Toktek aka Tom Verbruggen has got an interesting setup going on. The joystick he uses is setup to send MIDI messages to his laptop as well as Yamaha RM1-X. With some help from Lisa, a real-time audio manipulation environment he can sample audio on the fly to create some neat clicks and glitchy sounds as seen in this video and others.
Category Archives: Circuit Bending General
General Circuit Bent Devices
Casio PT-10 bending info
From what I can tell, circuit bending Casio PT-10 may not be the most rewarding thing to do. However these board scans and tip lines may be handy for anyone getting started. Also note that even though Casio PT-10 and Concertmate 350 have similar external looks their boards are not the same as pointed out by the Univac. The above boardscans were posted on the benders forum as links to here , and now they are also archived on GetLofi.
Guild of Acquired Technology Circuit Bending workshop
The Guild of Acquired Technology will be having their Monthly circuit bending festivities this Sunday March 26th, 2006. Downtown Chicago, IL USA. Location is here. I am pretty sure that this is open to anyone who is curious about circuit bending and circuit building. I was asked to visit this event and if everything goes well I will be present to share some of my tips.
* Update * GOAT is has been disbanded.
Morphotron I
At some point just about every bender has gone through the initial steps of creating a simple yet effective pitch based modification on a common toy. I would like for everyone to stop and take a moment to reflect on their early projects and how much fun it was to discover those bends. After that moment feel free to browse some neat creations at the Manitou’s Lair. Including this Morphotron I.
Franklinator
Tom Green recently posted this novel recasing project of the Franklin the Turtle Numbers game to the Bender list. Great job on the knobs and the wooden case. Wiring inside is not too shabby either, zip ties and all. Surprisingly interesting sounds are also achieved from such a simple toy. The seemingly haphazardly placement of knobs, switches, and buttons works well in this case. Very nice job Tom.
GameBoy case 6 oscillator thinger-ma-bob.
This Gameboy case was inspired by the previous GameBoy mods, however it is based around the 40106 Hex Schmitt Trigger not the 4093 Quad trigger, because I ran out. The oscillator circuit is incredibly simple with output being fed back through a potentiometer to the input pin. Two values of capacitors, 1uF and 10uF are also used between the single input pin and the ground for various LFO and VCO oscillators. Finally I am using am LM324 Low Power Quad OP-Amp to do the mixing of the signals. This works much better then the diodes used in the previous versions of the circuit, more volume and no dead cancellation frequencies present. The entire circuit runs on a single 9Volt battery with ground and +9 running to the OP-Amp. The array of switches controls various internal patching of oscillators to each other and combinations of larger capacitors. Touch contacts are also used to create various signal effects from the OP-AMP inputs and outputs being patched together by body resistance. The sounds are pretty interesting and fun to mess with, especially with through a delay pedal. More inside shots can be viewed in the GetLoFi gallery and a professionally done video clip of a delayed synth and nanoloop jam is also available.
Rack Mounted SK-1
I missed this Rack Mounted Casio SK-1 first time around on the Electri-Fire website, however Phil quickly forwarded that back to me. The SK-1 is controlled by a MIDI module from Highly_Liquid and the joystick on the switch panel is from Bent-Tronics shop. No sound samples or videos yet, however there are some good tips on getting the power switch rewired and installing a soft reset.
GetBent Circuit Bending oriented shop
Circuit Bending stores seem to be popping up like mushrooms here and there. In the free trade economy it can only mean one thing for the consumer, lower prices. The guys from Get Bent Circuit Bending Supply store emailed me to say that their doors are now open. There are some nice deals on switches and other parts, however better deals are of course on eBay. As a nice bonus, limited prints of various circuit bent instruments are also sold as well as some one-off deals on interesting looking cases and toys. What impressed me the most however was the actual eCommerse site that is hosting this store. Its called www.ecrater.com and anyone can open a store there to sell what ever they wish for free. Brilliant! The interface is simple, clean, supports paypal, and does Froogle Listings.
Breakout Box Xylophone
The sounds of a simple 555 LFO patched to a pitch resistor of just about any black blob toy can be mind bending for sure. This particular Hasbro PS-625 Xylophone does have a lot of cool animal sounds, which sound super rad pitched way down. However something that this device does not have is lots of room on the inside. So an external breakout box with knobs and a coiled cord was attached. The cord is a standard telephone headset cord, unfortunately it only has 4 conductors. 2 were used for power and the other 2 for leads to a pitch resistor located on the backside of the board. A 1 Meg Ohm pot was used for the pitch control and the output of a 555 circuit is patched to that with a switch. The photoresistor can be switched off and on to replace one of the pots in the circuit for optical control over the LFO frequency. The other switches on control Ramp vs. Square wave as well as capacitor substitutions for Low and High oscillations of the 555. This toy does seem to crash hard once in a while to the point of battery removal , so a simple reset switch was added to short the + and – of the battery leads together for a full reset. Once again, more build photos are in the GetLofi Gallery and the video is available for enjoyment.