Spirit Box

Spirit Box

Spirit box devices work by sweeping a radio dial fast enough that no station holds, leaving fragments of whatever the receiver passes over. This one is fully synthesised: a static bed generated by an AudioWorklet, a formant voice built from a sawtooth glottal source and three bandpass resonances, and a receiver chain of filtering, saturation and compression that both pass through together.

Nothing here is a recording and nothing is transmitted. The voice does not say words - it produces syllabic motion, because an unresolvable almost-voice is more interesting than a clear one and honest about not being a real transmission. Sweep rate, static level, bandwidth and instability are all under your control.

This is an instrument and a sound tool, provided for entertainment and experiment. It describes what it measures and does not identify the cause of anything it shows.

Also available as an Android app: Spirit Box