This circuit bent Yamaha SHS-200 has been outfitted with a breakout box crafted from an old Atari 2600 by Tablebeast. It recently sold on eBay, but the idea of using your Atari to house something worth while is here to stay. The banks of RCA jacks fit nicely along the vast flat useless space of the 2600. The standard control switches were replaced with massive toggles and the metal covers are a nice touch. One thing to push this over the top would’ve been the ability to plug-in a Classic Atari joystick for patching of the bends. Possibly even mounted on the keytar for killer live performance!
Circuitbenders.co.uk website has been around for a while showcasing latest bends and custom works. But this time their Circuit Bent Roland 707 caught my attention via an eBay auction. The first thing that sticks out is Cathode tube light system glowing nicely over the pattern screen. The drum machine itself produces very nice sounds and with the bends enabled they are strangely 8-bit. Something I would expect from a MIDINES. After examining more images I noticed that the ballast for the lights is a black box sticking out off to the side. Kind of an eye sore, but I guess its the price you have to pay if you are not using LEDs. Nice.
This circuit bent Roland TR-626 built in Portugal and was recently sold on eBay for a surprisingly low amount. There were lots and lots of pictures in the auction, but unfortunately no audio. So that could be why people were hesitant to bid it up. I do wonder if it is harder for people to circuit bend devices in other countries. For one the prices for used vintage gear may be higher and of course parts and materials are not cheap either. Some eBay sellers will not ship outside US cause its a hassle. But this may not be true for brand new equipment because everything comes from China nowadays so the actual costs are about the same across the board. What varies is the country’s own import tariffs and whatever merchants tack on. Given that in the US people can afford to pay more it could be that musical goods are actually higher priced in America as opposed to other countries. Any international and US benders please feel free to comment on this matter.
This hanging wall piece started of as a Kids Musican Fun keyboard and morphed into a nasty glitch monster thanks to J-Prater. It boasts a heavy duty bolt bay to trigger notes instead of keys. Apparently this circuit works with only pure touch contacts to produce the sounds. The center piece of this construction is a blinding headlamp composed of high power LEDs to blind the performer and trigger a hypnotic trance. Pitch knobs have been added to the internal musical circuit as well as an auxilary singing bird sound device. The real beauty is in the detail, so feel free to click on the images and see for yourself.
While browsing for something new to post I came across a new mod on the Gieskes.NL website. This time we have a circuit bent Sega Master System II with an RCA patchbay. Gijs was also nice enough to post a schematic refering to the IC which the patchbay was wired to. There are stills as well as some really neat videos on the site. It looks like certain patches only distort the scenes and not the actual characters or gameplay. Great for lofi visuals!
The creative force of FoodTeam has published quite a gallery of their instruments with sound samples, plenty of inside shots, and schematics. Something to note is that most of their bent equipment is circa 90s digital gear like Digital Delays, FX processors, PSR series keyboards etc. None to less those do make for best Glitches per se. Rewiring the Rom and DAC data paths almost always yields great results, but the risk frying this studio gear of course is great as well.
Frederic sent me this awesome MS-20 style cab mod that he just finished for his SK-1. The bends all came from online resources and the process is detailed with photos and explanations of all the panel functions. The front panel really gives this device a professional look because it was actually done at a metal shop by Frederic’s friend Jean. No audio samples yet, but lots of good tips on the site, like using a camcorder adapter integrated into the case as a power supply for the instrument and using fake leather to wrap the case, grrrrr.
Kind of like MIDI, but not quite EDDI (Electronic Device Digital Interface ) bridges the glitch hardware layer with the software controllers. Built from what appears to be 2 HighlyLiquid’s switch array kits this glitch desk system is capable of producing some very neat compositions as seen in this video. The website does not appear to have a lot of info yet, but other circuit bent devices can easily be found as well as upcoming shop and other artist areas. Thanks to youmibow for posting this to the benders list.
While on the quest for the mysterious HR-16 ROM rewriting info done by the Burnkit2600 crew. I noticed a few other interesting things on their site, first off its now a blog, with RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds perfect for the “Up-to-date” types like me. The next thing is a lengthy thread dedicated to bending the Roland 505 with details on which points do what and some external links to completed mods. Very nice work.
PixelForm has been mentioned before on the GetLoFi with very cool modded TI-99s and Ataris. What is different about this V3 model in particular is the built in quad oscillators that can be feedback in to the video patches for creating dynamically changing patterns. However the audio does not seem to be linked to the video, so the circular content generation is not possible at this moment. I am really surprised that more people are not toying around with these computers for bending purposes, they are dirt cheap compared to this Pixel Maelstrom V3 from Bent 2006modified version, which is up on eBay right now. There are also some videos of the device in action available on the auction page.
Circuit Bending Events Custom Instruments DIY Tips and Tricks. Cassette Tape and Record Full Albums I converted on YouTube. My eBay Auctions and Special Projects.
