Illinois technician combines engineering and creativity in a DIY synthesizer

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Skot Wiedmann creates music on a synthesizer that is only slightly larger than a sandwich and that took him just a couple of hours to build. He can experiment with sound by using his fingers to press on the surface to create chords and move up and down octaves. Wiedmann - an electronics technician in the department of electrical and computer engineering and an instructor in the School of Art and Design - designed and built his Hyve Touch Synthesizer. "It was a way of trying to inspire some interdisciplinary ideas to happen on campus, for engineers to meet musicians and to talk about the commonalities and the ways this project could inspire learning across those boundaries," Wiedmann said. The synthesizer resembles a keyboard along the bottom and has a grid of hexagons along the top. The keyboard is an octave wide, but someone playing it can change octaves by moving vertically up the keyboard.