Steampunk Aural Enhancer.

Found in an antique shop, this was used to change the mood of people around you. Certain sounds when played by this device will make people break out on song and dance.
During WWI the allies used these devices to pacify their enemy.

Step 1 Download vintage recordings, and get a portable speaker system.

The width of the speakers will determine where you need to drill the holes for your speaker horns.
I found this speaker system at a dollar store, the speakers are just under two inches apart.

I wanted to play sounds from the first era of recordings. I downloaded a bunch of recordings from the cylinder preservation project, http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php Songs from the right era add to the effect I wanted.

Your software and audio player will vary, and you'll know how to download music to your player.

Comments

[Begradoo]

Awesome Idea!
I love steampunk so I had to make one. Here's mine. It sounds amazing with music from 1920 to 1950.

[KronoNaut]

Great looking device. There was one at Seattle's Steampunk University last year that played 19th century music via wifi.

[Begradoo]

Neato. Though mine hardly competes with that. ha ha

I am working on another right now using bicycle horns. I'll have to post that one too once its done.

[baneat]

Haha cool looking. Fallout 3 has a good soundtrack for this thing btw.

[zchampine]

 YES! Fallout 3 is probably the best game ever...

[KronoNaut]

Okay, I finally bought Fallout 3.  You are so correct.

[k_man93]

i would do that with an old plastic car horn i have, but paint them silver or something

[KronoNaut]

A car horn would be a cool way to do this.

[strmrnnr]

I listened to some of the old recording from the site you recommended. I found them quite interesting. They seem to have quite an effect on my mood as you discribed in the intro. I found an Instructable on here last week concerning a brainwave generator. The link is to the download. It has made me wonder what they may be doing to the music of today, as this generator can produce waves that which are carried on audio frequencies below our hearing range. Very few recording of music from present day have been able to stir the emotion of those old recording.

http://www.bwgen.com/download.htm

Thank you for the tunes.

[drbill]

Ya got that right about Harbor Freight. JUNK TOOLS!

[bustedit]

so for now it's just an instructable on how to put an mp3 player into a box?? im tired of the steampunk thing, but i like the way your design came out, and the concept is cool. i love old warbly scratchy music. You may have inspired me to take my 9 dollar childs acoustic gtar, distress it, add an mp3 full of old delta blues, and put an old looking speaker (or horn like you) in the soundhole. Just to be cute, ya know?

[KronoNaut]

Delta Blues out of a childs guitar... Leon Redbone would be very very proud. :)

[fuzvulf]

Steampunk is a culture extension like any other. Personally I love it. The instructable has a nice look to it, but it could use a little fleshing out. You would get better sound transfer if you were to use flexible cones inside that fit over each speaker and attached to the bottom of the horns. Overall, its not a bad project but could have used some extra attention to detail. Steampunk is all about the era of "brass, wood, leather and glass, when things were powered with water as a gas and while all of this look meets tech out the a..hem." Mauthen Rheust, A Steampunk Revolution Keep at it, the original series, "Wild wild west" which the will smith movie was based off of had a lot of steampunkish feel to it. I wonder if anyone has thought of rebuilding an I-Pod into an old English pewter snuff tin with brass accents? Fuzzy

[KronoNaut]

Thanks for the sound transfer tip! I've got a long cold winter ahead, and can now spend more time fleshing it out.

[Rishnai]

If I remember correctly, there was an episode of the Twilight Zone centered around just such an aural enhancer, used to affect people's moods and "remove their mask." Nice design!

[KronoNaut]

Thank you!

[uguy]

Excellent, thanks for sharing!

[masterochicken]

this gives me other ideas

[Kiteman]

That looks really good. Can you control the ipod with the box closed?

[KronoNaut]

Not yet. I need to design and build a joystick device that will sit above the dial. I may move the iPod to the side, and have a sliding door to access it if the joystick is too messy.