Singing Tesla Coil emulator

High voltage hackers ArcAttack of Austin, Texas, are known to BB readers for their Singing Tesla Coils that they use to perform music. For example, here, a pair of coils delight us with an, er, energized rendition of the Doctor Who theme. Sadly, it's unlikely that most of us will get a chance to try our hand at conducting this Tesla orchestra so ArcAttack has enhanced their Web site with a simple yet fantastically fun Tesla Coil Emulator. My first number was the familiar tune from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. What song would you like to hear the coils sing? From the ArcAttack site:

ArcAttack employs a unique DJ set up of their own creation (an HVDJ set up) to generate an 'electrifying' audio visual performance. The HVDJ pumps music through a PA System while two specially designed DRSSTC's (Dual-Resonant Solid State Tesla Coils) act as separate synchronized instruments.

These high tech machines produce an electrical arc similar to a continuous lightning bolt which put out a crisply distorted square wave sound reminiscent of the early days of synthesizers. The music consists of original highly dance-able electronic compositions that sometimes incorporates themes or dub of popular songs.

Joe DiPrima and Oliver Greaves are the masterminds behind the design and construction of the Tesla Coils while the music is developed by John DiPrima and Tony Smith.

Tesla Coil Emulator

• [Drew from Zhrodague]

  One of the groovy folks at http://www.hackpittsburgh.org brought in a zero-mass tweeter (20Khz?) for a demo, which I found pretty interesting. I totally forget the dewd’s name, but I think he was doing interesting things at CMU. We discussed using multiple different width spark gaps to generate the sound at varying frequencies, and the difficulty in doing the lower-frequency sounds with larger spark gaps:

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/drewzhrodague/3535367060/

  Interestingly enough, he had AC/DC playing on the CD player. “High voltage, done dirt cheap!”

• [Falcon_Seven]

  Mmmm, ozone.

• [noen]

  Dueling banjos would work out well I think.

• [Anonymous]

  now that is music that makes your hair stand on end.

• [Spikeles]

  Obligatory Super Mario Brothers Theme version.