Intonarumori Bass Box

The bass box is played using both a rubber string and a flight simulation throttle. Plucking the string controls the volume of the sound, and the three throttle controls manipulate the timbre. The video above shows Lisa Tolentino jamming on the box.

Rob’s audio notes

The bass sound uses a series of Phase Aligned Format generators or PAF. These are meant to give the bass a not-so but oh-so quality to Peter Framton’s Framtone. It’s really nothing like a Framtone, but has a distinct vocal quality. The levers of the throttle change settings on a comb filter, variable delay and the frequency. We use the string as an envelope follower.

How we built it

The box follows our general box design with these modifications:

  • An exercise band is stretched over a bridge, and adjacent to a contact microphone whose input is fed to the audio interface and processed by the Raspberry Pi.
  • A set of flight simulation throttles is connected to the Arduino which passes the signal on to the Raspberry Pi.

Box Fabrication Pictures and Videos

Initial prototyping of the bass box. 

For more pictures and videos, see our Facebook page.