Bite Into Strange Sounds With NOISEFERATU

The NOISFERATU is an open source generative textural sound synthesizer, or as creator [Robert Heel] puts it, “a sound designer’s dream and audiophile’s worst nightmare”.

NOISEFERATU offers 45 different sound algorithms grouped into five banks produce a dazzling range of evolving soundscapes and patterns that resist repetition or settling, each influenced and shaped — the word controlled does not quite apply — by a volume slider and a few hardware knobs.

So what does it actually sound like? Check out the video embedded below to give it a listen, it’s pretty trippy.

Hardware-wise NOISEFERATU is centered around the Seeed Studio XIAO SAMD21 microcontroller, takes power over USB-C, and has a headphone jack for sound output. We love the artwork on the dual-sided front panel, too.

DIY synthesizers based on logic chips have a long and proud history, and seeing the different directions people can go by incorporating microcontrollers is always a delight.

If NOISEFERATU’s experimental sound and noise sounds up your alley, the design files and code on GitHub have everything one should need to build one. Kits are for sale direct from the designer, as well.