Chris Carter's Tutti Box sound generator

BB pal Chris Carter of seminal industrial music group Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey, and Carter Tutti is a music machine hacker of the first order. He just made this lovely Tutti Box, the first in a series of "scratch-built, self contained, experimental sound generators," for his wife, the lovely and talented Cosey Fanni Tutti to play on the upcoming Throbbing Gristle tour. What you can't see in the image above is the magick he worked into the top of this stately box. From Chris's CCCL blog:

The lid of the Tutti Box includes a small but powerful 'performer facing' amp & speaker and an 'audience facing' 6" plasma display. The display uses a mixture of Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon and Nitrogen to produce blue lightning strands triggered by the sounds generated. Tutti Box

• [David Pescovitz]

  Ah, thanks for the Dave Faris and Arkizzle. The hyperreal quality of the video is really nice. Warmly weird. : )

• [Anonymous]

  I thought that the cat generated the best sound.

  The machine is very attractive, the sounds not so much.

  Perhaps Cosey might consider learning to play a theremin?

• [zeebeezee]

  Awesome, I want one. Wish I could make it to the upcoming shows..

• [skeletoncityrepeater]

  “Chris & Cosey” was not an industrial music group. Also, that box is probably the coolest minimal synthesizer I have ever seen. So cool.

• [Maddy]

  have you heard of the DeWan Bros.? Pals of They Might Be Giants and others (they did the cover art work for TMBG’s Lincoln). They have a Dewonatron and did a gig at Spaceland in LA which included Geggy-Tah’s Tommy Jodan:
  http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs542.snc3/29736_389362812799_620787799_4109081_368211_n.jpg

  and here’s what it looks like:

  http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs238.snc1/8529_149548914619_621254619_2685300_756944_n.jpg

• [Maddy]

  “Jordan.” Tommy Jordan. Can I please type one entry anywhere without a glaring spelling mistake? Proper names error meant an “F” in Journalism school …

• [zeebeezee]

  Oh come on, lets not be nitpicky (re Chris and Cosey Industrial)

• [flappy]

  No, let’s nitpick the nitpickers. In this article the phrase “industrial music group” (singular, not plural) modified “Throbbing Gristle” not “Chris & Cosey”. No claim whatsoever was made on defining the stylings of Chris & Cosey or Carter Tutti.

  In other news, I declare the Tutti Box to be delicious.

• [Freddie Freelance]

  Talented musically, electronically, and artistically, too; that piece has some beautiful wood outside, a well chosen selection of external parts, and well laid-out controls. But I did have to stop myself from sniggering at the headline.

• [Dave Faris]

  So what did they do to make that video look like it did? Sort of retro other-worldly? Over exposed, and with a non-normal color balance, I’m guessing, among other things.

  • [arkizzle / Moderator]

    If I’m not mistaken they’re also using the DE Damage plugins.

  • [Freddie Freelance]

    Tilt Shift Video

• [Anonymous]

  Is that a standard British project enclosure box? I have a Mark V E-Meter that I bought in a thrift store that has a near identical case (tho it is a bit more shallow). The proportions are right tho.

• [robulus]

  It sounds exactly like it looks. In fact it kind of creates a soundtrack to its own use. What a beautiful little thing.

• [bill piltdown]

  This box is amazing. Absolutely cool dissonance.
  For those interested, here’s a video of Throbbing Gristle performing What A Day at their soundcheck in San Francisco last year:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjatUNc7YuQ

• [Anonymous]

  Please tell me about Peter, My tears are falling like mercury.