Patchwerk is a new web browser-based application that lets you control a massive modular synthesizer, housed at MIT, and hear the results:
Patchwerk lets you control a massive analog synthesizer from your browser, and streams the results back to you and everyone connected. The interface on this site is linked to a physical synth cabinet connected to the world’s largest homemade modular synth, currently housed at the MIT Museum.
Turn a knob here, and Patchwerk will turn a motorized knob on the cabinet. If someone at the Museum grabs a knob, you’ll see it turn too.
The synth that you can control is the giant DIY modular synthesizer of Joe Paradiso, shown below, which MIT calls ‘the world’s largest’.
We suspect that there are a few monster synths, like the giant modular synthesizer of Hans Zimmer or T.O.N.T.O., that might offer some competition for that title. Paradiso’s is a unique instrument, though, that you can now control via the web or see if you visit MIT.
Having visited the site, I’m wondering if the words “lets you control a massive modular synthesizer” is a bit of an overstatement….. maybe “let’s you add to the chaos”