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Consumer Electronics Make Music
metoikos writes "Forget about hacking your Gameboy -- what about cat toys or Teddy Ruxpins? Any of these is fair game to a circuit bending hobbyist. Essentially, circuit bending is the art of making interesting noises come out of re-engineered consumer electronics, mostly toys.
Bending recently came into the spotlight when a number of news organizations discovered the 2004 Bent Festival at New York's Tank.
Derek Sajbel, a bender from California, is writing a book/doing a documentary on it." BishopBerkeley writes "Circuit bending has apparently been going on long enough among a large enough contingent of benders to merit a weeklong festival dedicated to bending circuits. The art is largely a process of making musical instruments by 'bending' the circuits of fairly common electronic instruments and gadgets. According to this article in the New York Times people have been making rather interesting music by modifying the strange toys with which a lot of us grew up. If you're near Manhattan, and you didn't know about the Bent Festival, then think about going. You can find more info at the official circuit bending web site."
Bah. If you want to know circuit bending, check it out from the real masters...
I've been torturing electronics for years, and have some personal instruments that make sounds no commercial synthesizer could ever do.
Not to start a dictionary war but from websters:
I would define music as sounds created with artistic intent.
Not all of the music I listen to neccessarily has rhythm and melody/harmony. And Harmony is a concept of western music, other musics are based on other mathematics.
Ambient music, which I like a lot, does not neccessarily have a discernable rhythm or melody, but can be very intersting to listen to.
There is only so much you can do when restricting yourself to octive based music. Just about everything that would sound nice to most people has already been done. That's why I find experimental music so interesting. It is different.
I like music that is sample based, and I like music that is made from unorthodox techniques, such as the current article suggests. I like normal music too but music like this just fascinates me.
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If you are a Liberal or a Conservative, then HAVE A NICE DAY!
Courage.
You've been beaten to it. Well, sort of.
There's a group from Norway called Voice Crack, who create experimental electronic music from what they call "cracked everyday electronics." One album of theirs I heard used everything from a broken Speak and Spell to an electronic greeting card. Definitely not music as we know it, but interesting if you are drawn to that sort of thing. I imagine they would love being at something like this (and if they were there, correct me, please!).
Honorary Member of Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers
If you think that's cool, look for a copy of the CD "Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers" by [The User], as previously discussed on Slashdot. It's excellent.
Not quite as good, but still worth buying, is "Xerophonics"
Of course, circuit bending is how popular electronic music started. Kraftwerk were building their own instruments from scavenged parts in 1970.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Also, if you like instruments that you hold in your hand, here is a gallery of all sorts of really weird instruments.
I hate Liberals and Conservatives.
If you are a Liberal or a Conservative, then HAVE A NICE DAY!
Courage.
Needless to say, something as odd as circuit bending doesn't have an "official" web site. However, the person widely credited with starting and popularizing circuit bending is Reed Ghazala, and his site is http://www.anti-theory.com/. Got to give credit where credit is due, folks... More information on bending and other amazing experimental musical instruments is available at http://www.oddmusic.com.
Absolutely! If you want to build your own, check out the PAiA Theremax or Bob Moog's own Big Briar Etherwave. I've built several of both, and recommend the Big Briar as being a better quality instrument as well as more professional kit. The PAiA has a real geek factor to it though, probably good for Slackware fans ;)
If you're interested in a cheap but fun project, search the net (or lots of the good circuit bending links in this story comments thread) for a "light theremin". Instead of using heterodyne principles, it gets a similar sound/action by modulating a simple oscilator using infrared light sensors that you can still play with your hands.
If you're really interested...there's a huge Synth DIY community on the net, from people that build giant modulars from scratch, to simple kits from the above mentioned PAiA all the way to the completely badassed and never-ending MOTM (MOTher of all Modulars, Module Of The Month).