DESIGN AND CONCEPT
Dark Harvestator is a new synth from Isn'tses which is psychogeographically connected to Gruinard Island in Scotland, otherwise known as Anthrax Island. We are continuing along a similar vein to some of our other synths where the concept is centred around a historical, geographical horror aspect and anthrax is definitely a horror thing which we thought would make a good noise instrument. While reading about the island it seemed to beg to be made into a noise synth. If you look up either Anthrax Island or Gruinard Island you will find no shortage of pages to read through and videos to watch about the experiments that took place on the island just before the end of WW2. These were to develp a potential bio-weapon against the Nazis and German civilians but this weaponised anthrax was fortunately never actually used, as the war ended before they were required. The most controversial thing about the island being that once the experiments were finished it was just left there contaminated with anthrax for a long, long time. Access to the island was prohibited but this did not stop birds, sea animals or other creatures having access to and living on the island, there were also complaints from people living near the island about the anthrax being blown over by the wind. ​

We named the synth after the mysterious group "Dark Harvest Commando of the Scottish Citizen Army (DHC)" who left a sample of the contaminated soil outside a government related building as protest and to prompt the government to do something about decontaminating the island, therefore the name Dark Harvestator.
​
The switch on the synth references the dates 1942-1990 which are the two dates representing the year the experiments took place and the year it was finally decontaminated.

We have several control knobs on the synth, labelled: BIO - WARFARE - ANTHRAX - SHEEP - GRUINARD.
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​What might not be obvious at first is that the components next to GRUINARD and SOIL are in the shape of a stupid robot man and a sheep.

Below is a haunting video showing footage of the experiments. It's probably crucial to remember that during WW2 using bio-weapons or germ-warfare may have been a last resort and definitely would not conform to the Geneva convention but it does show how Britain may have been desperate in it's fight against the Nazis. Poor sheep, but if you compare it to other horrors of war taking place at the time it was probably the least of anyones worries. Incidentally it was far less devastating than foot and mouth disease in 2001 which killed about 4 million sheep, though it's still very jarring to see animals used in this way.

Notice below the components are a man and a sheep.

SOUNDS
The sound had to be different enough from our other synths while still keeping the fat noise sound. For this we had the idea to use Arduino to program the chip, so the synth is part digital. We decided on an Attiny85 microcontroller chip to produce the sound, it's extremely tiny but quite powerful. Our code is based on examples from Rob Stave's very useful 'ArduinoComponentSketches' library which we have very heavily modified, databent and generally mutated beyond all recognition. This signal is then put through several stages of analog CMOS distortion and EQ control, giving it an extra-saturated character rather than a standard digital/chiptune sound palette. The synth has a generous 5 knobs for controlling the sound; three to control the sound parameters, one EQ knob to shape the tone, and a master volume control.

​Watch a video of the synth here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/h5DJlohq7Nw

There is also an on-off-momentary switch for playable switching + randomising between different kinds of sounds, and a reset button which, in conjunction with the switch, swaps between two distinct modes, effectively turning the synth into either a more noisy sound or a more bleepy sound. If I were to describe the sound it's kind of very noisy and brutal with crackly wartime sounds, radio interference, the rage of the sea, and of course the Bacillus Anthracis mutating around. As with all our synths it is instantly playable and tactile where you can achieve subtle tones and drones or more savage harsh noise. It's lots of fun to build even for beginners to soldering.

The kit and fully built versions will come with full instructions.
The kit will come with all components and BOM (Bill of materials).

POWER
The synth is powered by a standard Boss-style centre-negative 9v DC power supply, and a 9v battery clip can optionally be soldered on for portable use.
​

Preorders for the built synth will be available very soon!
​
A DIY kit version will also be available and we should have them at our forthcoming workshop at Supernormal Festival

Here are a couple of patches for the Chernobyletta to get you started with using the module. These are intended as a guide for you to experiment around.
There's also a blank one for making your own settings.

Chernobyletta can be found on our Etsy store

Available in our Etsy shop!

