bendcircuits-blog

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Shot at the first international circuit bending festival in 2004 at the TANK in NYC for Absurdity.Biz's ongoing Circuit Bending documentary, it later became a side-project DVD series sold at the BENT festivals.

[bendcircuits-blog]

GetLoFi 4093 Quad Oscillator Pedal and Kit

[bendcircuits-blog]

This project was mentioned in an interview by Rodney Clark, who was interviewing BitCrusher.

Q: Do you play out a lot as Bitcrusher and what response do you get from the crowd?

B: I have a few, live, as Bitcrusher. Most time, I play with friend in Ponctuals projects: The Cheatcode with Nurykabe using Gameboys and circuit bend toys. Also in Paracetamol with Kobah using bass, circuit bent toys and synth. The response we have from the crowd, beside the pleasure to listen live music, is that people are surprised that we made some music with the toys of their childhood and the fact we have tortured and modified these toys! It’s very emotional! Plus there is a part of « mad scientist » in the bend toys which fascinates! Live, the aesthetic aspect of instruments and the way we use it, is just as important as the sound.

Q: You have some pretty neat bends. The one that caught my eye though, is the Mega Aspirateur (orange vacuum). What all went into making that thing…and what can it do?

B: In reality, it is a case mod, of a circuit bent Alesis HR16 ! The vacuum cleaner was emptied of its main mechanisms. The most difficult part to build with this instrument was to put the original circuits of the HR16 into the vacuum cleaner, because there was not enough space inside it. I was obliged to cut the main circuits of the hr16 in two parts, and connect every cut-tracks with wires. I had to move the screen. The volume pot and the output integrate the alimentation and change the key via a switch, that makes « soft reset » when bends are uncontrollable. For a visual effect during a live set, I integrated a stroboscope with a speed knob. For the bends I only choose uncontrollable bends, that make distortion and aleatoric sounds.

They often crash the OS, but for making sound, they don’t need to be triggered by the keys or sequencer (it’s for this reason I put a direct switch for soft reset)

Features: 19 – switches to control different bends 1 – rotary switch to control 12 bends 1 – button panic to restart the OS 1 – fader for controlling the sound output 2 – jack output for routing the stereo output to a mixer or recorder 1 – Stroboscope for visual effect during live performance 1 – knob to control the speed of the strobe!

[bendcircuits-blog]

Warning! - Don’t try to circuitbend or modify anything that uses mains voltage unless you really know what you are doing. Dying can seriously damage your health!

[bendcircuits-blog]

These circuit benders introduce many nice projects and even sell some of their work on their website. They also have some tips for beginners and a forum where they exchange ideas and sound samples etc.

[bendcircuits-blog]

Chiptune is an electronic music genre that is produced by the sound chips of vintage computers, video game consoles and arcade machines.

The sounds remind me of some sounds that you get from synthesizers or circuit bent items.

[bendcircuits-blog]

Brian Green has put together a free sample pack. So if you are interested to use circuit bent sound glitches feel free to download them.

[bendcircuits-blog]

I introduce the "Pikachu orchestra" a very funny idea I think.

The japanese artist "Kaseo" has bended them, for more information click here.

Here is also an article about japanese chiptunes, where Kaseo is mentioned and interviewed.

[bendcircuits-blog]

Another great website I stumbled upon the other day.

Especially if you are interessted in buying bent instruments.

[bendcircuits-blog]

Nicholas Collins

http://youtu.be/4T7qkYY7LZM?list=PLyFW-rnLqSeGxwsL0FL160g8y6XmdHZcQ

Here is a Youtube-playlist of video tutorials from the DVD "Handmade Electronic Music" keyed to the chapters. You can also find these videos on Nicholas Collins Website

According to his website these videos are the next best thing to a hacking workshop with Nic and easier to pause.

[bendcircuits-blog]

Bit Crusher

This website is dedicaced to low-fi lovers, circuit bender, electronic's alienation and bleep addict! - http://bitcrusher.free.fr/

There are various informations, tutorials and projects on this website. I tumbled upon this site, in search of bending tutorials.

My personal interest is to bend a NES and I found a pretty well documented tutorial here. 

[bendcircuits-blog]

casperelectronics - a friendly ghost in the machine

http://casperelectronics.com/ is the personal website of artist, musician and teacher Peter Edwards.

here is an interview, where he describes his wokring-style.

This was his project, that inspired me for circuit bending. Also it was the motivator for me to try something similar.

If you want to see more of Peter Edwards, just go ahead and visit his website

[bendcircuits-blog]

If you don't like to read, you could also watch this interview with Mr Ghazala, to get an idea of him and his work.

[bendcircuits-blog]

Qubais Reed Ghazala

Also called the "father of circuit bending" has discovered the technique in the 1960s, when he left a toy amplifier in his desk and heard it start to emit sounds comparable to those produced by expensive synthesizers of the day.

He has built experimental instruments for many prominent musicians and media companies including Tom Waits, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, The Rolling Stones, and MTV, among others.