It's been a while... I was very busy but I still gather a lot of ideas and try to finish some pieces...
Here's one of them :
Still experimental, here’s the Screaming Filter… not finished yet, I have to add a few things and finish the enclosure (painting ...). The front panel’s artwork is taken from Munch’s famous painting called “Skrik”, I really like this painting and it fits very well with the “scream theme”. I added a low-resolution + black and white effect.
The enclosure is originally designed for a power supply, the shape of the box is pretty cool but there's not much room and it was quite hard to put the PCB + the batteries in it. Front view : 2 potentiometers controlling the amount of "screaming effect" and distortion, 5 switches (5 steps of audio destruction) Rear view : 6.35mm input and output jack, 1 switch
I like the incurved shape of the knobs, it gives a vintage touch...
Sorry, there's no video for the moment... work in progress !
What about having a pocket Speak and Spell or… anything else !
Nowadays with mobile phone apps : the possibilities are endless... mini sampler, mini synth, everything you need in your pocket...
You may say “ok that’s just another gadget”, but think about it : a mobile phone + a 3.5mm jack adapter + tons of musical apps = you’ve got your mini synth whererever you are, with cool sounds, with the possibility to plug it into an amp or any recording device...
Sure it won’t be a monster, but thanks to the 3.5mm output :
- you can add external effects
- you can mix it with other sounds
- you always have a bunch of cool sounds in your pocket - your pocket Hard Drive is ready to use for a jam with friends, or an external studio session (no need to come with samples CD or machines)
Finally, since mobile phones use SD card storage : your phone is as powerful as computers were a few years ago !... 4Go, 8Go, 16Go even 32 Go ! How many samples can you put on that ? that is SO huge ! You can create folders with classics, indispensable samples : TR-505 / 707 / 909, TB 303, bass lines, weird sounds etc...
Here’s a short demo of 2 devices I made : Speak and Spell and TR-707.
Unfortunately my phone is not powerful enough to play several sounds at the same time... but again : it’s meant to be sampled ...
Here's a new keyboard, it's tiny but it's a pure beast ! I added 2 potentiometers, 2 toggle switches and 2 body contacts... I also changed the ON / OFF switch for a stronger one. I created a front panel and removed the internal speaker to fit the modifications.
The final result is pretty good, you can precisely shape and distort any of the 8 built-in instruments, it allows a lot of possibilities... The filters are extremely destructive, and it's really "lo-fi" and Atari-like when combined with the rhythms... Also very impressive : the possibility to modify any external sound (samples, MP3...) by connecting any device to the INPUT : you can get astounding sounds, it's endless !!!...Last but not least, the tone generator : you can either play it with the potentiometers and body contacts, or play with an external source which result in a weird cross over of the frequencies and self generated tones / scales (see the video).
Watch the video :
MODIFICATIONS :
- Destruction filter pot. : destroy / distort any sound coming from the keyboard or from an external source
- Destruction Filter ON/OFF switch
- Range potentiometer : weird range / high-pass filter
- Range potentiometer ON / OFF switch
- Pitch potentiometer
- 2 body contacts
- Tone generator (see the video at 5'40)
- Distort any sound with the input jack (video at 6'22)
Case mods & other mods :
- Red / white swirl paint job
- Big ON / OFF switch
- Volume slider now controls the sharpness of the filter (see video at 3'38 and with external samples at 8'00)
I'm a little late but : Happy New Year to all of you...
I've received nice emails during those last weeks, so thank you for your interest... I know my blog has not been updated for several weeks, but I was pretty busy (holidays, family & christmas...) here I am again, I hope the snow will stop one day so I can do the paint job of my new circuit bent synth... I have tons of projects under construction and I start this year with soooo many ideas, hope you'll enjoy them !
So stay around, new pics and videos coming soon....
- Drums mod : 3 switches that enable / disable hi-hat, hi-hat open / close, snare ON / OFF
- Percussive Hi-hat : adds a percussion over the hi-hat
- Bass distortion 1 & 2 : select one of the 2 distortion effect, a fat distorted bass or a crunch bass
- Screaming mod : On / Off switch that enables the filtering mode
- 2 potentiometers : range and depth of the screaming filter : ! beware ! : extreme high frequencies and space-tremolo (if combined with the percussive hi-hat switch, see the video at 5'50)
- 4 body contacts : very sensitive, allow a sharp control of the sound
8 mods :
- Lo-Fi ON / OFF
- 4 switches that affect the "amount" of lo-fi effect, tone generator, bass line etc
- Pitch potentiometer
- Scratch potentiometer (multi purpose pot...depending on the position of the 5 switches) affects the tone generator, the range of the lo-fi filter, the bass line structure & drums tone... (watch the video)
- Output : 6.35mm jack added Case Mod :
- design of the front panel
- the speaker has been removed to fit the modifications
- PAD CONTROL : control the sound's shape with the 4 directions pad
- ON / OFF switch (original Game Boy switch + "power ON" LED)
- Volume control (original Game Boy volume)
- Red LED backlight on the ATARI logo, the vintage touch !
- OUTPUT : mini-jack (3.5mm)
Extreme high frequencies !....
This was quite impossible to fit in the case, I had to keep a part of the original PCB and add my own + add the "retro-light-thing" + wire the 4 directions pad + modify the push buttons for the body contacts... wow : I spent a lot of time on it !
31 years old
Musician and Circuit Bender
I've modified all the devices described in this blog (and others I've not published yet).
I'll try to share my knowledge and addiction to circuit bending...
I'll also try to keep this blog updated regularly with new pics and demos, and will include a "Tips" category as soon as possible !
