that exist in the world of electronic synthesis. My cynical bone has been honed over many years, but I suppose we need to nurture and celebrate those who think beyond the normal, because that is where true progress lies.
This week’s synth journal takes a look at four unique, quirky and downright mind-boggling contraptions that will, I am sure, appeal to some of you and leave others scratching their heads. Nevertheless, let us dive into this week’s smorgasbord of the strange and confusing!
Synth Journal
Candy Castle by Error Instruments
First up is Candy Castle by Error Instruments. Described as a mix of glass, PCB and metal, containing high fructose sweetness for the kawai, Candy Castle is a full modular experimental synthesizer that features 12 patchable points.
Powered by USB and using the supplied alligator clips, Candy Castle users twiddle knobs that modulate the sound in wild and crazy ways. I will freely admit that I don’t understand it. The website seems to have been written by someone who has possibly ingested certain chemical substances. Or maybe English isn’t their first language?
I absolutely don’t mean to be flippant, but I am guessing that I am far from the Candy Castle target market here and that there are plenty of you who are possibly hurling expletives at the screen as you read this. I will happily assume the mantle of ignorant Gen X-er here!
Each Candy Castle is completely and utterly unique and will set you back €450. What you are getting is not only a deeply experimental instrument, but also a hand-crafted work of art, and I know there is a market for such things.
And they use the word ‘Cloudbusting’ on the unit, so that at least excites this ageing, cynical, Kate Bush-worshipping old geezer! Check out the available Candy Castle units at the Error Instruments website.
OMNICYCLONE by Spherical Sound Society
Anyone who knows me knows of my love of FM synthesis, so when the OMNICYCLONE came across my desk, I was somewhat intrigued. Based on a heavily modified OPL2 emulator, OMNICYCLONE claims to take that chip design beyond where Yamaha did.
Using functionality from other projects, such as WINTERMUTE and OPERA ROTAS (I type those like I know exactly what they are… i.e. I don’t!), the Spherical Sound Society, which conjures up images of some Victorian opioid-fuelled gentleman’s club, claim to have birthed a generative beast!
OMNICYCLONE runs on the Flourine hardware, which, they tell me, means you can flash the Flourine’s other firmwares, of which there are four, giving you multiple synthesizers in a single unit! Apparently, there are also new firmwares that turn the Flourine into a USB MIDI Controller. Pretty nifty, even if i don’t fully comprehend it!
The OMNICYCLONE firmware is closed source, and existing Flourine users can order the files so they can switch it, and other firmwares, in and out of the hardware. OMNICYCLONE is available in three versions: a fully assembled unit, in kit form, and as a PCB and Programmed microcontroller for the more advanced builder.
I can’t say I’m bowled over by what it does, but as before, I’m not the target market, which is my excuse and I’m sticking to it. You can acquire OMNICYCLONE for €114.95, or at least you could, but they’re currently out of stock. Sign up on their page to receive stock updates.
Pneumaphone by Sound Workshop
Ok, so this one is just plain odd, but at least I understand (I think) what’s going on here, and I promise no Gary Numan-related jokes. Pneumatone is a slide flute drone instrument. It’s not a ‘traditional’ synthesizer in any shape or form, but the developer, Sound Workshop, saw the similarity of sliders and knobs and more conventional synths.
Pneumaphone is completely acoustic, using computer fans to drive air through three flute pipes acquired via Amazon! The sliders presumably adjust the airflow through the flutes, therefore adjusting the pitch, and the three knobs attenuate the volume on each flute.
It’s delightfully simple, and Sound Workshop plan to refine the design and make plans available so anyone can make their own Pheumaphone. There is no website but you can follow their shenanigans on their YouTube channel here.
Cosmolab by Faselunare
This final piece of news seems quite fitting for an article filled with ingenious new synth and instrument designs. Cosmolab is a modular development kit for musical instruments and DSP algorithms that is about to launch soon on Kickstarter.
The developers, Faselunare, promise a complete development environment, giving you everything needed to create, prototype and deploy your ideas. It is 100% open source and is claimed to be infinitely expandable. I always wince when companies use the word infinite when describing the scope of their project because little rarely is.
Once more, I cannot and will not claim to completely understand what sits behind all of this, but I have to say that of all the topics this week, this one does excite me somewhat. I can see a great many people, vastly superior to me in their skills and knowledge, using this to make some pretty spectacular things.
Comprising eight boards, covering DSP, audio I/O, MIDI interface, CV/Gate module, OLED display, illuminated potentiometers, 16-step sequencer and chromatic keyboard, you can even design your own interface boards, add sensors and controls and share all of this amongst the community.
You can learn more here and sign up for early access to the Kickstarter. I’d be very interested to know if any of you can see potential projects emerging from this. Let me know in the comments!
That’s all for this week’s Synth Journal. Have a great weekend. Adam will be here next week with more news from the periphery of the world of synths!
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