Our Eurorack module Chernobyletta is based on the Chernobylizer but it is a little different. The Chernobyletta is the modular sister or twin of this synth but it does some things differently.  Rather than being a standalone synth it is designed to fit into a modular system. With a variety of CV, ins and outs there are a great number of possibilities for making noise/music/drones/sounds/fx and it's a great basis for further manipulating, filtering and modulating with other modules. What we intended here was to make something that evolved from the Chernobylizer, they are still two very different beasts.  

This video shows some of the functions of the Chernobyletta including the touch pads, power starve and how it interacts with a couple of other modules.

How will the Chernobyletta fit into a Eurorack setup?
It's 12hp wide and has various CV and audio inputs and outputs. It has 6 oscillators which are controlled by knobs, CV and power starve, and modulated by touchpads.

What kinds of noises does it make?
It still sounds like a distorty noisy beast but with more sonic possibilities due to the added control voltage inputs and the individual pitch controls for the 6 squarewave oscillators. It can produce a wide range of audio including heavy drones, harsh noise, engine-like pulsations and 8-bit-esque crunchy bleeps.​

Does it create a noise on its own?
Yes, lots. :) It's fully playable as a noise/drone instrument even with no CV input connected, but it does require the Eurorack power supply. Even if you only had one module this would be an instrument in itself.

Does it have the power drain function?
Yes it does have a power drain function and this is one of the highlights of the synth as there are lots of interesting sonic possibilities while it power drains and you get a lot of nice sounds with the touch pads. This function is very similar to the Chernobylizer and can operate on a control voltage input as well as a continuous voltage from the power drain switch.

Does it have the pseudo-filter section?
We have omitted this section of the Chernobylizer circuit but we may develop it into a separate module in future.

Do the touch pads still work the same?
They work similarly and are very playable, but there are 6 touch pads rather than 9. Their effect can be quite subtle depending on the knob settings, or quite extreme on other settings. Sometimes they don't seem to respond much but you can find a sweet spot for this where they respond quite well. This depends on how you want to play the instrument and what settings you use.

Can I own both the Chernobylizer and Chernobyletta or are they too similar?
They make quite different sounds despite evolving from the same circuit ideas. The main difference is that the 6 starved oscillators which come together to create the main noise are individually pitch-controllable on the Eurorack module. Also the module features some modular-specific sections with normalled inputs so they can optionally be used separate from each other; a CV gain and offset control (which can also distort/clip the CV signal if you want) and an audio distortion section. There are two outputs, one directly from the oscillators, and one with distortion added.

Can the Chernobylizer and Chernobyletta be used together?
There is no reason not to use them together. The Chernobylizer's secondary right-hand input especially works well as an input to eurorack, as it is a hot, DC-coupled signal which we have always intended to work well with modular synths. The Fort Processor would also be interesting to hook up to the Chernobyletta.

Can I build the module from a kit?
We are just making a few pre-built modules for now, but have plans to make a kit version soon.

What about the artwork?
To make the artwork still look good on a module Lisa has redesigned the artwork so that it fits nicely on the new panel shape but the drawings she made were based on the original Chernobylizer. We are keeping the touch pads! So this is consistent with the Chernobylizer.  With the Chernobyletta we have included a couple of LEDS that shine through the panel making it super cool and showing you the signals doing their stuff. The bits of the board where there is bare colour shining through is also UV-reactive. 

What exactly does the CV do on the Chernobyletta?
In a very electronically-unorthodox move, the chip which creates the 6 squarewaves is powered by the CV input, giving an unusual kind of voltage control over the noise. This is not voltage-per-octave or even HZ/Volt, but is very playable and has a wide range. The Gain and Offset knobs allow you to use various different kinds of input and tweak/tune them to a range that you prefer. These controls give you the flexibility to use bipolar signals (eg LFOs or even audio) or unipolar signals (eg ADSR, sequencers etc) or any other eurorack signal you want to experiment with.

