Hi all, just bought a great childrens keyboard in a charity shop, a real classic, with a built in mic like the Korg Micro, and a console with a sustain pedal and a touch screen and three octave keyboard. It looks like something Sun Ra would have used ! It's super cheesy and ripe for use in our band. I am thinking of doing a bit of "circuit bending" on it and wondered if anyone here has indulged in this activity. I am just going to rip the case of and fiddle around inside, and prod things until it sounds interesting, then extend those "taps" of the boards to knobs/switches on the fromt panel. A friend has done a whole series of gigs using kids toys that have been "customised" This could see my arsenal of synths replaced by a Mattel keyboard ! they certainly seem to have potential, but I guess you could do this with anything, although I would be a bit reticent of mangling a Moog Voyager though !!!!

Take care,

Tony.


Take care,

Tony.

I haven't personally, but check out a guy called Nic Collins. He was doing a series of workshops at the Watershed in Bristol, but I think they've finished now.

This is perhaps more suited to the DIY forum on here.

Anyway, I have some limited experience with circuit bending.. It is fun! But also, slightly hazardous in more ways than 1.. There is the risk that you could zap yourself (if it is mains powered stuff of course). But also, I found that sooner or later, you will break beyond repair, whatever it is that you are circuit bending.. It is pretty much inevitable. Naturally circuit bending only really works on analog stuff.. And also, due to the fact you will most likely make one off noises that will be hard/impossible to repeat, its a good idea to record it all the way. Maybe use in samples later on..
All the best!

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Paul

Tony

There are plenty of good references, probably one of the more complete ones is Cementimental. One of the more ecclectic is Reed Ghazala'a Anti Tehory Workshop which can be found at www.anti-theory.com. Reed is regarded ad the father of circuit bending. You'll need to click on the link marked "Sound Art" once you've worked your way through the wierdness.

Having taken the odd jolt myself over time, I would suggest you don't touch power supply circuitry unless you know what you are doing, remmeber that big capacitors can hold big charges and that rubber soled shoes can be a boon at times.

Cheers

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Google less; read more!

There's a guy somewhere selling 'glitched' speak and spell toys. Some wonderful effects if you're in to that sort of thing.

I worked with a group of young people who were well into this. One kid was a genius and bent all kinds of stuff. Masses of fun and you can get results which would cost hundreds of pounds from a plug in!

Arm yourself with a soldering iron and loads of batteries and follow the tips on the Anti-Theory site above.

Thanks folks ! a mine of information ! I was only thinking of working on battery powered stuff, and things that I won't care about breaking. I have heard that it is possible to "bend" digital equipment, like early sampler based things, but who knows, I guess the rule here is try anything ! Oh well, thew winter nights look pretty full from now on....

Take care, and thanks for the info and links.

Tony.

Digital stuff can certainly be bent.

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madtheory creations
Synths and pianos for Kontakt

Quote Ultimate Fish:

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There's a guy somewhere selling 'glitched' speak and spell toys. Some wonderful effects if you're in to that sort of thing.

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How about adding this to it
http://highlyliquid.com/kits/midispeak/index.html
Midi for speak and spell

If you do not know what you are doing, you stand a healthy chance of destroying the circuit you are trying to bend.

Let me tell you a story:

This goes back to my days in the 70's when I worked with V whose story I told earlier about the mop and bucket room, the hitch-hiker and the pianist with the large nose.

I was sitting in the workshop one day, setting fire to my fingers with some expensive semiconductors, a process I used to call soldering, when a musician with a tube-amp under his arm and a Siamese cat on a lead walked in. I say a cat on a lead but actually it was a cat in the tradition of passive resistance, lying on the ground being pulled along on a lead.

He said that it was resting.

He then handed us the tube amp saying, "Ive like added some circuitry make it like sound man."

What he had done was to take a circuit board out of some transistor radio and wire it up to various points in the tube amp just as his fancy took him.

Rather than explain the difference between tubes and transistors, my then employer (V) demonstrated it: he plugged it in and turned it on. There was a yellow flash and a very loud bang and volumes of brown smoke poured out of its sides.

The cat took off like one of those motorcycle Walls of Death stunt drivers. It streaked round all four walls of the workshop at about five feet above ground before going to earth in a Leslie cabinet.

A week later, when the owner of that cabinet returned, I was given the job of trying to persuade him with a straight face, that it had come to us smelling like that.

So be careful what you bend - it could end up smelling of cat's urine!

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www.the-byre.com No longer Forum Member

Hi Tony,

I remembered that there was a little thread on this a while back:
a question about circuit bending
and re-reading that reminded me that there was an SOS article on Reed Ghazala in the March 2000 issue. There's a direct link in that thread.

Circuit bending went gentrified when tossers like Damon Albarn started spending 1000s on custom-modified Speak&Spells, but there's no denying the charm of the idea.

Can you say who your friend is who does this stuff, and which keyboard you found?

Regards,
Peter