Seaweed Factory

Moonrocks March Shows

2012-03-07T21:02:00.000-05:00

I'm playing three shows this month as Moonrocks. I'll be playing all new material from my upcoming album. There will be homemade synthesizers and MPCs.

March 14th:
The Big Easy, 55 Market St.
F&*# Computers 5
Doors at 9, $3 cover
All hardware night, live beats by Portland's finest DJs

March 17th:
Slainte Wine Bar & Lounge, 24 Preble St.
St. Patrick's Day Celebration
Doors at 9, FREE
Part of Portland's St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl

March 31st:
Slainte Wine Bar & Lounge, 24 Preble St.
Still Not Dead - Joe's Birthday Bash
Doors at 9, FREE
With Pensivv and others...

Hope to see you there.

Power Lines at Strange Maine

2012-03-03T21:08:00.000-05:00

Power Lines play Strange Maine back in February 2010. This is almost the entire set. We were using two SP-404 samplers, a Roland JX3P for the keys and a homemade Soundlab synthesizer.

Songs:
Dad's Gun
The Once Over
Calculator
Vacation Loop
Segway Getaway

Download the Strange Cat Broadcast EP or the full-length album, Fun Unit.

Brass & Glitch - Bent VTech Talking Whiz Kid Plus

2012-02-27T14:21:00.003-05:00

Here's a circuit bent VTech Talking Whiz Kid Plus. The membrane keyboard has been replaced by brass stripes which control bend points. The brass keys were added so the machine would be easier to play. From left to right the controls are power, scramble, glitch, long loop, short loop, volume, and distortion. A 1/4" output is provided. This piece makes great glitching babble sounds. Watch the LCD screen for glitches as well.

Non-linear Shaper Prototype

2012-02-20T12:00:00.013-05:00

Here is a demonstration of my new non-linear shaper prototype. The patch uses a triangle VCO into the shaper, which is then mixed with some spring reverb. The dry signal is also mixed into the output. Drums are provided by my analog drum module based on the Univox SR-55 drum machine. The output is feed to a Heathkit tube bench amplifier and signal tracer. A sample-and-hold is controlling the offset of the non-linear shaper.

This is a fairly simple circuit with a wide range of sound possibilities. Here is the schematic. It should be noted that R4 was not included on the circuit that I used in this video. It is recommended as it should buffer the output. This may change the sound slightly, I have not tested it yet.

I tested it, the second video was made with a 1K resistor on the output. It did not seem to make a difference in terms of the sound. I would recommend adding it to protect the circuit.

This circuit is for your personal use only, as I would like to provide modules in the future. When I constructed the module I affixed a lens on the front panel that shows the LEDs working inside. The LEDs will light when the unit is operating.

Here is a simpler demonstration of my non-linear shaper prototype. A triangle wave runs directly into the shaper. Later in the demo, a triangle LFO is used to modulate the offset. The output on the shaper is shown on the oscilloscope.

Discuss it on the electro-music.com forum.

I plan to provide a board for this circuit in the near future so that others can easily build their own shaper.

Altered Gee - Feb. 8th, 2012

2012-02-14T15:23:00.008-05:00

Here's Altered Gee at the Big Easy on February 8th, 2012. Key Jr. Dee Jay and Slouch are banging out beats and live mixing. Check out tracks from their album, European Gees, on Bandcamp or grab the full-length tape from L'animaux Tryst (sold out at the moment). They also have a blog. Check out the write-ups in Foxy Digitalis and Cassette Gods.

40106 Microsynth - Design

2012-02-13T12:54:00.006-05:00

Here's a follow-up to this demo of a simple 40106 microsynth. I decided to challenge myself and build this into as small a box as I could. The brown knob controls the rate of the gating oscillator, the blue knob controls the width, the gray knob controls the volume, the green knob controls the tune of the main oscillator, and the red knob controls the tune of the modulation oscillator. This simple synth was used during the WMPG radio show earlier this month.

Here's a hand drawn schematic of the microsynth. A stereo version could be easily constructed as only half of the 40106 is used. MPF102 FET transistors are used as both a gate and a voltage controlled resistor. The circuit could use many improvements to make it more stable, however, I like the instability in the sound that results from this circuit. Try building one for yourself!

Squarethrower - Circuit Bent Yamaha PSS-20

2012-02-09T12:22:00.007-05:00

Here's Squarethrower, circuit bent Yamaha PSS-20. The green control acts as a feedback overdrive, which has an effect similar to pulse width modulation. The blue control interrupts the clock circuit and produces weird glitches, speed-ups, and drop-outs. A 1/8" switching output is also fitted. I've documented the build from start to finish in hopes it would help show the entire process.

Here's a step by step guide if you would like to try it for yourself.

Here's the keyboard before any modifications. It's a simple square wave monophonic keyboard with blip-bop drums, as well as an arpeggio option. Different tones and rhythms are selected by holding down the large green or blue pads and pushing a key. Let's take a look inside for good modifications.

After removing the screws holding the case together, the circuit board was exposed. There are two chips on the board: the custom Yamaha YM7108 synthesizer IC and a LM386S amplifier chip. In the photo above, the two rows of 9 solder traces belong to the synth IC and the 8 solder traces in a row beside it belong to the LM386S amp chip. When trying to find bends, these are the obvious places to start.

Because the YM7108 runs on a crystal clock, the usual method of changing the pitch by swapping a resistor is not possible. However, it is possible to glitch this type of clock by degrading the clock signal. In order to do this, locate the crystal on the board and follow the traces until it meets the CPU. The red dot on the YM7108 traces indicates the pin receiving the clock signal. By routing some of this signal to ground via a 25K potentiometer, the signal can be loaded until it produces glitch effects.

There are usually not many interesting bends with keyboards that use such a simple synthesizer IC. To find more bends, look to the analog sections of the circuit. In this case, the LM386S amplifier chip provides many possibilities. It is also advantageous that a datasheet is available for this chip. One effect that works well on this chip is feedback, which will produce overdrive and ringing.

Usually this involves joining the input and output pins with a potentiometer. The feedback circuit I've devised for this keyboard uses a different approach. According to the data sheet, pins 1 and 8 control the gain of the amplifier. By placing a 10uf capacitor across these pins, the gain is doubled. Interesting things happen when the output on pin 6 is feed back into the amplifier through the gain pins. I used a 10uf capacitor in series with a 25K potentiometer connected to pins 8 and 6. The potentiometer sweeps from normal amplification to oscillating blips at the extremes, with pulse width modulation sounds in between.

After finding the bends I intended to use, I needed to figure out how to fit the two potentiometer controls inside the case. This is not a large keyboard and it does not have much front panel space. A suitable cavity was located next to the speaker. In order to mount the two potentiometers, two screw support tabs had to be removed. The two areas in red were removed with clippers and smoothed with a lighter. Care was taken to avoid cracking the keyboard case.

Holes were drilled for each potentiometer. A small drill bit was used to start the hole to help avoid cracking and keep the hole centered. A cardboard shim was cut to size to level out the plastic the potentiometers would sit upon; this keeps the controls perpendicular to the keyboard. Note that the potentiometers are not flush with the sides of the case, as the bottom part of the case occupies the inner rim of the top part.

The potentiometers are attached directly to the plastic case by nuts. These are tightened with needle nose pliers and stay strongly in place. Plastic knobs are placed over the knurled shafts of the potentiometers and held in place by friction. I was able to find matching colors for this keyboard!

After the controls have been fitted to the case, wires are run to the different points indicated earlier. The controls are fitted before the wires to keep wire length to a minimum. This makes better use of the space and results in better sound due to a shorter signal path. Very little solder was used, as the wires sit under the key bed. It is important that stranded wire is used, as solid wire tends to break due to the flexing that occurs when closing the case. Components like the capacitor can be directly attached to the potentiometers.

Each new solder joint was reinforced with a tiny amount of hot glue. This provides extra strength to hold the connection in place when closing the case. Though not pictured, a switching jack was also added to provide a line output. It was placed between the positive line going to the speaker and grounded on the battery pack.

