Sunday, July 4, 2010

Gristleizer

Throbbing Gristle is a quite influential Industrial band. Part of what makes their sound unique is the infamous Gristleizer, a distortion unit built by bandmember Chris Carter. It has a LFO with four waveforms which controls a VCF or a VCA. There have been numerous DIY clones and there is even a commercial re-issue available (for about 400 USD, which I find a little steep).
User Taylor from the electro-music.com forums (I love that forum. Honestly.) offered a PCB for a Gristleizer clone, and I ordered one.
It has all the original features PLUS an output for the LFO - which means the thing integrates rather nicely into my modular synth. The input / output jacks are located on the front panel for that very reason. The panel is aluminum, the case itself a mixture of sheet metal, plywood and loads of gaffa tape.