Christopher Carlson‘s “feedbox” noise machine is guaranteed to drive roommates and neighborhood dogs crazy, but it’s undeniably clever.

this prototype noise machine was built for a lab assignment in music 250a – physical interaction design for music at stanford university’s center for computer research in music and acoustics (CCRMA).



the task was to construct a mini-instrument that is “off the breadboard.”



my general goal in this class and in my personal work is to make a devices that are deeply expressive and allow performers to explore new or unconventional sounds. since i have always loved feedback, i took this lab as an opportunity to test out some ideas for generating and controlling it.



the materials in the instrument include: 4 piezo discs connected to rings of aluminum foil, a mini amplifier (hacked to enable toggle switch control for power), an aluminum foil pad connected to the hot lead of the audio input to the speaker, and the aluminum enclosure (with holes drilled for the wiring from each piezo and to the user’s hands).