Soma Ether

[Marko-V]

Here's another interesting piece. Any experiences?

"ETHER is a kind of anti-radio. Instead of being tuned to a specific radio station, it receives all the interference and radiation that a traditional radio tries to eliminate in order to create a clean signal. It captures the radio waves "as is" from hertz to gigahertz, because it doesn't contain the tuned input circuit that filters out all frequencies except the narrow band of a specific station. This allows ETHER to perceive the invisible electromagnetic landscape that humans created unintentionally, making possible live electromagnetic field listening and recording."

https://somasynths.com/ether/

[theworldisawarfilm]

Meh. Fancy EMF 'sniffer.' I'll stick with the one I built for $5 thanks.

[Vitrufen]

I'll admit it is a little snobby thing, but its cool. I imagine a single recording with this device could act as a multi-layered texture with the mangled electromagnetic field recordings you could get out of it. It seems almost too easy, as I like manually layering various textures over each-other...still, emf recording is kinda interesting.

[host body]

it's a fun device, maybe not worth its retail price but still. i've used it live to add texture over synth pads. it does love a reverb and a mixer to filter out frequencies, though. i've also found some really cool samples, sounding almost like a really noisey synth by filtering out the highs and recording what comes out of my pedal power source, then putting that on a sampler and playing it with a keyboard. it's a neat source for sampling, nothing more nothing less.

the demo video they released was very misleading, listening to different electric fields outside was fun for exactly the walk home from the post office.

[Electro Surgeon]

There is a cool interview online where Roro from VOMIR talks about using one during his daily commutes.

[mosquito]

It was way too fucking expensive & I fucked myself buying one. Feel that way about almost any gear I buy new / don't dig out of the trash though, so yeah.
Feel that way about my Lyra-8 too, and I still play it nearly every day since it came.

If you go for it for sure get the 2-pin version with the "range" knob, though I can't imagine the other the pins pick up contact with stuff really well & fine-tuning that is indispensable for me now. The antenna gain ("range") knob you only need to turn way down if you're hooking it up to something crazy in my experience. Touch your fingers to both knobs and touch other shit with your other hand and feel powerful. tapping it on the chassis of my realistic preamp that it's wired into sounds magnificently harsh & fast moving.

I gator clipped it to my active antenna setup (real simple one with an antenna tuner), and cranked up the juice - got some pretty astounding shit out of it. Up until then I still almost suspected, deep down, that it might just be a telephone pickup through a cheap preamp circuit playing off the openness of its target audience - it's not, safely. Though you can get a lot of those same sounds as well - circuit sniffs, etc. It can read many more things & sounds vary much more. Get the 2pin one.

The real issue with ether is that it's hard getting enough good sounds from things around your house or where you rehearse. You're sure to find a few: lights are sweet, one of mine climbs up in pitch like a siren when you switch it on. My copier sounds so much like Symphony for a Genocide it nearly made the thing worth it. But then what? That's all the variety you'll get there if you don't venture out with it. So imo it's not really "gear".

I've got a handheld VLF receiver with a miniwhip antenna, runs on batteries. It too can make EMFs into sound - using it anywhere near the AC grid blows it out in a way without much variety actually. It's only really useful if you take it out with you do get atmospheric sounds (or if you get really, really creative / are a genius). SOMA Ether is like that for the AC grid, public transit, the metropolitan everywhere - a kinda industrial VLF.

[Eigen Bast]

I have one of those VLF receivers - it's a shame how monotonous they sound in the city, but you can get some truly strange stuff in the wilderness. I busted it out in the mountains during rainy season and it was intensely trippy. I have to use my fostex 4 track because my digital recorders LED screen adds an irritating hum.

[Atrophist]

If I'm understanding this correctly this device does pretty much the same thing for about half the price (okay no protective enclosure, but anyway)

http://www.1010.co.uk/org/detektor.html

Howse's "Dark Interpreters" at least are pretty fascinating devices, so this one may be worth a look too.

[Atrophist]

There is also this:

https://store.lom.audio/collections/elektrosluch-accessories/products/priezor?variant=5859618062368

Sold out, but apparently there will be more stock later. Cheaper than the Ether, but you'll need a portable preamp of some kind. Plus you'll look like a lunatic out in public.

[tiny_tove]

If I'm understanding this correctly this device does pretty much the same thing for about half the price (okay no protective enclosure, but anyway)

http://www.1010.co.uk/org/detektor.html

Howse's "Dark Interpreters" at least are pretty fascinating devices, so this one may be worth a look too.

I have the detektor is nice.
The dark interpreter, wich I have in mother tenebrarum version, is the only of Martin's synths I'm not regularly using, if anybody is interested I can spare mine in mint condition for 250 euro + mail. (wertham at gmail dot com)

[Cementimental]

Oh nice, hadn't really looked at the Detektor tho I have the Micro Blackdeath and Dark Interpreter. Might get PCB done when we order the next Fort Processor PCB batch, + try and make one