Top Ten Weirdest Synthesisers and Electronic Instruments

We first came across sound designer James 'Foz' Foster, founder member of eclectic act David Devant and His Spirit Wife, former guitarist with iconic indie band The Monochrome Set, co-founder of musical brain surgeons Sawchesra, and member of the House Band for a Karaoke Circus when we featured his 'Adrift' series of online radio shows.  That article introduced us to a set of eccentric noise making boxes with names like the 'Assam Bells Horror Cinematic Noise Generator'.  Since then Foz has amassed a new set of equally bizarre devices, some of which are almost organic in their approach and are far, far, far from the usual sort of synth drone machines you can buy in your average musical instrument store.  We love a good list here at Outsideleft, so we asked Foz to draw up his personal Top Ten of the oddest ones. Each one is accompanied by a video so you can hear them in all their weirdy oddness if you crank up the sound a tad. And you really need to hear these to believe them! Here goes...

Foz: "I like to use unusual sound sources for my soundtracks, as it can wake up and draw the listener in to the sound world. The usual tinkling echo-y pianos, guitars and synths can lead to complacency in the audience. There is nothing like an unusual noise or the unexpected to gain attention. I also like that many of these instruments are just a small step away from the industrial and natural sounds that surround us, a reminder that all sound is interesting and the difference between something being regarded as noise or music depends on how you listen to it."

Foz Foster's Top Ten Weirdest Synthesisers and Electronic Instruments

1: Soma Industries - Terra
Soma say they make 'shamanic instruments' and they are not wrong. They are as close to the playing and responsiveness of a physical acoustic instrument as it is possible for a synth to get. But they go one further, ditching traditional keyboards and structures based on musical scales in favour of invention and discovery. The Terra is a good example. The body is a section through a tree trunk. The keys are brass sensors laid out in a seemingly random but very playable style. It has motion sensors, so when you play it on your lap, each movement you make affects the sound. The sounds are very melodic, unlike most of it’s other synths which are more noise/drone machines (if that's your thing I recommend the Enner, which is mad and barely controllable). The Terra is visually stunning, a joy to play and an inspiration when composing.

2: Ciat Lombarde - Sidrax
You could describe the Sidrax as a cross between a wooden glockenspiel and a Buchla synth, it consists of seven wooden bars containing sensors, each which can be individually tuned, between the bars are a series of Banana patch points to be used like a modular synth. The sound is like a west cost synth but somehow with a wooden organic feel. Many other their other instruments are made of wood, all very experimental.

3: ResonantCircuits - Ritual
Resonant circuits make electronic noise machines in beautiful boxes, The ritual looks like it should be used in a satanic ritual and makes noises similar to the soundtrack of Forbidden Planets, It’s played by holding brass nodes, it’s very radiophonic workshop. Each of their instruments are unique and concentrate on one great core sound all made by a man called Rob in Birmingham.

4. Landscape - Ferrous
The Ferrous is a string resonator like the more famous E-bow but being a Landscape device it is much freer and harder to control, resulting in beautiful happy accidents never to be repeated. It is made of a spinning disc containing six strong earth magnets. Hover it over any steel-stringed instrument and it creates ethereal sounds. Like the other Landscape instruments it purely experimental and impossible to play like a conventional instrument. I recommend the HC-TT Human controlled cassette tape manipulation and CV controller. A cassette machine but instead of a motor it has a hand crank you turn, wobble those tapes! 

5. Electro Faustus - Astral Whip
The Astral Whip is a long whirly tube with a built in pick up and pre-amp, you plug it into an amp and spin it over your head to create amazing distorted whirly sounds alternatively you can sing down the tube for an amazing reverb effects a bit like a heavy Metal Didgeridoo or as I like to say, a Diggeri-dont! They also make the amazing Vulcan’s Hammer, you really have to watch the videos with these.

6. Meng Qi - Wingie2
This one of my favourites which I use a lot. Wingie is a handheld stereo resonator with built-in microphones. A cross between a Harmoniser and vocoder with a small built in keyboard so you can change the notes of the sounds coming into the machine with beautiful if unpredictable results. All Meng Qi’s instruments are deeply experimental and totally unique.

7. Error Instruments - Cloud Buster
Cloud Buster is an experimental modular synthesiser. It has 11 points that can be patched .Great for making drones and unexpected noise glitches. All the Error instruments take errors and faults as a starting point and are also beautiful small works of art.

8. Magpie Pedals: Wet
Based in Sweden Simon the Magpie makes crazy pedals and instruments and then equally crazy videos to promote them on YouTube. My Favourite is the Wet pedal, an always-on spring reverb, synth voiced distortion pedal. Brilliant combined with The Moodytron, a very strange string based theremin instrument made by Moodysounds, another company Simon works with.

9. Critter and Guitari - Kaleidoloop
The Kaleidoloop is a small looping box with a microphone.You record short mono samples which you can then play backwards, forwards, fast, slow and in reverse. It’s like an odd phone app but in a physical box, very tactile and intuitive. They also make the Organelle, one of the best travel sized synths /samplers, with patches made by a large growing community of users, all for half the price of an OP1.

10. Folktek - Resonant Garden
The Resonant Garden is an electronic-acoustic hybrid instrument. The Garden utilises three Alter circuits each equipped with a mic pre-amp, and 4 sprout (stringed) panels for generating acoustics (sticking out guitar strings). By plucking, rubbing, tapping or even bowing, those micro-acoustic sounds become amplified and affected by built in effects. In essence, the Garden is a large microphone designed to pick up vibrations. It creates stunning evolving soundscapes.

If you fancy getting hold of some of these weird little boxes, which are hand made and produced in small numbers, Google away and you might get lucky, or you might find something even odder...