Circuit Bent Vtech Talking Little Smart Spelling Book

What is circuit bending?

"Circuit bending is the creative customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as low voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children's toys and small digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators."

Circuit bending is like flying over a city in a plane. You see roads and buildings below in organized columns and rows but inside those buildings and at a closer look you can see there is chaos within.
A project I discarded a couple years ago because I bent it to literal DEATH. Gallons of glitches:

GO TO SLEEP SYNTH!

A friend of mine asked me to make a droning noise maker to make his baby go to sleep. He and his wife had broken their vacuum cleaner using it to help the baby fall asleep so I started designing these:

WORK IN PROGRESS 2013

WORK IN PROGRESS 2013:

TOUCH SYNTH WITH COMPLEX WAVE GENERATOR

PORTABLE AMP

PORTABLE 9 VOLT AMP

WIP FOR 2013

WORK IN PROGRESS: GUITAR TREMOLO PEDAL

Its been a  long time with out an update. I currently have no computer so updating has been hard but I've been working on a lot of things. Mechanical Sequencers, LDR Sequencers, and the DRONE SCOPE MARK II. Also designing my costume and visual elements of my live show. Here's a taste of some those things.

Kaleidoexperients:

No  Sound

 

Jam I did one day as I was bleaching my hair featuring my almost completed LDR sequencer, BIT BUSTER MARK I, and BIT BUSTER MARK II.

JAM:

 

Just a little jam with:
My almost finished Sequencer
Circuit Bent Vtech Apple
Patchable NAND synth
and Light Sensitive Atari Punk Console

UPDATES?!

Been too busy for a proper update...
Still too busy for a proper update so...
Here's some designs I'm working on for small synthesizers. These designs will be chemically etched onto copper clad circuit boards. Hope to have the first run of etchings done by next weekend.

 

 THE BIT BUSTER!

Rhythm/Drone Synth

 

THE SCARAB

ELECTRO-TOUCH SYNTHESIZER

Mini-Keyboard that you play by letting electricity travel through your body

  

THE SPIRA-SYNTH

Another touch based synthesizer that works a little differntly

 

 

DUAL TONE DRONE SYNTH 

MORE INFO/PROPER UPDATE COMING SOON!

Children's Museum

Last weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh talking/demonstrating to kids and parents about circuit bending and synthesizers. It was a very fun experience and I hope to do more events like it and workshops in the future.  Massive update tomorrow about the sequencer I recently built with schematics/research/explination.
-Jonathan

MEGA UPDATE!

Long time since an update.
I was without a way to upload pictures and video for a month here's a taste of some things I've been working on.


CIRCUIT BENT FRANKENSTEIN TOY:
     This was one of the first things I circuit bent around..9 years ago. Decided to make a nice enclosure for it and add a couple more features like LFO with RATE and INTENSITY controls.

FEATURES:
 -Trigger sound: Momentary button to trigger sound, which is Frankenstein's monsters saying                  "Urrrhhhhh...        Fix Me!"
-Body Contacts- Pitch is effected by how much electricity is passing through players body
-Loop: Flip this switch and the sample gets stuck on the first syllable of the sample
-1/4 Output with Speaker Shutoff
-Built in SPEAKER
-LFO ON/OFF- Turns LFO on and off which modulates the pitch of the instrument.
-LFO RATE- Controls the speed of the LFO
-LFO INTENSITY- Controls how much the LFO effects the pitch
-METAL ENCLOSURE WITH CUSTOM ACRYLIC FRONT

-I still have to add LED covers and holders

PICTURES:

 

VIDEO COMING SOON!

PEE WEE (T)HERMAN:

      Made this for a birthday present for my roommate Sean. Simple light sensitive synth that wearable! Very Punny.

PICTURES:

 

VIDEO:

UNTITLED MECHANICAL SYNTHESIZER:

     Mechanically sequenced synthesizer, Uses salvaged microwave motor to trigger synth sounds.  A lot more about this soon. I should be finishing this Monday/Tuesday next week. I have all the circuits built but I'm working on building a much nicer enclosure. Eventually it will have 6 pitch control knobs to control the pitch of each step of the sequence, plus another control panel that will feature 4 patchable oscillators that can filter the sound or be used as stand alone oscillators.

PICTURES:

VIDEOS:

 

 

THE GOLDEN DOMES:

-LIGHT SENSITIVE STEP TONE GENERATOR

FEATURES:

-POWER SWITCH

-1/4 OUT

-GOLD DOMES

-INTERNAL LED BRIGHTNESS KNOB

-VINTAGE MEDICAL REFERENCE BOOK COLLAGE ON TOP PLATE

PICTURES:

 

VIDEO:

MORE COMING TOMORROW!

WORKS IN PROGRESS!

THE PROGRESS:

 Giant Light and Touch Activated Synth:

 

Circuit Bent Doll Touch Synth:

  

THE BIT BUSTER MARKII:

 more videos with better sound coming soon...

SYNTHS IN PROGRESS

Some more works in progress:

WORK IN PROGRESS: BIT BUSTER MARK II

WORK IN PROGRESS:
Making this for a friend for a gear trade.
BIT BUSTER MARK II
4xLFOs
1x Blend
1x Pitch
2x Filter
8x Rate LEDs for LFOs
1x Power Switch
1x 1/4 Output
Plus a couple hidden surprises to come...

Psychic Orchestra

WORK IN PROGRESS:
The Psychic Orchestra is an installation that incorporates 100 light sensitive oscillators installed ideally into a room with several windows that allows a lot of light into the space. As the sun makes its way through the day sky the 100 note chord being played will change. Also the Psychic Orchestra's 100 note chord is changed by visitors entering/leaving a room and casting shadows onto it with their bodies. I have all the circuits completed I just need to finish building and painting the enclosure. I hope to be finished by the end of next week and then I have to find a place to put it. If you're interested..CONTACT ME!

PICTURES:

THE BIT BUSTER!

One of my favorite simple little synths.

3x LFOs with rate control

1x Knob that controls overall pitch

2x Filters for extra funkiness

1x Power Switch

1x 1/4 out

6x Rate Lights for LFOs

1x Giant glowing DOME!

Still a couple cosmetic things to do but its mostly finished.

PICTURES:

 

VIDEOS:

 

BIT BUSTER

THE BIT BUSTER!
Work in progress...
More pictures and video tomorrow: