Create Digital Music » Exquisite Miniature Synthesizers, Modular Marimba, Made from Paper

Sep 28 2006

Exquisite Miniature Synthesizers, Modular Marimba, Made from Paper

Related: art, design, DIY, homebrew, paper, synthesizers & more

Australian designer/illustrator Dan McPharlin has created some beautiful, detailed papercraft miniatures of synthesizers, evidently out of his imagination:

Miniature synthesizers [Flickr photoset]

He’s selling these pocket-sized creations, as well. I love the modular marimba, like a MalletKAT meets a Buchla modular, something I don’t think ever happened in real life, though I could be wrong (and would love to be wrong).

Sadly, the papercraft constructions are for aesthetics only; they’re non-functional. It’d be fantastic to pack a little digital chip and some sensors in there and make these into real instruments. Maybe the electronics wizards here want to suggest themselves to Dan as collaborators?

Via our incomparable friend Phillip Torrone at MAKE:Blog.

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5 Comments

Damon

I should first apologize for what I am about to say…

“Well, looks good on paper!”

Sorry, you cannot say you were not warned.

September 28, 2006 @ 11:03 pm

funnelbc

Those look excellent. What an awesome idea!

September 29, 2006 @ 1:32 am

Damon

regarding them paper synths. I am no expert on modern art or what they are into in those bizarre galleries where someone drops uncle Bob’s chair on a pile of comic books and sells it for 50 thousand dollars, but in my book, those paper synths really warrant public regard of some kind… not only are they smart and fun and really well conceived, but they resonate (pardon the pun) a real artistic quality. I think they would be really interesting even to non synth geeks. The notion of fancy technology rendered in such a non technological medium is a relevant statement of some sort.