Ben wanted me to bend him a keyboard to make weird sounds for him to use in new songs. I had bent a PSR-11 before and he dug that, so he got me one of those to play with. However, tired of the same old same old, I decided to try a new type of bend, a data line cut. Usually in circuit bending, you add a connection where there isn’t supposed to be one. This kind of bend does the opposite, interrupting a connection that is usually there.
See, certain Yamahas have a FM chip that produces the sounds. There are data lines that run from the main chip to the FM chip to tell it what to do. You press “flute” and it sends it the code to produce a flute sound. If you put a switch on these lines, you can cut the data transfer. This can tweak out the preset sounds and rhythms or even blend multiple sounds. Pretty cool. There are still some more “classic” bends I want to put in here, but these 8 switches are fairly infinite in their ability to confound the senses.
The 8 data line switches:
This came out awesome!! I will be cutting many data lines as soon as humanly possible.
The Danelectro Fab Echo is a really cheap slapback pedal. I learned online that the chip inside is actually a fully functional delay chip, but Danelectro puts shackles on it to sell a low-grade pedal. If you circumvent their obstacles, you can get a really great delay pedal for under $20!
It’s been a fun week.
Here’s the PSR-11 without the delay:
And some with both:
January 8th, 2009 at 2:43 am
awesome!
Saw this posted on Matrixsynth.
Anyways, the Yamaha “bend” for the lack of a better term is way too advanced for me.
However, the bend on the pedal looks like something I can handle.
What did you do?
Inquiring minds want to know (plus it gives me a excuse to fire up the new soldering iron I got for Hanukkah).
January 8th, 2009 at 9:32 am
The delay pedal bend was pretty easy - only problem being the tinyness of the chip in there. I actually pulled off the pin and had to glue the wire in place!
If you google it, you will find various instructions. Can’t remember where I got mine.
Good luck!