WINTERMUTE
Wintermute is something that could be called a "merzbow box". It purely generates noises.
It is inspired by the several version the bugbrand wheevil and other tactil synth.
The core is nothing but 3 square waves oscillators (CD40106) that can be switched into Low frequencies and audio frequencies. There's also
a ring modulator and a mixer which works more like a "color" than a traditional mixer. The all jam is then sent into a filter and then to the output.
to have a bit more fun, I added a piezzo sensor. it the box is hit, the filter opens.
The filter can be modulated by an oscillator, giving someking of "vocal" sound.
The speaker is a cheap-ass one from ebay. Needless to say the frequency response is very poor. It is here only because it makes the thing portable and useable everywhere with the batery.
The box is made of 3mm MDF. It isn't the prettiest box. But it was very cheap to get manufactared.
Facing the lack conductive material, the use copper coins was approved.
It is an instrument (if one could name it this) very odd, with limited applications. The surprise is that people actually really like that kind of thing. It's a kind
of esotheric and hippy noise producing machine
The first kit version had a battery holder and a Speaker to make it portable, but the rather poor frequency respond and the board space taken by the battery holder
made them desepear on the next revision. A plastic faceplate was added on the second run to make it look sexier
Another version with SMD component was imagined and routed.
A big thanks to Philippe Paris for the video.
