This is the third incarnation of whiz kids I’ve bent. And it is awesome!
In addition to the usual looping/glitching (which you can see better in other posts), I’ve added two “feedback” tone knobs (high and low) with a photo theremin connected to the low tone, a 555 LFO that can trigger an LED to control the photo theremin, re-trigger the sounds/glitches, or pulsate the feedback tones, and a “glitch” LED that pulsates in strange rhythms.
When you turn on the photoresistor and both LEDs you get crazy polyrhythmic patterns of blooping and whatnot, modified by the knobs, the rate of the LFO, or the photoresistor.
Add a custom Metallic Kool Aid paint job, and you’ve got one hell of a machine.
Here it is making sweet love with the Schatz Box:
Do you like?
I’m gonna put this up on ebay, or contact me if you want to commission one.
American Spirit Atari Punk Console!
Atari Punk Console AKA Forrest Mims’ Stepped Tone Generator.
I built this atari punk console into a little blue plastic box I found by the side of the road, left on a damp table of junk left over from a rained out yard sale. Can anyone tell me what it is? I want more.
It fits nicely in the palm of your hand, with your thumb on the trigger. The lower knob is pitch, the upper controls the “steps” or “range”. I added a 1/4 inch line out.
I put a little speaker on the top so you can play it “on the go”, and the ultra bright LED pulsates in time, setting the whole box off.
This video has three sections: first the raw box, then with reverse delay, and lastly with the boomerang as a looping pedal.
This is the second version of my homemade oscillator synth box thingy. It uses a 555 chip like the last one and a 556 like in Forrest Mims III’s “sound synthesizer” AKA the Atari Punk Console.
Top right, there is a toggle switch to power up a repeating rhythmic pulse or a push button that only plays when its pressed down.
At the top are two flashing LED arms linked to two of the oscillators’ outputs. In the center is a photoresistor linked to the pitch control.
The knobs control the rate, pitch, and range.
The “keyboard” has four tunable buttons that can control either the pitch or the range.
On the right are two switches that exchange capacitor values jumping the pitch up or just changing the timbre depending on the other settings.
And below that are three switches that route the 555 back into various pins on the 556 for a variety of lively tonal effects reminiscent of the harp or a piano.
So there it is! Fun to play and look at. If I can find some decent enclosures, I may try to build some more of these.
Here are the two Schatz boxes in tandem:
This is my first instrument designed and built from scratch. Well, the design isn’t particularly original, but it was fun to build, and came out pretty cool.
It’s a basic square wave generator, composed of two 555 LFOs, one feeding the other. YUM!
Similar to the Atari Punk.
The two knobs up top control the rate and pitch. The switches and knobs below create a crude keyboard. One cool feature is that different combinations of buttons add up to higher pitches. Lots of fun to play.
Here it is jamming with a yamaha dd-5 circuit bent drum machine:
I’ve got some glitches to work out, and I am going to try to build a sequencer like this one:
This is a circuit bent yamaha pss-130. It only has 2 knobs on it, an overdrive and a “choke” filter. Simple but tasty. The original sounds are just thick squarewave-y luscious nintendo sounding tones. I think I might try to add an LFO that controls the distortion or some such to give it a tremolo effect.
Try playing both videos together! if you get the timing right, it works perfectly.
I’ve entered a new stage of tinkering - building circuits from scratch, rather than merely mucking about in existing ones. The first couple of circuits I’ve built use 555 timer chips to make LFO’s. If you connect the output of these circuits to various places in a toy such as the Radical Rhythm guitar above, you can trigger sounds or effects at a regular rate.
This is a very basic circuit, but I got such a rush when, after cursing and squinting as I smeared solder every which way, something I made actually worked. So, no more anti-theory, I might just try to understand how this shit works. (more…)
A fountain of strange noises…
I found a low feedback as well as the high feedback on the last one. Also added an LEP (Light Emitting Penis). It interacts with the low feedback photo resistor for a delightful complication. Add a hot “photon” paint job and you’ve got one hell of a machine. (more…)
Sometimes you open up a toy or a keyboard and the great sounds come instantly cascading out, electrons dancing through your speakers, and joy unto the world. Other times, it ain’t so easy. I spent a long time on this bad boy before I could even start to reckon its true potential. But it has turned out to be one of my favorite bends. (more…)
