What is it?

A hard drive controlled seq/synth thing. An XR2206 analog function generator, running with frequencey and amplitude modulation from the input of two 4040 binary ripple counters or external input CV. The outputs of the two 4040s are opened and closed by signals from 2 of the 4 magnets from the motors of the hard drive. The third magnet is used to trigger amplitude modulation.

See some videos at the moat page

The output waveform goes from hard broken triangle, to triangle to fuzzy triangle :) Of course, with external modulation, it can become very chaotic! There are two modes, one for the bass region, one higher. You can make simple bass runs with moat, or crazy modulated melodies. Moving the disk slowly, you can generate long notes, modulating them with gentle to and fro. Or spin the hell out of the disk to getting bleeping madness or crazy subbass .

I've successfully interconnected moat with my keep and rampart, bastl's kastle series, and the micro modular from korg.

I made this to play with keep as an an xtra means of adding control and being able to input with a direct tactile 'thing'. Oh, and I made it to play with Gieskes Analog HD synth. It's crazy fun.

I should make it clear that the hard disk motor controller is odd! As is the arrangement of triggers and amplitude modulation. I think it's fair to say, it can be difficult to play :) Also, I think it's best with another device, intermodulating. But it's interesting! In some settings, GLITCHY. But nice.

There are few sequencing synths that are driven by hard drive motors! This make moat, odd, unpredictable and a lot of fun!

Moat comes with 4 rubber feet and either black or blue pot knobs. Please choose black or blue. I prefer the blue buttons since they are a bit smaller and more 'grippy'. You can see the blue knobs on my other listings like rampart or keep.

Why did you make it?

I made this to play with keep and Gieskes Analog HD synth. It's crazy fun.

What makes it special?

There are few sequencing synths that are driven by hard drive motors!

Moat is open hardware! You can use the fritzing files (or gerbers as I update them) to make one yourself. It's GPLv3 so you can make commercial versions as long as you release your version of the design files.