Blue Box 02Ahh, endlich wieder ein Synthesizer, der mir die Handflächen feucht werden läßt! Aus Schweden kommt die Blue Box, ein digitaler Synth auf der Basis von altem Telefon-Hacker-Equipment aus den frühen Siebzigern.

“The blue box was originaly a device to call for free. Used by the early hackers called phone phreaks. To the left you can see the blue box built by Steve Wozniak, on display at the Computer History Museum.Every thing went in another direction in the early 70ties when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak the founders of Apple the worlds largest computer company and their friend Captain Crunch, was making a “free” call from a phone booth to get some friends to pick them up. Steve Jobs was making the call as the cop showed up when Jobs was standing in the phone booth with the blue box in his hand. The Police probably thought they were like drugies or something because Wozniak had long hair. What is this, the police said? Asking about the divice that wozniak desperatly tried to hide, sneaking it into his coat pocket. When you punch the buttons they all make tones, so Wozniak said: It’s an electronic music synthesizer. The police man got them all into the police car, and drowe them down to the station, stating that a man named Moog beat them to it. And the rest is history. The thought about the blue box as a electronic music synthesizer was born.”

Das kleine Gerät bietet einiges Feature, neben dem obligatorischen Midi-in/Out und Batteriebetrieb:

    • 2 OSC’s with 32 different waveforms to choose from.
    • 2 Digital filters. Low Pass in series with High Pass.
    • 1 Preamp output stage. Can be overdriven for distortion.
    • 3 Fast step sequencers, for SID drums, arpeggios and more.
    • 1 LFO. Wide range and 32 different waveforms and more.
    • 3 ADSR’s, for filter, volume and sync.
    • PM (phase modulation), Subtractive and True Noise synthesis.
    • Uniqe percussion mode for live performance and more.

Die Klangbeispiele auf der Homepage klingen herrlich roh, als hätten DAF einen C64 verschluckt.

Cheape und kreative Digitalsynths sind der neue Hype des Jahres, doch die Blue Box gefällt mir auf Anhieb und unausprobiert besser als das etwas verspielte Meeblip von CDM.

23,
DasDAS