percussive noise synthesiser in the form of Newhaven Fort (progress part 2)

We've been doing a lot of research towards the design of our synth for Fort Process and some  interesting responses to our debut blog post.  We were honoured to get some input from father of circuitbending Q. Reed Ghazala who suggests possibilities of water-controlled synthesis:

Our friend Hannah helpfully suggested that we look at Thomas Henry's 'Mega Percussive Synthesizer'. The theory page about this synth has a wealth of useful ideas including the following:

This is very relevant to our concepts for the circuit since we will be using an AM radio chip as a noise source and intend to evoke sounds inspired by the Fort including gunshots and the ocean. 

Radio was very important during the world wars when Newhaven Fort was an active military site so we have been looking for inspiration at wartime radios. The rugged and often improvised DIY construction of these devices is reminiscent of the aesthetic of our own noise instruments.  Below is a collage of interesting things we found on radio devices and some of our video hardware imagery.

After looking at arial views of Newhaven Fort and this tunnel video I was interested in the shards of light cast in the dark tunnel and have done some rough sketches of artwork for the PCB. We are limited with the amount of colours so may end up with textured patterns, see below.

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- Drawings by Lisa McKendrick

We've modified the diagram to show our idea for having touch control pads and a diagram of the chip we are wanting to use:

Investigating biomorphic coastal forms, 

Breadboarding echo and radio circuits:

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