Mr Fixit Rick built a neat-looking "Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio" that could be used to provide background industrial noises for a Lynch movie. He shows you how to build your own at Instructables.
Homemade radio creates spooky sounds
Leave a comment
More items
Witches on drugs
Paul Devereux's book "The Long Trip: A Prehistory of Psychedelia" presents the fascinating story of psychedelic use before the Hoffman/Leary era that we're all familiar with. Devereux travels way back, exploring shamanism, 'shrooms in rock art, the oracle at Delphi, the pre-Incan construction of t... More.
Robbers wearing markered disguises
These gentlemen attempted to rob a Carroll, Iowa home while disguised with, er, Sharpie marker. Police responded to a call and spotted the getaway car driven by Matthew Allan McNelly, 23, and Joey Lee Miller, 20. The guy on the right has the Clockwork Orange eye happening and, as Rob says, the man... More.
Homemade radio creates spooky sounds
Mr Fixit Rick built a neat-looking "Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio" that could be used to provide background industrial noises for a Lynch movie. He shows you how to build your own at Instructables. Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio ... More.
Wee English church rebuilt on 22nd floor of Osaka tower
A Japanese property developer has rebuilt a 100-year-old English country church at 3/4 scale on the 22nd floor of a tower in central Osaka. The developer hopes to capitalise on the Japanese vogue for being married in traditional English churches, offering a low-cost, local alternative to flying to ... More.
Mickey Mouse comics drawn by concentration camp prisoner
Avi sez, "'Mickey Mouse in Gurs' is a tragic 'comic' book made by Horst Rosenthal in 1942 while incarcerated at the Gurs internment camp in France. Rosenthal uses Mickey Mouse as a kind of subversive Virgil to guide us through the hellish experiences of the concentration camp. Horst Rosenthal was m... More.
Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow
David Pescovitz and Xeni Jardin
Editors
Rob Beschizza
Managing Editor
Lisa Katayama, Maggie Koerth-Baker
and Brandon Boyer
Contributing Editors
Sysadmin
Lead Moderator
Moderator
Moderator
Finance
Legal
Legal
Insurance
Developer
Friend
Ken Snider
Antinous
Arkizzle
Avram
Terry Thurlow
Rob Rader/MS&K
Marc Mayer/MS&K
Ed Szylko/EJMS
Dean Putney
Jason Weisberger
John Battelle
Partner
Federated Media
Advertising
RSS Feed
Are they adding the reverb, or is that naturally occurring in this circuit??
Isn't this the same as a theremin?
Awesome. Tesla was indeed a spooky gentleman. I've always found static backgrounds & other electronic phenomenon to bit a bit phantasmagorical. While in the Marine Corps my platoon set up a VHF system. We made a huge antenna & were actually successful transmitting & receiving from Mt. Fuji to Okinawa(that's a long way) I spent several hours calling out and listening carefully for a response. All the while listening to the spookiest radio sounds I've ever heard. Unintelligible babble, barks, growls, cackles, the works. Some of the guys were really scared. It sounded like we had tapped into the astral plane or something. I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to these sort of things, but I'll admit I was kind of spooked that night.
Why oh why wasn't this here a week ago, when I could have had a weekend to try and put it together? This would be the greatest thing to set up for Halloween.
If you guys dig these sounds, you should check out Tod Dockstader's 3cd set "Aerial", composed entirely of collaged shortwave noises.
The spooky Tesla Radio seems to be mostly a prop. The real time effects on the computer are responsible for most of the "spookiness" on the recording. Any cheap AM radio will do as a sound source, especially after dark when smaller staions go off the air or cut power and propagation is enhanced.
OK, how long before the Ghost Hunter guys start using one of these as a scientific means of getting EVPs?
@ ill lich-- perhaps Francis Dhomont's "Frankenstein Symphony" is more appropriate for Halloween? I love Dockstader's stuff and have used it and pieces by Iancu Dumitrescu to spook trick or treaters. It's the only time people don't ask why I'm listening to such nonsense...
You know how people see Jesus on a tortilla and stuff? Same thing happens with noise. The brain wants meaningful patters so noise becomes voices or music. In the winter when it's really quiet around here and the bare tree branches rub together it can get a bit eerie. So I turn up the classical radio.
I would buy a kit to record AM noise.
Has anyone heard that ?
I would buy it.
The Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio uses the Mac software "Audio Hijack Pro" to greatly increase gain, radically adjust pitch, and add reverb.
The devices are similar in some electromagnetic ways. The Theremin is limited by adjusting only the pitch and amplitude of its own self-generated sound.
The Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio's crystal circuit can detect many local electromagnetic disturbances, and generate cool sounds of them through real time software frequency shifts. Things such as computer screen emanations, lightning, or even a Dremel tool, can take on a whole new aural dimension!
Also, "Spooky"'s light-sensitive germanium diode responds to all types of light in various ways.
"You know how people see Jesus on a tortilla and stuff? Same thing happens with noise. The brain wants meaningful patters so noise becomes voices or music. In the winter when it's really quiet around here and the bare tree branches rub together it can get a bit eerie. So I turn up the classical radio."
You know the guy/gal saying this in the horror movie is always the first to go...
The reverb comes from the audio software, which also increases gain and alters pitch, all in real time.
A cheap AM radio won't give the same effects. Because of its more sophisticated circuitry and chokes, it will tend to filter some of the more interesting ELF (extremely low frequency) and high-frequency signals and harmonics.
Furthermore, the light-sensitive 1N34A diode mounted on top of the lid is a light sensitive input for the radio. So, "Spooky" as I affectionately call it, responds to the full light spectrum...something no transistor radio, or any modern radio for that matter, can do!
I was mislead by the title of the post.
Personally, when I want to hear spooky sounds from my radio, I just tune in Rush Limbaugh.
But sure, you could build your own Tesla rig if you want to.
Yes, this is interesting, but what I'm more interested in is the design for the device that caused Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) to crap in his pants.