In addition to all the usual Morpheum features, this special (and very
limited edition) Morpheum includes actual hammer & sickle insignia buttons
from the historic USSR. Twelve of these Russian buttons are used as
keys for triggering the instrument's samples.
Also added to the instrument is an organically inset eye. This high-quality
glass eye, bulging from the distorted plastic and looking like a growth,
serves as a peak pilot light flashing ruby red from within as it follows
the strange voices. This, in combination with the serene blue pilot
light and bright gold Russian buttons, makes for a truly striking instrument!
Reed always, in making special edition instruments, looks for vintage
knobs and other hardware to employ in the design. This stock varies,
but all special edition instruments will be fitted with special finishing
elements wherever possible. The blue LED power indicator in this instrument
shines through a vintage lettered or numbered glass pilot lens.
Morpheums are finished in crackled fluorescent colors involving many
coats of paints & glosses, including a dusting of holographic powder
making the instrument shimmer with spectra in direct light. Control
titles are hand-inked.
More from Reed's EMI article on the Morpheum:
"Unlike other sample banks discussed in this
series of articles in EMI, the Morpheum relies heavily upon body-contacts
for inter-flesh modulation as well as the ability to layer its digital
recordings.
"Has anyone recognized this instrument yet? The original device, like
some of the circuit-bent devices discussed earlier in previous articles,
was a children's toy, depicting an old-fashioned train. Its four wheels
(now under the four pearloid accordion keys visible in the photograph)
could be pressed for locomotive sounds. It carried eight animals (now
under the computer keys) which when pushed released their own voice
samples as well. The mechanical sounds consist of steam whistle, bell,
engine, and railroad track rhythm; the animals aboard are rooster, lion,
dog, cat, horse, goat, cow, and elephant.
"Circuit-bending adds to this instrument a set of four body-contacts,
two potentiometers, a sky blue pilot light, a speaker cut-out switch,
and RCA-type line output. Strap fasteners can be added to the upper
housing sides so that the unit can be worn as an accordion, left hand
on the four body-contacts, right hand on the keys.
"Most important of the circuit-bending additions are the conductive
flesh contacts. These are chrome drawer pulls wired to sensitive traces
on the circuit board. Each sample bank (animal and machine) contains
a pair of these metallic mushrooms which, when bridged with the fingers,
change the pitch of the sample in play. However, volume and disintegration
effects are possible by cross-touching these separate pairs, bending
between the banks as well as simply within each. In this way, either
mechanical or animal sounds can be themselves modified or even blended
into one another.
"Because slowing-down digital audio streams produces such fascinating
results, each sample bank now contains potentiometers (variable resistors)
dedicated to this function. These dials can be pre-set to create special
voices far outside the sample's usual personality. Doppler effects,
metallic notch filter effects, and many other single-voice modifications
are possible by these means. Of course, after these banks are initialized
in this manner, pitches and tones set, body contact changes as noted
before are additionally possible to further reshape and combine the
voices as electricity flows through the player's fingers, the musician
having become a very active section of the circuit, truly a living electronic
experimental musical instrument in the most literal sense."
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