Journey Through The Solar System

2012-02-08T13:55:00.006-05:00

Earth has one moon. Here's a short film about the Solar System made with a circuit-bent Interactive Solar System, fitted with a pitch control and current starve control.

Try these simple bends for yourself. A red wire leads from the middle of the battery pack to the main green circuit board. Snip the wire in the middle and insert a 10K potentiometer between both ends. Lowers values might work better. This control acts as a current starve, which pitches the circuit down while adding glitches.

Replace resistor R22 on the brown circuit board with a 680K resistor in line with a 500K potentiometer. This resistor controls the clock circuit for the black blob CPU. The original value was 910K, so the new resistors allow for higher and lower pitches.

New Album Preview

2012-02-04T19:18:00.005-05:00

Here's the live set from last night; the interview has been removed. Most of what you hear will appear in some form on the new album, which itself should appear mid-spring.

Thanks to Leah Renee at Local Motives and WMPG in general.

Local Motives on WMPG

2012-02-02T17:29:00.010-05:00

Tune in to WMPG this Friday evening, February 3rd, to hear all-new Moonrocks material and an interview! If you're in the Southern Maine area, tune your FM radio to 90.9 or 104.1. You can also stream the show live online at wmpg.org. The show starts at 7:30 PM Eastern time (or 4:30 PM Pacific time, if you're on that coast).

In the meantime, check out the Moonrocks Soundcloud for some demos, or download a free album from Bandcamp. Thanks for listening!

The show was lots of fun, listen to some of it here!

Univox SR-55 Drum Outputs And Clock Triggers

2012-01-25T17:03:00.008-05:00

Here is some more insight on modifying the Univox SR-55 drum machine. These questions apply to the Korg Minipop 35, which is a very similar re-branding of this model. This is in response to questions about adding separate output for each drum and clock in/out triggers. Much of this is speculation, but it could prove useful to those looking to modify their drum machines.

I've highlighted differences between the Korg Mini Pops 35 and the Univox SR-55. The Univox SR-55 is a rebranding of the Korg Mini Pops 3, an earlier model. Look for sentences in italics for differences.

Korg Mini Pops 35 Rhythm Board (courtesy of Chris Anderson)

Korg Mini Pops 35 Voice Board (courtesy of Chris Anderson)

You should have two large circuit boards after you've disassembled everything. One is probably the clock/rhythm generator board, which houses the clock and dividers to generate the rhythm signals. A series of divided clock signals are mixed by an array of switches and diodes to produce the trigger signals. These trigger signals are then sent to the voice board, one wire for each drum. The voice board is the other large board. This produces the actual audio signals. My voice board had 9 different drums and a mixer to produce the mixed output.

It looks like the Korg Minipops 35 only has 8 drums. You can see the trigger lines going to the voice board in the above photo. The rainbow ribbon wire carries these signals on the left edge of the board. The large brown barrel is an inductor; the Univox board has 6 inductors while the Korg board only has a single inductor. Also missing from the Korg board are three small signal transformers. The Korg board has two op-amp ICs; these are absent on the Univox board. This means the drum voices will sound different between the two models.

To tap individual sounds, you want to locate the point on the board where the fully mixed signal originates. This should be easy to find, as a shielded cable will run from the output jack back to the boards. From that point, look for resistors leading to a common transistor. These are the places where taps might be found. I can't be certain of the exact locations until I see the voice board. Each tap would probably need a buffer to prevent loading the voice mixer down; or jacks could be inserted to take the signal out of the mix entirely and run it to a separate output.

The output wire is clearly marked at the lower right corner of the board on the Korg model.

The clock/rhythm board could be tapped to provide a clock output or input, but I am not sure what clock division one pulse would define. To find the clock, take a look at the board and see if you can find the dividers first. The dividers will probably use sets of two transistors back to back and a few resistors, all arranged in a neat row. On my board, there were two sets of about ten dividers.

Off to the side, there should be a lone set of transistors in a similar configuration. These are most likely the clock. If you can determine where these meet the first set of dividers, you have found the point to tap for clock in and out.

