The humble piezo element is often used as little more than a buzzer in many projects. However, you can do more with them, as [Something Physical] demonstrates with their nifty piezo noise box. Check out the video (and audio) below.
The construction is simple enough, attractive in its own way, with a rugged junk-assembly sort of style. The video starts out by demonstrating the use of a piezo element hooked up as a simple contact microphone, before developing it into something more eclectic.
The basic concept: Mount the piezo element to a metal box fitted with a variety of oddball implements. What kind of implements? Spiralled copper wires, a spring, and parts of a whisk. When struck, plucked, or twanged, they conduct vibrations through the box, the microphone picks them up, and the box passes the sound on to other audio equipment.
It might seem frivolous, but it’s got some real value for avant-garde musical experimentation. In particular, if you’re looking for weird signals to feed into your effects rack or modular synth setup, this is a great place to start.
We’ve seen piezos put to other percussive uses before, too.
Imagine you left it on overnight and you had a cat.
Nice demonstration. Lots of cool sounds created. The marimba was my favorite! I’ve tried making similar acoustic percussive instruments and never thought to just add a piezo and some amplification. Even the video production style captured my attention. Very artistic, humorous and suspenseful. Distilled essence of homebrew ingenuity. The musical score of the film being created with the device created in the film is keen as.
Side note; I love that model of digital multitrack he uses. Built in sequencer, great effects, classic mic emulation, the internal microphones are really good. Highly recommend the R8.
Thanks for sharing this masterpiece. My obeisance to Something Physical.
Instructions unclear: There’s a creepy clown outside trying to sell me more balls. Did I not leave quickly enough?