Archive for the “Circuit Bent” Category

Once upon a time, a boy ordered a build your own synthesizer kit, and soon after, it arrived in the mail. It consisted of hundreds of little parts, wires, components and an instruction book. The do-it-yourselfer was expected to be well versed using a soldering iron, and had at least some knowledge on how to read an electrical schematic. He said, “How hard can it be?” And it wasn’t so hard. He spent a few nights, working under the flourescent light of his work bench, with the smell of molten lead making his head only slightly enlightened. The test of his work was ready, and upon striking the first note, there was a deeply rich sound that made his heart pound. It was amazing. The satisfaction of building something as complex as a synthesizer and it operating as expected made the boy proud.

Then the boy said, “Why stop there?” and he decided he would integrate an analog delay to the circuit to give his sweeping sounds the warm echo that can only be achieved through an analog delay. An analog synthesizer deserves nothing less than an analog delay. Once the complimenting delay circuit was built and integrated into the synthesizer, the result was even more amazing than originally expected.

Now it was time to give this insane contraption a place to live.

Finding a case to house my insanity was difficult and time consuming. The boy knew what it needed to look like, but had a hard time finding it. Finally, on a Sunday afternoon at the swap meet, he found the perfect case. He saw it in the distance, a small black suitcase that originally lived as a picnic style tea set. It was wood wrapped in black leather with brass accents. The boy paid $5 and was on his way home with his ideal. It was time to wrap this thing up and stamp it complete.

Somewhere in the process of taking this complex circuit, and housing it in a custom case, the synthesizer decided to die a sudden and mysterious death. The boy figured, correctly, that the synthesizer, built to handle 12 volts of DC electric current, was accidentally fed 120 volts of straight AC. There were two separate paths the boy could take at this time. He could either send in the circuit to be fixed by the manufacturer, or he could give it another try with another mail ordered kit.

So he ordered another kit, which is awaiting a precise hand and clean solder. The boy debated sharing a picture of his original creation, but because he was searching for something to blog about this morning, he figured he’d share his story along with a photo of his dysfunctional synthesizer. It’s pretty, however inoperable. A working one will be coming soon.

Holy shit…

I bought a Moog Prodigy off eBay the other day. I’ve heard that as far as synthesizers go, there really isn’t much that can compare in the richness of sound, nor layout of controls. Even having been manufactured in the early eighties, the Moog Prodigy is the pocket ace of many famous bands. It arrived on Friday and ate my soul.

It does look like it was made in the early eighties though. The wood panels are heavily scratched, the inside likely needs to be cleaned thoroughly, as well as the sheet metal front panel and keys. Also, there is one knob that completely broke off. Luckily it’s only the glide knob and not a cut-off. I am going to get right on this as soon as Jen and I are set up in our new place. So for now, I’ll just stick with the stock photo at the top of the post. Stay tuned for an upcoming post of the before and after.

Here are a few samples of what this thing can do. All of these tracks aren’t very difficult to play, but on the Prodigy, they sound friggin rad!

Vintage Moog Prodigy Demo by Calvin Cardioid

Bjork, NIN, Depeche Mode, Air are just a few names that utilize the amazing sounds this thing is capable of producing. I will have this one in my arsenal for as long as I can keep it rocking. It really is an unbelievable slice of synthesizer as well as a little piece of electronic music history.

Now, before you start the name-calling, allow me to fully admit the level of my geeky behavior. I know it is overwhelming and often overflowing. Now with that out of the way, let’s talk about circuit bending.

It started with something called an Atari Punk Console (APC). An APC is basically a square wave noice generator where you control the frequency and length of the pulse with two potentiometers (two pots or knobs). When you twist the knobs, the pitch of the APC changes. It’s a fairly simple circuit to make, requiring minimal experience, and very satisfying results when you get it right. This was the beginning of the end for me.

Since that time (2 years ago or so), I’ve been getting my hands dirty building and modifying many different kinds of sound generating/modifying electronics. I’ve been taking apart toy keyboards and adding knobs and buttons to make them legitimate musical instruments. I’ve also been building things from scratch like a analog delay along with a 2 oscillator analog synthesizer. The end result is not something that gets me a lot of street cred, money, nor an advantageous edge in any popularity contests, but it sure is fun to build stuff with a legitimate application in mind. Yes, that’s right, legitimate application. I’ve held a few living room jam sessions with a half dozen people or more where the majority of instruments are modified electronic toys or home made synths of some sort. I’m nearly ready for the open mic experiment.

So what is circuit bending? The basics say that you take apart an electronic instrument and short circuit the electrical current to do something that was never intended by the manufacturer. These sounds can be god-awful noises, and occasionally something way cooler than what it normally does. It’s probably better to show you than to try to write about it. This is a self-preservation measure that I will take as to not fall off the deep-end of uncool.

This first one is my APC. I built the circuit into an Atari pong controller. It is controlled with the two knobs on the bottom when on switch is engaged. It also has a fine tune knob (the one on top), and a momentary release (the orange button). It’s a pretty cool little device. I’ll post some video if there’s any interest.

This one is a little keyboard that I built in a few extra knobs (top right) to control the output. One of the knobs gives a little distortion, one makes a lower pitch harmonic when you hit a key, and one a higher pitch harmonic. I also added the little red button on the lower right corner that adds a deep fuzz.

So whaddaya think? Have I lost all street cred? Am I practicing my best babe-repellent techniques? Or is this something worth writing about? Would you be interested in seeing more of these odd musical instruments? Videos maybe?

Seriously.