The Korg board has been simplified compared to the Univox model. The Univox uses a matrix of diodes sandwiched between two circuit boards. More dividers are available as compared with the Korg board. The wire loom running to the switch board is more complicated on the Univox board; the rainbow ribbon wire in the photo above illustrates this simplification.

If you want to do MIDI sync, you will need some way to transform whatever division this clock is in to 24 pulse pulse quarter note. There are number of interfaces which put out 24ppqn signals, including PAIA's MIDI to CV converter.

You also would probably want a way to sync the start of the measure. If you just send clock pulses, the machine will not necessarily start at the beginning of the measure. This is tricky and would involve resetting all the dividers, but it could probably be done. Or you could just turn the machine off then on and hope it resets the dividers for you.

Another thing to consider is the voltage required to operate the clock, as it my be negative. You would need to convert the level of the trigger with some more circuitry. It shouldn't be too hard, you just need to find the right levels. You could get individual triggers for each drum by tapping the points where the trigger board is wired to the voice board. These would also need level conversion circuitry because they negative-going triggers.

In the end, I just got rid of the rhythm circuitry and decided to trigger the sounds with an external interface, in this case the PAIA kit mentioned above. Once you can do everything in MIDI, it is much easier and cheaper to sync. The rhythms are cool, but they can be easily duplicated in most any sequencer.

See the previous posts for more information about this old drum machine:
Univox SR-55 Voice Board
Analog Drum Module

40106 Microsynth (breadboard)

2012-01-24T14:14:00.004-05:00

Here's a quick demo of a new analog microsynth based on the 40106 chip. Two oscillators are provided in an synced configuration, as well as an gating LFO with width control. This will all be crammed into a 3" x 3" box to make a small, carry-along noisemaker. The first half of the video is just the raw synth sound; the second half has delay applied from a DL4 delay pedal.

See the finished synth here.

Hexagon Eye - Bent Yamaha PSS-270

2011-12-28T14:06:00.006-05:00

Hexagon Eye is a circuit bent Yamaha PSS-270. Chorus speed, depth, and morphback controls have been fitted. Morphback adjusts the chorus feedback and changes the timbre of the chorus signal simultaneously. An overdrive control is also provided. The sustwist control emphasizes the decay tails of sounds and brings out higher harmonics. An octave drop switch pitches notes down. The randomize switch produces new timbres when active during a patch change. When in use, the keys will play shifting sounds. All controls are fitted into a side cart to allow plenty of room and easy identification for live use.

See the previous post for schematics.

YAMAHA PSS-270 Modifications

2011-12-12T18:47:00.011-05:00

I usually post finished circuit-bent creations, but here's a work in progress and some documentation. The Yamaha PSS-270 is a FM keyboard with a multitude of cool presets and an analog chorus. Here's the first round of discoveries: an octave drop, randomize function, chorus depth, chorus morph feedback, overdrive, and a sustain twister. The connections are marked with colored circles, with an explanation of the connection provided for each color.

I found a chorus speed modification and added it to the diagram above. A randomize function was also added, as well as information on limiting resistors. Limiting resistors are placed in the circuit between the potentiometer and the contact points to protect the circuit. They are also used to tune control ranges.

New controls fitted to the hand-painted faceplate

BaumDerProllige says similiar chorus modifications also work with the Yamaha PSS-570.

Secret Dracula Factory EP

2011-12-09T13:08:00.011-05:00

Secret Dracula Factory EP by Moonrocks

Here's a new Moonrocks EP. Consider it the moody brother of Gas Station Dinner. You can listen to it here:

Secret Dracula Factory on Bandcamp

Thanks to Don Dumont for the album photography. Look for a new full-length album from Moonrocks this spring.

Micro-review on Lost Airwaves

Building The Trojan Chorus

2011-11-24T18:56:00.010-05:00

This is a short documentary in pictures of the building of the Trojan Chorus piece. It was built for the Sound + Vision exhibit, which celebrates the release of the Treble Treble 3 compilation from Eternal Otter Records. This release includes selected artists from all around Maine. The piece was built by myself, Johnathan Cooke and Don Dumont. It was displayed in the North Dam Mill in Biddeford, Maine on November 18 and 19th.

Eternal Otter Records: http://www.eternalotterrecords.com/
Don's music: http://deadmansclothes.com/
Johnathan Cooke's work: http://blaubok.tumblr.com/
More technical wizardry: http://seaweedfactory.blogspot.com/
Music by Moonrocks: http://moonrocks.bandcamp.com

Here's a little more information about how we implemented this project. We used a Highly Liquid MIDICPU for this project. Piezo discs were used to sense strikes to the body. Highly Liquid suggests a Darlington transistor to improve the sensitivity of the circuit.

Moonrocks, Don Damiani, Bary Juicy Show - Nov 30th

2011-11-23T17:34:00.004-05:00

Playing a show with Don Damiani and Bary Juice at Slainte in Portland, Maine on November 30th. It should be crunchy.

Crow Scarecrow at Strange Maine

2011-11-10T11:40:00.006-05:00

Here's an old fossil, the only Crow Scarecrow show. Adam B is on MPC drums, Noshun is playing keys and vocalizing. Filmed last summer at Strange Maine in Portland, Maine.

You Could Be The Future, Too

2011-11-07T12:55:00.003-05:00

Scope art for a track called You Could Be The Future, Too by Moonrocks.

Skullface - Circuit-bent Kawasaki

2011-11-02T22:20:00.004-04:00

A loop build using a DL4 looper pedal and Skullface as the only audio source. All live in one take, no overdubs, no effects other than looping. Skullface has been built from a Kawasaki keyboard, with added pitch bend and a custom paint job.

Blackwhole Screen-printing Process

2011-11-01T15:20:00.008-04:00

Here are some process photographs from screen-printing some Blackwhole distortion pedals. Thanks to Johnathan Cooke for helping with printing. His artwork appears on these pedals.

John at the printing jig. A special jig was constructed to hold the screen above the metal case while printing.

Heat-setting the first layer for additional strength.

The first layer of the design applied to all four cases.

John applies the second layer. We found that it was better to flood the screen before pulling the paint through. Two passes were done for each layer to produce a stronger image.

The second layer applied to all four cases. The drill guide is visible as dots.

Five coats of finish were applied for extra strength, then the cases were drilled. In the future, cases will probably be drilled before printing as alignment was easier than we thought it would be thanks to the printing jig.

8-bit Sampler (Logic Prototype)

2011-11-01T14:31:00.011-04:00

This is a prototype 8-bit sampler constructed using only logic 4000 series ICs, a serial ADC, a parallel DAC, and 8K of memory. It is configured to loop whatever is played into it, in this case some drums and a bass line. When the write line is tied to ground, it passes the bit-reduced signal from the ADC shift register to the DAC.

It doesn't sound good for a number of reasons, the first being the unstable configuration for the serial ADC and it's associated shift register. There's a discussion about how to improve this design on the Electro-music SDIY forum. I'm hoping to come up with something better using a micro-controller with an integrated ADC.

Address generator, DAC, ADC, clock divider and memory circuits

Input conditioning circuit

Circuit diagram (excludes memory and DAC circuits)

LumberjackRL v0.6.26

2011-09-18T03:03:00.017-04:00

Explore the wilderness, chop trees, eat flapjacks.
LumberjackRL is a turn-based lumberjack-themed rogue-like. Every time you play, a new world is procedurally generated, complete with towns, forests and caves. This is a alpha release to celebrate the Annual Roguelike Release Party. As such, it's not very challenging and most features are incomplete, but the core idea is there. Give it a try if you would like, look for a better version in a couple months.

Features:
Fully changeable terrain using different tools
Randomly generated forests, towns and caves
Flow-based lighting with unlimited lights
Dynamic water, water flows and evaporates
Forest fires
Spreading vegetation and farming
Glorious 16x16 pixel graphics
Nearly half a dozen monster types

It's been a couple months since this release. It's going to be a while before another version is released, possible next ARRP...

Watch out for forest fires!	Creepy ghosts are trouble, too.
Poke around in caves.	Meet weird monsters, like these giant sponges.

Download LumberjackRL v0.6.26 Open the file tab and click download original to get the zip file.

Circuit-Bent Yamaha DD-5 Drum Machine

2011-08-29T14:06:00.005-04:00

A short demo of a circuit-bent Yamaha DD-5 drum machine. Three rotary switches provide five glitch bends each and can be used in combination. There are 30 drum patterns from which to choose. The four gray pads can be used to manually play drum sounds as well, with velocity sensitivity. Makes great gritty, 8-bit glitch drum sounds.

Circuit-Bent Kawasaki Dual Cool Keys

2011-08-23T13:59:00.002-04:00

Here's a circuit-bent Kawasaki Dual Cool Keys. It's been fitted with a pitch control and a voltage drop control. The voltage drop only drops power to the sound chip while leaving the amplifier circuits at full power. This means there is no volume drop when the sound chip is running very slowly. A 1/4" output is also provided. The voices are lo-fi without modification and they beat together when mixed, making this keyboard great for soundscapes.

Circuit-Bent Casio MT-220 - Grain Fog

2011-08-23T13:43:00.005-04:00

Here's a circuit-bent MT220 called Grain Fog. There is a five-way distortion control, six modifier switches, a hold button, and two voice cancel buttons. The six modifier switches act differently on each voice setting, changing envelopes and creating loops. They also create new drum patterns. The voice cancel switches turn off and on held notes. It is very easy to build up grainy soundscape loops with this keyboard.

Someone asked about the connections inside this piece. If I remember correctly (I don't have it any more) there are two boards, a digital board where most of the sound is generated and an analog board, which contains amplifier and mixing circuits. Most of the overdrives connect points on the analog board before they reach the amplifier chip.

There are two ROM chips on the digital board, the large (24 and 28 pin?) chips towards one end of the digital board. Different connections do different things for each voice. This is where I made the glitch switch connections.

Fancy Lady Circuit-bent Delay

2011-08-12T15:25:00.008-04:00

Here's a circuit bent delay, built from a karaoke machine. There are four feedback modes: soft, hard, static wave, and dump repeat. The speed can vary from a fraction of a second to over ten seconds, with awesome grain added as the delay increases. A hold and pulse button are also provided. Runs off batteries and has built-in speakers. Makes noise without anything running through it as well.

Featured on Matrixsynth and GetLofi.

Gas Station Dinner

2011-08-05T10:26:00.013-04:00

Gas Station Dinner by Moonrocks

I recently released an album featuring many local Portland hip-hop artists. I did the production, they wrote the words. You can download it for free at moonrocks.bandcamp.com.

Also, Chris Coyne at dblcliq put up some nice photos from the release show.

Univox SR-55 Voice Board

2011-07-02T13:10:00.007-04:00

Here is a diagram of how I hooked the triggers up to the voice board. This is a follow-up post to answer some questions about this previous post.

There is a board with 3 transformers on it. That's the voice board, the other board with many diodes is the rhythm board. On the voice board there is an edge connector with many multicolored wires leading to a bunch of switches, which lead to the rhythm board. There should also be a ground connection to the voice board (mine was black) and a negative supply wire (mine was thin and green).

There are nine separate sounds on the voice board and the multicolored wires trigger each sound when they receive a negative pulse. I built simple trigger inverters for each of the nine lines. I used a simple op-amp voltage inverter with a +/-15 volt supply from the rest of my synth. Be sure to connect the ground of each supply together. I'm still not sure of the best point on the voice board to use as a ground.

As far as the hum goes, mine has a similar problem. You could check for loose grounds on the outputs. I replaced the main power filter capacitor, which is located on it's own board. This helps, but the hum is still there, just at a lower level. There are many grounds on the system and I believe they are star grounded to the ground on the output jacks.

Also, I just want to warn you that there is mains supply running through the wire bundles. There is a thicker pink or yellow wire which carries mains supply to the volume power switch and neon bulb on the front panel. Just something to watch out for when you have it open.