What do all the knobs do? 
There are 9 knobs altogether:

CV Gain - Controls the CV input level, from silence all the way up to fuzz/distortion to square off the waveform if you want.
CV Offset - Adds a full range bipolar offset to the CV signal so you can tweak it positive or negative as you need. You can take this to extremes, turning the signal into complete positive or negative DC offset if you desire. Without a CV input jack plugged in, the Gain knob does nothing and the Offset knob controls the overall pitch of the oscillators directly instead.
CV Out jack - allows you to optionally output this altered CV signal to other modules.
Drain - Turned anticlockwise this reroutes the power CV through a bank of large capacitors, charged by the switch, causing weird smoothing of the signal and a gradual draining effect.
Starve - further starves the drained signal, lowering the pitch and increasing the chaoticness of the noise in mysterious ways.
Oscillators 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - these 6 knobs tune the pitch of the 6 starved oscillators, which are then mixed together and sent to the outputs. They have a wide range so you can go from extremely high pitched to low rumbles, crunches and clicks beyond the audio spectrum.
Distortion - controls the amount of fuzz/distortion/gain on the main output. If you plug a signal into the Distortion Input that will override the oscillators, and instead distorts your own signal. (the secondary output on the right still puts out the oscillators tho. The secondary 'clean' output doesn't have this stage so it has a different character of its own, with more dynamics and sounding quieter when the oscillators are very power-starved.) The distortion circuit uses LEDs as clipping diodes and these shine through the front panel so you can see as well as hear the noise. 

What does the switch do?
Drain switch - Switching it upwards injects a fixed voltage into the large capacitors in the drain/starve circuit, which affects the sound when the drain knob is turned anticlockwise. Subsequently switching it down cuts off that voltage source and then you get the classic Chernobylizer power drain effect.  People often mistake this switch for an on/off switch but it is the power drain switch.

Is there an audio output?
Yes there is that is distorted and one that isn't. The non-distorted signal can be processed though other fx/distortion/filter modules or even used to make a feedback loop back to the CV input of the Chernobyletta

Is there an audio input?
As mentioned, the distortion section has an input, but also you can put audio into the CV input for all sorts of noisy results. You could even use the offset/scale section as an asymmetrical distortion effect with the CV out as an audio output.

What is the power consumption of the module?
On the +V rail about 40-50mA
On the -V rail about 10mA

Development artwork and ideas.
Original artwork by Lisa McKendrick - a new artwork design was made for the Chernobyletta based on the Chernobylizer, some of the touch pads are the same. It is designed so that the LEDs shine through the shapes on the panel.

You can read more about the initial ideas behind the original Chernobylizer here and here on our blog.

We will be facilitating an electronics synth building workshop this year at Crux Festival.

It's at Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London, E1 6LA
Sunday 14th April 2024
2:30pm - 6:30pm

The workshop will begin with a presentation (45mins) where we will cover the development of our noise synths The Fort Processor and the Chernobylizer. The inspirations behind the electronics and sound as well as the psychogeographic aspects of the design and artwork. During the presentation the basics of electronics will be covered including identifying components, how to populate a PCB correctly, and reliable soldering techniques.

The workshop takes place at Crux Festival:
https://festival.crux-events.org/programme-2024/synth-building-workshop/

Anyone at the festival can attend the presentation part of the workshop with simple breadboard experimenting. If you also want to build one of our synths you can book a place in the workshop (limited to 16 people) by filling in this form:  fill in this form. 

(Please note that you will also need to separately purchase a day or weekend ticket to the crux festival from festival.crux-events.org)

All materials and equipment will be provided and participants may keep what they create.
No previous experience in electronics or music performance is necessary.
Suitable for anyone with an interest in experimental music and sound arts.

Isn'tses (Lisa McKendrick and Tim Drage) will host the workshop and provide assistance during your build.
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​We have 3 different synth builds to choose from:

If you wish to build one of our synths and to secure a place, please fill in this form.

