Handmade Pocket Synth by Livin' Peace Productions

Atari Punk Console
$15


There's nothing quite as soothing as the pulse-width-modulated square waves emanating from an APC. As soon as you hear one you'll realize why "Atari" is in the name: it's super blippy. It has two controls on it: pitch and pulse width. Don't worry about what pulse width means, it just changes the sound in a certain way. Pitch is controlled by a knob while the pulse width is controlled by a light sensor that reacts to different levels of brightness. The APC features a built in speaker (or a 1/4" jack by special request) and runs on a 9V battery which is not included (come on, they're expensive!).

The APC also features a stashable LED (inside the case) for use in dark situations.
via LiVin'Peace Productions

Mellow Tron

Thanks to the wonderful world of Twitter, as well as my friend @purplehayz I found this awesome site describing Mike Walter's DIY Mellotron synthesizer made out of lots and lots of cassette tape players. There are also some sound samples available on his website as well as plenty of pictures showing the progress of the build. Stay tuned for some Melloman sampling beats - I downloaded some of those samples available and I'll be messing around with them for sure. If you'd like to follow me on twitter, here I am.

Check back later for those mellow beats, in the meantime relax with yesterday's track of the day: