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Anyone built an 'Apprehension engine'?

sevenapesevenape
in Hardware

Hey, I have a small wooden box that I was thinking of turning into a horror sound effects box, am I right in thinking I just need a cheap piezo mic inside the box and a bunch of springs and things on the box? It's about 20cm by 15cm by 5cm. Is that too small?

I guess something like this but without knobs, just a piezo mic connected to a jack...

Comments

  • KrupaKrupa

    Not yet, but I’ve thought about it a few times, I’ll be watching your progress with great interest!

  • sevenapesevenape

    @Krupa said:
    Not yet, but I’ve thought about it a few times, I’ll be watching your progress with great interest!

    Ok now I feel the pressure! ;)

    This is the box: I will get started this week, found some piezo mics for ukuleles on Amazon for 10 euro.

  • sevenapesevenape

    2 euro for scale, I didn’t have a banana on hand.

  • KrupaKrupa

    Perfect start, I’m sure anything you do can be adjusted, so I wouldn’t be too precious about getting it ‘right’ first time… you’ll find there’s always room for improvement, it’s just a matter of having fun on the way 😅

  • Kewe_EsseKewe_Esse

    Is the banana a standard unit of measure? Love that box concept anyway

  • sevenapesevenape

    @Kewe_Esse said:
    Is the banana a standard unit of measure? Love that box concept anyway

    Thanks! Will keep you all posted. yes a banana has become a standard unit of measurement ;)

    https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/banana-for-scale

  • catherdercatherder

    I would probably get a cheap spring reverb tank off ebay. Take the spring assembly out of the metal shield and mount it on the box. The driving reverb transducer gets connected to a headphone out and the recovery one to a mic input. Have fun with weird sounds from electrically and mechanically (scratching etc.) excited springs and feedback. An Equaliser - in my case a Donner EQSeeker pedal - in the feedback path adds to the creativity.

  • dobbsdobbs
    edited February 2023

    I also highly recommend building something like this: https://www.thomann.de/de/remo_5x5_spring_drum_straight.htm

    the hole gives extra "filter modulation" possibilities because you can partly cover it with your hand and that will block the higher frequencies. and the drum membrane allows that thing to get LOUD!

    every time I touch that thing I also want to glue a piezo mic to it :D

    and I bought one of these cheap wannabe-hang-drums that have lids cut into a metal body. similar to this one: https://www.thomann.de/de/thomann_tongue_drum_6_lotus_jg.htm

    and turns out there's a lot of weird sounds in it, it's actually hard to get the "clean" sounds out of it, and theres an endless amount of different timbres if you don't hit the exact spot on the lid, or hit somewhere else than the lid. mine also has a rough surface so you can scratch it too. you can also sing very close to it and it gives a very interesting resonating reverb where some of the lips will also resonate, kind of like the CuSpN resonator app used as reverb. another piezo candidate. only "boring" thing is that mine is a diatonic c major. phyrigian dominant would rock!

    I like what this guy has done with it, and although I guess I realized piezo mics were simple, I didn't realize it would be THAT simple to make your own:

  • SvetlovskaSvetlovska
    edited February 2023

    I based this on the metal box you can get for fitting plugs into a wall. Piezo mike inside, and a variety of noisemakers and springs of varying lengths and tensions attached, hooked up to a Jack plug. Works surprisingly well with an external spring tank, a steel guitar pick, fingernails, knitting needles, and an cheapo well rosined violin bow into my modular as a source of bangs, boings, scratches and dragging noises.

    If I was being a big more ambitious, I’d build a bigger box with a cheapo guitar pickup and a string above it, for a little E-bow action. It’s on the to do list, as I already made a one string electric Diddly bow the same way which worked…

  • Kewe_EsseKewe_Esse

    @sevenape said:
    Thanks! Will keep you all posted. yes a banana has become a standard unit of measurement ;)

    https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/banana-for-scale

    I had no idea lol

  • bygjohnbygjohn

    Watching this with interest - I’ve thought about it multiple times but not got past the concept stage.

  • NoiseHorseNoiseHorse

    Some of us are heavily married, and so we don’t need to make one. I just start recording..

  • sevenapesevenape

    @catherder said:
    I would probably get a cheap spring reverb tank off ebay. Take the spring assembly out of the metal shield and mount it on the box. The driving reverb transducer gets connected to a headphone out and the recovery one to a mic input. Have fun with weird sounds from electrically and mechanically (scratching etc.) excited springs and feedback. An Equaliser - in my case a Donner EQSeeker pedal - in the feedback path adds to the creativity.

    This is a really good idea thanks!

    @dobbs said:
    I also highly recommend building something like this: https://www.thomann.de/de/remo_5x5_spring_drum_straight.htm

    the hole gives extra "filter modulation" possibilities because you can partly cover it with your hand and that will block the higher frequencies. and the drum membrane allows that thing to get LOUD!

    every time I touch that thing I also want to glue a piezo mic to it :D

    and I bought one of these cheap wannabe-hang-drums that have lids cut into a metal body. similar to this one: https://www.thomann.de/de/thomann_tongue_drum_6_lotus_jg.htm

    and turns out there's a lot of weird sounds in it, it's actually hard to get the "clean" sounds out of it, and theres an endless amount of different timbres if you don't hit the exact spot on the lid, or hit somewhere else than the lid. mine also has a rough surface so you can scratch it too. you can also sing very close to it and it gives a very interesting resonating reverb where some of the lips will also resonate, kind of like the CuSpN resonator app used as reverb. another piezo candidate. only "boring" thing is that mine is a diatonic c major. phyrigian dominant would rock!

    I like what this guy has done with it, and although I guess I realized piezo mics were simple, I didn't realize it would be THAT simple to make your own:

    Wow thanks for this info!! This things look mad!

    @Svetlovska said:

    I based this on the metal box you can get for fitting plugs into a wall. Piezo mike inside, and a variety of noisemakers and springs of varying lengths and tensions attached, hooked up to a Jack plug. Works surprisingly well with an external spring tank, a steel guitar pick, fingernails, knitting needles, and an cheapo well rosined violin bow into my modular as a source of bangs, boings, scratches and dragging noises.

    If I was being a big more ambitious, I’d build a bigger box with a cheapo guitar pickup and a string above it, for a little E-bow action. It’s on the to do list, as I already made a one string electric Diddly bow the same way which worked…

    Wow this is just the kind of thing I wanna build then put it through spacefields good work! I’m impressed!

    @bygjohn said:
    Watching this with interest - I’ve thought about it multiple times but not got past the concept stage.

    Me too, and then I saw how cheap contact mics are!

    @NoiseHorse said:
    Some of us are heavily married, and so we don’t need to make one. I just start recording..

    Oh man I know that feeling

  • dobbsdobbs
    edited February 2023

    damn, i love this thread!

    leaf produces these things ready to go: https://www.musikhaus-korn.de/de/leaf-audio-microphonic-soundbox-mk2/pd/170965

    but where's the fun in that :P

    makes me think about how one could also add a little filter/overdrive circuit into the box... I have this DIY resonant filter pedal floating around that I never use... or could be something as simple as the tone knob + capacitor to ground, like in a guitar

  • FingolfinzzFingolfinzz

    I want to build everything I’ve seen in this thread lol. They’d be a lot of fun with modular

  • KrupaKrupa
    edited February 2023

    @Svetlovska said:

    I based this on the metal box you can get for fitting plugs into a wall. Piezo mike inside, and a variety of noisemakers and springs of varying lengths and tensions attached, hooked up to a Jack plug. Works surprisingly well with an external spring tank, a steel guitar pick, fingernails, knitting needles, and an cheapo well rosined violin bow into my modular as a source of bangs, boings, scratches and dragging noises.

    If I was being a big more ambitious, I’d build a bigger box with a cheapo guitar pickup and a string above it, for a little E-bow action. It’s on the to do list, as I already made a one string electric Diddly bow the same way which worked…

    That looks great fun, might be a good thing to take to your gig!

  • dobbsdobbs

    another idea I just saw: placing one microphone at each end of the box to get stereo

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