Constructed in early January 2013 in one night after a whirlwind of holiday activities and job interviews in New York and Ohio, completed at 4:30 am in time to pack for a 7 am flight from Albany to Costa Rica, by way of Dulles and Panama City, making it the first of the four times I ended up in Panama that month. At it’s core is a simple 4-oscillator, 4093-based cascading NAND synth ala Nicolas Collins‘ Handmade Electronic Music – what can I say, I’m a little in love with that book for the wealth of decent circuits with small footprints that it offers. Like the Little Furry Oscillators, the power supply and the pitch of the first oscillator are wired to photoresistors, but in the case of Number 30, they’re also switched, allowing for both gestural, and knob-based performance. Also included is a simple feedback looper that can also be switched between optical and potentiometer. Simple, sure, but for a small, knob-laden little noise box, hey, it gets the job done.

At the moment, it’s currently under the employ of the Costa Rican noise project Bloqueos, whose sounds can be heard here.