PLEASE NOTE: In order to attend you will also need to separately purchase a general Crux Festival ticket (for the full weekend or just sunday 14th) from festival.crux-events.org

​

Some photos from the workshop. Thanks to everyone who attended. To hear about more of our workshops join our mailing list on the home page.

We will be running a noise synth building workshop on the 21st of January 2024
​at New River Studios, London, N4 1DN

It's part of #Oooh_CircuitBent : an International Gathering of Circuit Benders, a festival on the 20th and 21st organised by Psychiceyeclix, #Oooh_Festival and SKRONK.

Participants can choose one of three projects to build at the workshop:

All materials and equipment will be provided and participants may keep what they create/

No previous experience in electronics or music performance is necessary.

Suitable for anyone with an interest in experimental music and sound arts.

Isn'tses (Lisa McKendrick and Tim Drage) will host the workshop.

The workshop takes place on Sunday 21st Jan 2024, 3pm-6pm
at New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, London N4 1DN 

​More info about the festival can be found on the #Oooh_CircuitBent facebook page. ​

We are holding an electronics workshop in London.
    
Build your own square wave ring-modulation synth based on the LM567 Tone Decoder chip. The circuit includes light-dependent control over pitch, a built-in piezoelectric contact microphone, and candle-flicker LEDs for additional modulation. Participants will have the opportunity to learn basic principles of electronic circuits and components, gain hands-on experience soldering and assembling a custom circuit, and explore their creative potential by crafting a unique electro-acoustic instrument from a range of different up-cycled materials.

• All materials and tools are provided and participants may keep what they create.
• No previous experience in electronics or music performance is necessary.
• Suitable for those with an interest in experimental music and sound arts.

Saturday 16th Sept 2023
​12-5pm (some people may finish earlier but we've allowed plenty of time so that everyone has the chance to finish their circuit)
​
Tickets are available here:  telegrafia.uk/events/workshop-build-your-own-diy-synth-with-isntses/

​Facebook event page: 
www.facebook.com/events/339711891719128/

Following the workshop that evening is a Nose=Noise event: telegrafia.uk/shop/nnnnn-x-telegrafia-0004-16th-sep-2023

For further info and more pics of our last workshop: build-a-simple-synth-workshop-dover-2023.html

​We hope to see you there!
Tim & Lisa

Some photos from the workshop. Thanks to all participants and to We’re All Bats for having us.

Here are some examples of DIY synths mae by us using contact mics and other components to make a unique instrument.

INSPIRATION

The circuit we will be building is developed from the ’noise567’, originally designed Christian Hemmo in 2001. An NE567 Tone Decoder IC is wired up in a completely unorthodox manner to create a very noisy and strange squarewave generator / ring modulator. Through experimenting and circuit-bending we have changed component values to find our own sound, added a built-in contact microphone to amplify springs and other physical objects, and added a light-dependent resistor to allow for theremin-like pitch control using handheld torches, flashing light toys, strobe lights, sunlight and shadows, or any other way to modulate the amount of light hitting the sensor. 

The circuit is built using the ‘paper circuit’ technique. Instead of a conventional manufactured printed circuit board with copper tracks, the circuit layout is printed on thin card. The component legs are poked through pinholes in the card and twisted together on the other side, then soldered. This very accessible technique was pioneered by experimental synth designer Peter Blasser, who publishes many unusual sound circuits in this format, for example the ‘Rungling’ featured in the book ‘Handmade Electronic Music'
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The spinner toy component is inspired by a gig we did under the name of 4’33’society which was led by Phillip Raymond Goodman where members of the group were invited to create methods to create sounds and noise with a fidget spinner.  

For our next experiment we wanted to see what happened when using a solar panel to bring in light, creating control voltages to control pitch in a similar way to the LDR on the Fort Processor.
​
We've filmed a few of the results. These are very initial ideas so far. We wanted to imagine how Mars sounds and so far recordings by NASA show that yes Mars does sound like Noise ! (see video 2nd video in this post)

We wanted to use this idea on a simple circuit just to see what happened.  We are using the same '4000 series' CMOS chips as in the oscillator section of the Chernobylizer.  We skipped the breadboard this time and instead are using a cardboard/paper board and used a compass to poke out the holes for the components. The circuit is Ciat Lonbarde's 'Rungling', which we are using as a starting point to circuitbend and modify with an added small solar panel as light sensor.

