Circuit Bending and building your own synths/effects.

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

A close friend and I have been circuit bending non-stop for a few months now. I was telling a dude I know about it, who turned out to be a bender/builder himself. He suggested to me that I pick up the book Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking and I have just finised reading it cover to cover. My first order of business is to get a breadboard and start building oscillators. Bending is fun and everything, but creating my OWN electronic sounds is a very appealing idea. If there are any amateur benders out there, I highly suggest picking up this book. I am finally beginning to understand the inner workings of toys and beginning to understand what the bends I am putting in are actually doing to the circuit. I am very excited about all of this and I am excited aout how excited I am by it.

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

I would also like to add that every time I have finished bending a toy, it has crapped out beyond repair the second I put it back in it's housing. Very frustrating.

[shine down unshy]

What are "toys"?

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

Children's toys. Toys intended for the use of children. These objects can easily be obtained at your friendly neighborhood Toys R Us, Goodwillor $0.99 store.

[shine down unshy]

I see, so you use the toys to create your own unique sounds and shit, neat.

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

Yes. It is a hobby that takes no electronics knowledge to have fun with. Pretty much all you need is some wire and a battery powered-sound generating toy of some sort. As you get deeper into it, switches, potentiometers, resistors, capacitors, photoresistors and other fun things come into play and playing the circuit bent toy becomes much more interesting and fun. But I intend to move away from altering preset sounds and start to build my own analog synths and things.

[tarkil]

What's "circuit bending" please ? My non native english skills are not good enough to understand that, and no, I don't want to google it, cause I'm sure you'll use better words to describe it...

And I mean it's in your best interest, cause for now, the thing I imgine is that you deviate children toys to turn them into angry ass attacking dildos...

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

It is essentially adding to, or altering, the circuit board of a sound producing electronic object to get unexpected and unintended sounds. Basically it is the careful breaking of a toy or whatever it is you are bending.

[shine down unshy]

That's actually really interesting. 

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

Seriously google it. There's loads of information on it. It is a very fun and relatively inexpensve hobby. I suggest that you pick up the book I was talking about if this sounds interesting. It's very informative while leaving plenty of room for personal expression through sound and comes with a CD that demonstrates what some of the completed projects covered in the book actually sound like. It's around 25 bucks on Amazon plus S&H. Check it out.

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

So I really want to get a Saxaboom but if I do I don't know if I even want to bend it. They're just so cool and I don't think they even make it anymore.

[Deftones-argentina]

Sounds quite unusual, can you post a youtube link man? I'd like to see what kind of guitar and bass pedals you'll be doing for example.

[goldpony]

Sounds quite unusual, can you post a youtube link man? I'd like to see what kind of guitar and bass pedals you'll be doing for example.

that would be sick! putting the bent sounds through distortion or a wah wah...i bet it would sound like the apacalypse

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

I don't know shit about building effects. I know a couple of noise guys that do, but I have no idea how. And my buddy and I are going to be playing a show this summer featuring all bent instruments.

[Jizzlobber]

I've read about this circuit bending stuff, seem like something i would be into trying myself

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

You should man, it's loads of fun. It can be frustrating at times, but do it with a friend that can appreciate machines making odd bleeps and bloops and you'll both end up laughing your ass off. Throw some booze in there too and you have yourself a party. But always remember, never circuit bend something that plugs into a wall. Unless electrocution sounds like a good time.

[indychinoluv]

That does sound interesting. Im still a bit confused about how it all works. But Im a 'strange-noise/weird instrument' fanatic so I'll be looking into this shit real soon.

My missus is gonna be pissed though...

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

Really, there is nothing to be confused about. There is no 'right' way to do it. The only wrng way to do it is to use somthing you have to plug into a wall. That's dangerous.

[Surtur]

sounds like an awesome thing to do, I'd like to try it

do you perhaps have any audio with any kind of cb sounds?

[goldpony]

sounds like an awesome thing to do, I'd like to try it

do you perhaps have any audio with any kind of cb sounds?

youtube has all kinds