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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."
Bender Festival? Think of all the oil, cigars, and robot pr0n there would be...
I am defenseless. Use your button. Mod me down with all of your hatred.
So If I just go ahead and bend this keyboard something interest should come out...
K DS FHAKEJHROQWEOURQWLKJEF:LKJ#!LKJ#@$!
waits 10 seconds...
ASDLJGFLKJ#$()!*U@#$!)ADFKOH#@$I!HJ@#KJRQWEKJFA
Electronic toys have also been known to melt (well, 'bend') when the batteries start running low.
-- If you can read this, you are too close to my signature.
I'm sorry but I'm not sure you can call that anything but controlled noise, albeit poorly controlled. It's pretty bad.
If that's all it takes to be called music, then I'm going to record all the noises my car makes and sell a CD of it.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
I remember reading a story about how an HP engineer set up a row of printers (I think it was 12, in total) and he programmed the servos to sing "Happy Birthday" for a fellow engineer... I wish I could remember more details but I'm in no state to look up details right now.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
As the Barbie Liberation Army
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.
For those of you who don't remember that device (and I have only vague recollections of seeing it on TV myself), the Teddy Ruxpin was a stuffed bear which moved its mouth in sync (more or less), to the words of any cassete placed in the device. When packaged with a book & tape, it would, in effect, read the book to the child.
Now I imagine that by now you're wondering what on earth this could possibly have to do with copyright law, right? Allow me to quote from this: And we had best get used to unusual decisions like this. Unless you live to be over 70 (and barring a change in the law), absolutely nothing copyrighted during your lifetime will ever pass into the public domain.
Of course, if you're a US voter, and you would like to help end some of the copyright inanity (the DMCA, the NET Act, etc.), feel free to petition your representatives. You can call them for free via this 1-800 number (they will help transfer you to the proper representative): 1 (800) 839-5276
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.
I hate Liberals and Conservatives.
If you are a Liberal or a Conservative, then HAVE A NICE DAY!
Courage.
ASDLJGFLKJ#$()!*U@#$!)ADFKOH#@$I!HJ@#KJRQWEKJFAKDS FHAKEJHROQWEOURQWLKJEF:LKJ#!LKJ#@$!
Try listening to Einstuerzende Neubauten. I'm sure that they've used something that sounds like that in at least one of their songs.
And that way you can save yourself another keyboard.
I hate Liberals and Conservatives.
If you are a Liberal or a Conservative, then HAVE A NICE DAY!
Courage.
Apparently from reading comments on this board so far, most people seem to be offended by experimental music. "You call that music? That's just noise!". Believe it or not, Noise actually is a genre of music and has a rather large following. I don't care if you don't like it, but I could just as easily criticize whatever MTV or Classical Rock things you are all listening to.
Remember, people used to say the same thing about Rock N' Roll, which in my opinion is a completely stale genre. Try and open your minds a bit to things you don't understand.
I've had some fun with cellphones recently. Have your cell phone in one hand, and use the other to have a friend's cell phone yours (may as well use his minutes, right?).
/.-ing), and used my cellphone and answering machine to create some cool noises at the end.
When the call is established, put the cellphones in... er... a 69 position I guess. Microphone to speaker. You should get some pretty cool feedback this way, and you can 'control' it (sort of) by moving the phones around.
I recently covered the Pixies song "Alec Eiffel" for an online Pixies tribute album (link omitted... don't need the
grib.
maybe
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
Led Zeppelin used it to great effect. Here is the Beach Boys using it in Good Vibrations
One would venture to call this a 'bender' device since it is functionally the same as a metal detector, and works by sensing the proximity of the player's hands to the antennae.
Any other similar devices or early bender apps?
I read all the comments to this point, and saw no mention of industrial.
It started at least 15 years ago (though some other versions may have started earlier)...in Germany.
They recorded (sampled) industrial noise, and mixed it together with vocals, percussion (indeed, some bands used the sampled noises AS vocals and percussion) to make music. Skinny Puppy is a great example.
Just thought I'd bring it up.
do not try and bend the circuit, that is impossible. instead only try to realize the truth. there is no circuit.
On a side note, I am so sick and fucking tired of electronic "music." I don't know about you, but I want my music to be played by a fucking MUSICIAN, wielding an instrument like an extension of his body and putting all the feel and soul into it that ONLY a human can.
OK, so how do you feel about Laurie Anderson , who plays hand-made experimental violins and Pauline Oliveros , who plays Accordian, but not in such a way that you can tell it is an accordian?
And out of curiosity, how do you feel about the music of Wendy Carlos, especially the Switched On Bach series?
I like and have a very large collection of classical music, I just like other music too, and some of it is quite weird, but usually more complicated than "a bunch of wav files you strung together in Acid" (Although that makes me wonder if you've listened to Not Breathing.)
And for clarification, part of what I meant about the limitations of octive based music was looking at stuff like eastern music.
I hate Liberals and Conservatives.
If you are a Liberal or a Conservative, then HAVE A NICE DAY!
Courage.
Check this link outa kers.htm
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~hsakr/hdspeakers/hdspe
I saw this a while back, you gotta check out the movies clips.
"I have great faith in fools: Self confidence my friends call it." ~Edgar Allan Poe
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.
I am getting tired of reading yesterday's nytimes stories on /. This article was released twenty-four hours ago on NY Times Online, and has been in print all day.
When I was in 4th grade or so, I had one of those "Little Professor" calculators from Texas Instruments which I decided to abuse with a sottering iron one day for shits and giggles. After messing around for a little bit, I found by reconnecting the transistors I could get it to make different sounds controlled by the keys. Suffice to say, it was very limited, but fun to play with for about a week.
Funny how this is suddenly a fad.