Pneumaphone - Atmospheric Drone instrument

US Triple slide flutes creating occult energy      02/07/25

The Pneumaphone is an acoustic drone instrument from Sound Workshop made using three slide flutes and computer fans, from the creator of the Quord and the award-winning WIGGLER! It sounds fantastic and has some really atmospheric energy when combining the tones - with what appears to be a wide degree of control with just a simple slider and volume controls. Excellent stuff - prepare for a fire breathing version from LMNC with 100 sliders soon. Propane swarm synthesis! Here's more from the creator... 
 
At some point while working on Quord, I saw these slide flutes on amazon and they reminded me of the long pitch sliders on Quord. I thought it would be fun to have an acoustic instrument with a synthesizer style interface (knobs and sliders).The sound ranges from soft/breathy to firm/urgent, based on the fan speed. There is some iteration work to do to make the flute oscillations more stable, I think the air is entering the flute at a bad angle for the fipple. Long term I would like to design this as a DIY project where I don't sell a kit. It would be a free instruction set that teaches you how to order prints/sheet metal/PCBs to make your own. This project was made for @fidgetcampsf , a week long makeathon / after work summer camp for adults. I especially enjoyed seeing a few toddlers having fun with pneumaphone at the exhibition.
 
Heres the Quoard in action:
 

 

More from Sound Workshop

 
About the author [midierror]: midierror is co-founder of Potato Audio, he makes nifty Max For Live devices, award-winning Sample Packs and hosts the 'midierror meets...' interview series speaking with all kinds of people working in sound & music. 
About the author [midierror]: midierror is co-founder of Potato Audio, he makes nifty Max For Live devices, award-winning Sample Packs and hosts the 'midierror meets...' interview series speaking with all kinds of people working in sound & music. 


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