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CUSTOM MUSIC MACHINES By FRED WILDER

Personalized Music machines that open up new and exciting possibilities to the electronic musician. Fred began constructing his own machines in the early 1980s. These were home-brewed simple oscillators and filters along with modified audio toys. Out of his early experiments grew the concept of building synthesizer modules in project boxes that could be plugged or (patched) together to form an audio synthesizer. These early modules have undergone many refinements over the years and still new discoveries are being made with a new generation of audio toys on his test bench ready to make music.

The instruments described on this page are some of Fred's favorite tools for making experimental music and getting just the right sound.

Optical Theremin M1 CC Low Pass Filter Circuit Bent Instruments The Prophet 5 Yamaha TX7 resources MIDI Tools The Tiki Room Project Studio Persimmon Modular Synthesizer Books and Videos Buy CDs Buy sound recordings from F. Wilder. Synth Shop Buy electronics and art.

 

 

 

 

M1 Optical Theremin
From harmonic strings to the full guttural tones of an electronic cello from an alien world, this Optical Theremin offers the electronic musician real hands-on control of the instrument. By varying the player's hand over the optical sensor, one can introduce modulation and vibrato in tone changes not possible with a 12-tone keyboard. There is a switch for optical or manual control of the frequency, a Frequency range switch and tone control knob, plus one LFO on board and input for external control.
Chocolate Cake Low Pass Filter
Originally developed for filtering audio being sampled from vinyl or CD, this little filter has a big impact on the tone without wreaking havoc on the overall sound. It is made from hand-selected passive components and is tuned for a sweet musical filtering effect. The overdrive control bends the signal in subtle and beautiful ways that helps articulate the sound, and is the icing on the cake for vintage analog synths.
Circuit Bent Instruments
Customized synthesizers like the Casio SK-1, a cult classic 8 bit grungy keyboard with cheesy rhythms and sequencer, are disassembled and their circuits modified with new routing and controls. What you get is a great little noise machine with tons of exploration at your fingertips. Every synth I do is different, some are painted heavily and with more controls / bent circuits than others. These custom machines are the perfect blend of art and science that enables the performer to tap new realms of groovelicious sounds. With all switches set to off it's a standard Casio SK-1, by turning on switches and adjusting knobs you will hear strange industrial noises, and sweet musical tones reminiscent of vintage analog synths.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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_{2003 - 2007 Copyright Fred Wilder Studio all rights reserved.}