The Gutter Synth is a physical interface for a digital synth consisting of series of nonlinear Duffing oscillators. It makes a large range of highly physical, resonant sounds.

The Gutter Synth controls eight digitally implemented Duffing oscillators, which mimic damped and driven physical circuits. The 'strings' control six oscillators' individual parameters and the knobs and switches serve as a master control. The instrument is unpredictable, swinging between physical, chaotic sounds and organ-like drones, bleeps, and bloops.

This was a project from pre-COVID 2020 for the class "Physical Interaction Design". It has two parts – a more traditional interface of potentiometers and faders, and an experimental interface of wire "strings" connected to miniature joysticks. Each of the strings controls individual oscillators, while the main interface controls the macro parameters.

The video is short and was made when I had just finished the instrument. It can make a huge range of sounds beyond those shown in the video!

The project is essentially a physical interface for an existing digital synth created by Tom Mudd. More info, and his music, can be found here:

https://tommudd.bandcamp.com/album/gutter-synthesis
https://github.com/tommmmudd/guttersynthesis