For Sale: Fotosis No.003

Good news everyone! We have been very busy the last few weeks working on commissioned work and as a result haven't posted anything on our Etsy shop in a few weeks, until now:-)

This instrument which we have labeled Fotosis No.003 was designed and built by Connie it was the first unit she has designed and built alone and I love it.

It is currently for sale on our Etsy shop.

In terms of functions it is identical to Fotosis No.002 only the housing and layout of the controls is different.

We are selling it for 300 US Dollars which the same price that we sold No.002 but translates into a bit less for us when you convert it into Euro. But due to the fact that we have upgraded our basic design recently and all future units will have extra features and different construction our next models will be priced a bit higher.

Fotosis No.003 is a three in one device. It contains a simple optically controlled synth, a separate noise maker circuit and a passive ring modulator all in one box. There are ten pots, two LDR's, seven toggle switches and two momentary switches all of which control the active circuits and allow you to turn on and off various effects or sections and bypass parts of the device.

This instrument is housed in a thin sided wooden box also purpose built. Most of the wiring is point to point (in a vintage style) to reduce solder board complexity. The instrument is coated in an orange tolex like material and has steel corners and aluminum trimming around the control panel, there is also a leather carry handle on the front.

The sounds produces vary from weird drones to little sequences of chirps, bleeps and beeps and also full on noise.

There are three sections, two oscillators and a ring modulator each oscillator can be used on its own or can be mixed using the ring modulator.

It can be used as an instrument on its own or as an effect that can modulate the sound of other line level devices that are fed into the input of the ring mod.

There is a video of the instrument in action at...





It measures 36 cm long by 22.5 cm wide, the control panel is sloped and is 10 cm at its highest point Fotosis No.003 weighs about 900g.

Features:

Firstly there is a passive ring modulator comprised of three jacks, input, suppressed carrier frequency input and output. There is also a bypass toggle that switches the input straight to the output. But as with most passive ring modulators the inputs and outputs are interchangeable.

Optically controlled LFO producing a pure sine wave, with frequency switching function, low and high pitch switch and a toggle that switches off the optical function allows you to control the oscillator using two pots for when you want very slow non audible sine waves used mainly with the ring modulator as the carrier signal. Just above the main controls there is a volume knob. You can interact with this sections using the two LDR's mounted on the face of the control panel using you hands or other light sources, our favorite is to use flashing bike lights, strobes or torches for weird whining tones and intense beeps.

Next is a strange square wave noise generator that consists of two oscillators interacting with one another. Screaming high pitched tones can be produced as can low fuzz like sounds when the pots are at their max or min positions, in between you find effects similar to a simple two tone sequencer changing relative to one of the pots. There is also a low pass filter and volume control.

We have been playing around with it for a while now and have still have not discovered all the possible sounds you can create. It would be perfect for anyone into Circuit Bending, dronescape music, performance art, noise art installations, DJ's or just musicians who want a device on the side that they can use as a noise wig out machine. It is capable of plenty more subtle sci-fi effects and also when effect units like delay, phase, fuzz or pitch modulating pedals are connected between the device and an amplifier the number of potential sounds you can produce grows.

None of the controls are labeled because they are often quite difficult to describe, but we will be suppling a drawing of the control panel with descriptions relating to the function of each knob and switch to get you started.

Here is a basic run down of the controls:

Oscillator 1 Top of control panel:

High / low pitch toggle switch.
LDR switching on / off.
LDR / potentiometer select.
Kill switch.
Momentary bypass kill switch.
Volume knob.
Sine wave intensity knob.

Oscillator 2 Bottom of control panel:

High / low pitch toggle switch.
Low pass filter setting knob.
Volume knob.
Square wave 1 frequency knob.
Square wave 2 pulse speed knob.
Square wave 1 Square wave 2 mix knob.
Kill switch.
Momentary bypass kill switch.
Oscillator 1 LDR's.

Centre of control panel:

Ring mod. bypass toggle.
Oscillator 1 momentary bypass of kill switch.
Oscillator 2 momentary bypass of kill switch.
Oscillator 1 LDR's.
Power indicator LED.

Rear of unit:

Oscillator 1 1/4" output mono.
Oscillator 2 1/4" output mono.
Ring mod. input 1/4" mono.
Ring mod. carrier input 1/4" mono.
Ring mod. output 1/4" mono.
Power on toggle.
9v dc jack.

Documentation: Fotosis Information

We have reached a point where it is necessary to supply some documentation with our products. In the left hand column there is a .PDF document, just click on the link to view or download.

This document contains general information regarding our base model and describes the function and purpose of each control and jack. There are also sections like getting started, hacks, additional options, contact information and pricing.

When you read this document you will see references to switches labeled S1 through S10, potentiometers K1 to K10 and jacks J1 to J5. To make sense of these keys you must download the appropriate Fotosis No. XXX drawing. At this stage the only difference between models will be the control panel layout and jack location and a drawing will be provided with each purchased instrument and will be available for download here for evermore.

We have added a note to the right hand side column of our blog concerning our starting price for instruments. The base model will always be identical in function to Fotosis No. 002 but the look in terms of colour, layout and approximate size can vary depending on the buyers preferences. These instruments will be priced at 250 Euro and several modifications are available on request, the options are detailed in our documentation.

If you wish to purchase an instrument from us just send us an email and we will get back to you to discuss just what it is you are looking for and how it can be customized you suit your likes and needs.

More options will become available in the future, we will post them on this blog and update the documentation accordingly.

Modifications and options being developed now include:

Circuit Bending controller accessible via a 25 Way D type connector located on the rear of our devices. This will be a microprocessor based system that will allow you to control one or more circuit bent devices using our instrument. It will consist of a number of electronic switches (between 5 and 10) that you can tap into through the 25 way connector. The switches will act just like toggles but will be turned on and off by the microprocessor in a variety of useful ways, allowing you to interact with your circuit bent equipment in a whole new way. The methods of interaction that will trigger the electronic switches will include theremin like control using an LDR and also control of all glitches using a single pot. Settings will include, cycle through all glitches with variable speed, random glitch generator and the ability to skip up and down through the switches with the turn of a single pot.

Built in third bridge guitar. This will require the Fotosis instrument to be a little longer but it should look super cool. There will be a six sting, two handmade pickups, short scale length guitar with a moveable / removable center bridge built into the control panel just above the knobs and toggles. It can be played sort or like a lap steel guitar with a slide or plucked with both hands like a harp. Platforms will be mounted below the strings so you can prepare it using household objects like springs and small electric motors etc. to expand the range of experimentation possibilities.

Modifying the existing square wave noise maker to it has an even greater range of sounds.

More to come, will post pictures of the development and testing of these options as they near completion, the picture above was our first foray into pickup design and building these should become a feature on future Fotosis products, hint built in guitar.

-J