Buzz - Circuit Bent Casio PT-87

2011-05-22T12:42:00.007-04:00

Buzz is a circuit bent Casio PT-87 keyboard. The four modification knobs control pitch, scrambler intensity, pitch-drop intensity, and overdrive. The scrambler and pitch-drop bends can both be switched off. The metal plate the controls are mounted in also acts as a touch-sensitive pitch bend control. A 1/8" output is provided, which can be plugged directly into an amplifier. All the sounds in this video were recorded from the built-in speaker.

Here is a diagram if you would like to try to make on yourself.

Analog Drum Module

2011-03-23T19:13:00.008-04:00

Here's a modular Univox SR-55, AKA Korg Mini pops 3. I've removed it from it's odd-shaped case and reworked the circuitry to fit into my second modular synth cabinet. The pattern producing circuitry has been removed, as the drum machine has been fitted with proper trigger inputs. Each trigger input uses a simple op-amp inverter to produce the negative polarity triggers this machine requires. By varying the pulse width of the trigger, different sounds can be produced. This sequence is produced by a clock divider, as well as a sample and hold circuit.

A closer look.

The first and second cabinet.

Lumberjack Fight

2011-02-21T19:34:00.008-05:00

Lumberjack Fight is a circuit-bent Yamaha PSS-14 keyboard. It has switchable overdrive, a wide-range feedback control, and a retriggerable crash button. It also has a 1/4" output which can be plugged directly into a mixer or amplifier. It has been re-branded with scenes from a lumberjack fight comic.

If you want to try some of the bends, try the following:

The crash button simply shorts the two leads of the clock crystal. In my model, the clock crystal was a blue blob near the CPU. The feedback control feeds the output from the headphone jack to the input of the amplifier chip via a 100K potentiometer. I'm not sure which pin I used for the input, experiment and you are sure to find it. The distortion can be achieved by connecting the middle pin of the drive transistor closest to the CPU to various points via a 100K potentiometer.

Again, experiment here as my notes are not complete.

Power Lines - Robot Dance Party

2011-02-10T14:33:00.011-05:00

Introspec (Robot Version):

On Point (Featuring Fresh Heir/Kyle Bryant):

Show Promotional Video:

The Brown Box

2011-02-08T15:32:00.008-05:00

The Brown Box consists of a preamp, VCA-based analog multiplier, filter with drive, a 2-channel mixer, a wide-range oscillator and a low frequency oscillator. A friend demonstrates how all of these elements can be pushed into overdrive.

Build Process:

Testing the multiplier circuit for the Brown Box

The first integration test of the Brown Box

Wooden case and a paper mock-up of the front panel

Screen-printed panels (Thanks to John Cook, master of ink and emulsion)

Rough fit of front panel components

Detail view of front panel

Preamp and Mixer for the Brown Box

Circuit Bent HingHon EK001

2010-06-21T12:09:00.010-04:00

Here's a piece I finished a while ago. It's a fun little square-wave keyboard with digital oscillators and analog envelopes.

Adam B's Secret Weapon

2010-02-26T17:38:00.008-05:00

Testing the finished result. The secret weapon is an analog resampler and analog filter. It is controlled by a variable shape LFO. Wet and dry sounds can be mixed together internally. A preamp is also provided to boost the signal.

Here's some of the build process:

Testing the analog resampler circuit on some Casio drums

Testing the expression pedal control circuit

Testing the entire circuit with the new power supply

Power supply

The analog resampler

Modulation generator on breadboard

Modulation generator circuit board

Modulation board with the preamp and mixer added

Circuit boards mounted on standoffs

Flying wires!

Case drilled

Case labelled

Wiring nightmare!

Compact!

Casio SA-40

2010-02-11T18:36:00.007-05:00

Here's a circuit bent Casio SA-40. A button was added which allows for selecting hidden instruments, which greatly increases the amount of sounds this keyboard can make. An adjustable crash button allows for the traditional Casio glitch stream. A feedback knob allows the sounds to be overdriven.

See this post on circuitbenders.co.uk for information about the hidden instrument bend.

Lena River Tracers

2010-01-17T18:46:00.011-05:00

Here's a short song made entirely with hardware. Recorded live in one take to tape. Also practicing with my new Akai S20 sampler. I used to make maps, this song is about that.