Iain Sharp’s Vibrati Punk Console (VPC) is my choice for the Gift Singularity. The VPC (£20) is a spinoff of Forrest Mims’ legendary Atari Punk Console, an elegantly simple 555-based synth that has caught on as one of the legendary DIY projects of yore. The VPC mixes it up by adding a Low Frequency Oscillator (hence the ‘Vibrati’) to the mix creating a much more diverse set of sounds than Mims’ synth.

I like how the VPC is enclosure independent. You could keep it as-is, with the speaker and battery sitting next to the PCB, or you could build it into whatever enclosure you have lying around, leveraging its acoustic properties to create an even more unique sound. In the video above, Iain installed the VPC into a food tin, while another guy used a plastic tub in his build.

My idea for the Gift Singularity is to add the VPC to some sort of drum and then add a Tactile Metronome to the drumhead for an awesome combo noisemaker!