Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Free Mac Standalone/AU Emulation of 70's Kid's Toy


Almost everyone I know has a childhood memory of some wonderful toy they asked Santa for and dreamed of having, but never got. The Remco SoundFX Machine was my own personal white whale. I begged my parents for one (even at age 8 I was showing a budding interest in synthesis, I guess), and I now realize that they were completely right not to get it for me, as I probably would've driven them to madness within minutes of turning the thing on. Still, as I've grown up (allegedly) and developed not only a full-fledged interest in electronic music, but a career as well, I've always wanted to play around with one. Never ran into one, unfortunately, although they show up for ludicrous prices occasionally on eBay.

But now there's a next best option. In trying to look up info on the toy, I came across Ghostfact's SoundFX Machine, which runs on OSX as either an AU plug-in, or a standalone application. Ghostfact are upfront about the fact that they've never played the genuine article and base the design on technical research, but I have to say after playing with it a bit, it sounds quite a bit like the YouTube clips of the real deal I've come across.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a whale to go kill...

1 comment:

macheteconfetti said...

I found one on the street a week ago and made this...;0 I had no idea what it was but it's colors were so pleasing and I'm an artist so I took it home and fixed it and made this!!! cheers and here's to white whales!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7SR3JOszV0