Next we are going to experiment more with solar and other circuits. We are also trying out partially solar-powered circuits.  

We have been looking at vintage electronics textbooks and websites for more inspiration and ideas about simple solar/audio circuits too. At the most basic level, a solar panel connected directly to a speaker or audio input can pick up light fluctuations and directly convert them to sound!

"The Perseverance rover carries two microphones, letting us directly record the sounds of Mars for the very first time.

Even though Earth and Mars are entirely different planets, it may be comforting to know that if you were on Mars, you might still sound pretty much like yourself. If you were standing on Mars, you’d hear a quieter, more muffled version of what you’d hear on Earth, and you’d wait slightly longer to hear it. On Mars, the atmosphere is entirely different. But, the biggest change to audio would be to high-pitch sounds, higher than most voices. Some sounds that we’re used to on Earth, like whistles, bells or bird songs, would almost be inaudible on Mars."
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/sounds/​

Below, Perseverance taking a selfie
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/taking-a-selfie-on-the-red-planet

Sounds from Mars. I've (Lisa) already loaded these onto my sampler and had a few Mars sound adventures while using them with FX. The closest I have gotten to outer space apart from looking through the telescope.

Visit the Isn'tses Etsy store to buy our psychogeographic noise synths, eurorack art panels and Isn'tses merch ​ - isntses.etsy.com

source: magazine.caltech.edu/post/mars-first-photo-jpl

Where are the aliens?
As in Ray Bradbury's "The Million-Year Picnic", we are the aliens, the robots are the aliens.  Mars is not our planet.

"NASA’s Perseverance rover puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater. Composed of multiple images, this mosaic shows layered sedimentary rocks in the face of a cliff in the delta, as well as one of the locations where the rover abraded a circular patch to analyze a rock’s composition." mars.nasa.gov/resources/26995/perseverance-workspace-at-skinner-ridge/

Going to Mars
We are going to Mars.
You can too, get your boarding pass.
Join us

To see our Synths Visit our Store
​www.etsy.com/shop/isntses

Previous performances in Epping Forest.

Here we are using two of the Chernobylizer synth on the beach in Borth, Wales.

We are happy to announce that our Chernobylizer psychogeographic noise synth is now available to buy as a DIY kit from the excellent synth kit store Thonk: https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/isntses-chernobylizer/

They also stock our previous circuit, the Fort Processor: https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/fort-processor/

If you wish to buy a fully built version of either of these, visit our Etsy store: isntses.etsy.com

All systems go. The beast is released.  Fully working and presented here in a forest.  This has been a really mind blowing noise quest for us developing this synth, and we are really whacked out of our noise minds. 
​
We have the Chernobylizer available here:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/915009651/chernobylizer-custom-made-synth-noise

We have also got a Noise T-shirt in our shop: ​https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/942427775/

To power the Chernobylizer you will need a 9v Centre-negative power supply such as this one from from Thonk which we recommend:

​https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/9v-power-supply/

...​Or this one from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2St1i9i

Chernobylizer - designed by Lisa McKendrick and Tim Drage © 2020

The drawings for the Chernobylizer were based around the shape of the exclusion zone and the decontamination zone. The descriptions by those involved in the Chernobyl clean up, of radiation causing electrical equipment to fail causing them to stop working seemed very interesting to me - That an invisible source of energy could cause a machine to stop working. It only makes you wonder what effect it has on the human body. As we know there are radiation burns and more obvious signs but there are also more invisible things that happen later. As radiation can affect DNA which leads to mutations I was interested in what these mutations might look like and explored these further in my drawings. The touch pads are something like mutated forms, and as they are central to the playability of the synth I wanted them to have a voice. What message do they have for us? This can only be experienced by the player’s own human contact with the device. Both at that time when human contact with the radiation was highly dangerous, but also during the current crisis where we have become transmitters and spreaders of disease, our human touch has become something to be feared. The touch pads welcome you back into the touchy feel of your own body interacting with another and here it is not something to be feared. Rather the capacitance of your own body and its ability to be a conductor of electricity allow an interaction to take place between human and machine.

