In the Summer of 2013, Quintron joined forces with artist / engineer MARSHALL BROWN to rethink the Singing House prototype. All elements which were previously hacked or bent items already in existence were reverse engineered and built from the board up by Marshall. The phasing circuits in particular were really focused on and a lot of fun to build. Our basic phaser design started with a board designed by genius phase meister Rick Holt of frequency central.
The original intent of this prototype was to “productize” the device and sell a small home version for fairly cheap while still staying true to all analog circuitry. THIRD MAN RECORDS, who have been very supportive of this project since day 1, was waiting in the wings to help out once the product was fully developed.
Lets just say that when half of your synth sits outside all year round there is going to be problems eventually. Tech support would have been an absolute nightmare. Though not out of the question in the future, the idea of a home version was shelved after a year or so of field testing in favor of the current live stream monster station we have now.
That said, this summer of research, fun, and 12 hour soldering sessions really brought the sound to where it is now. Marshall Brown knows his shit.
We are trying to get more photos from that summer collected and up here asap. Phone crash killed most of them. Lots of exciting stuff happened….including a chance meeting with Neil Young who got to jam with the sun sensors.