This video captures a test of a MacGyver DIY pressure sensor surface for controlling analog synthesis.

Materials used: an old cardboard box, a cut-up plastic folder, adhesive aluminium foil, a piece of conductive foam of the kind you use to transport ICs.

Total cost: €4.

It is built from cheap conductive foam, with aluminium foil taped on both sides in various patches. Only the right side of the sensor surface is connected. The top foil goes to +5V, and four patches underneath are connected to various inputs on the small analog modular synthesizer Chimera BC16 (the white round thing with knobs in the background).

In this first test, the following modulation inputs are connected: volume, oscillator pitch and diff (osc 1-2), and filter cutoff.

The aluminium foil is attached to a sheet of plastic, to allow change of layout, and to make the foam piece exchangeable in case it gets worn out.

via otoskope