When trying to picture radiation I imagined that radiation had teeth, invisible and sharp eating away at the very fabric of a victims genetic make up, changing them, transforming their genetic lineage. It seems ironic that the method that we use to create energy would come back and bite us with these invisible teeth reminding us that we are flesh, blood and circuitry subject to the laws of physics. That radioactive waste, as impossible as it is to neutralise, is the result of the very energy that we employ everyday. We employ its creative and destructive mathematics and chemistry, its splitting of atoms. I am no nuclear physicist and I do not have the language to describe the process accurately, but I have imagined, through my drawing, the shapes of this transformation and the resulting energy that powers the device. I think of our sun and the many other suns caught up in a nuclear process of creating and maintaining energy and I think of stars that die when they finally burn out. Perhaps for a moment while feeling the full force of radiation there is the Mystical feeling of pure energy beyond the fragility of the human body.

As with most noise and experimental devices that I’ve played, it has always been the interaction with pure unclassically trained energy which I find most interesting and the unpredictability of the sound, oscillating in shapes as it passes through filters, is held within capacitors then released through a gate. With the added human interaction as energy conductor the player can be part of the circuit, a component of its unpredictability. It is a reminder that we are part of something bigger and complex, that we are always part of a system and held by laws of the universe at times Berserk.
I hope when playing the Chernobylizer that some of these ideas are transmitted and reinterpreted by the player in their own idiosyncratic way.

Drawings: Lisa McKendrick

The placement of the components was something that we wanted to kind of resemble the Chernobyl plant. The large capacitors reference the four nuclear reactors. These capacitors are central to the draining sound that can be heard in the instrument as they store current and then slowly drain power from the main oscillators when the switch is turned off. The five knobs at the top are like controllers overseeing the whole site/circuit and bring attention to the human actions that controlled the blast of reactor 4 from the control room. The touchpads naturally work well at the outer edges of the PCB for easy access, and serendipitously there turned out to be the exact number of them to fill the triangles around the fortification layout we used for the PCB shape.

We have been playing around with the prototype now for a couple of weeks both to see if it works and how functional it is as an instrument. We are making a few modifications to correct some of the circuit problems that were encountered but are happy to say that the touch pads work very well as does the power starve function. The filter section of the circuit isn't working as it did on the breadboard so we will be correcting this for the final version.

Exciting news about Isn'tses forthcoming noise synth, it now has a name - "Chernobylizer" - and the initial prototype PCBs have arrived! Lisa's artwork has come out looking great, we are going to build one soon and test that everything works properly. Once we have it working we will be selling them as a built synth and also as a DIY kit.

We are very happy with the quality from AllPCB, who also manufactured the Fort Processor boards for us. Below is an unboxing video showing the PCBs for the first time:

We are also glad to announce that kits to build our other synth, the Fort Processor, are back in stock at Thonk. You can buy one at https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/fort-processor/

Chernobyliser ©2020 designed by Lisa McKendrick & Tim Drage

We went out and experimented with reading radiation but I think it’s a not very accurate phone app. It was interesting to get completely random readings. The reading under the pylon was quite low while the reading by the river was very high. This was more of a psychogeographic exploration than a scientific experiment, but the main thing is that even at the highest readings the levels at Chernobyl would have been 1000s of times higher. It would be nice to have an actual Geiger counter but they are quite expensive and we quite like the idea of using an EMF-emitting phone to read EMF radiation.

The 'Bio-robots' at work, photograph by Igor Kostin. 
​https://atomicphotographers.com/photographers/igor-kostin/