Circuit-Bending is where I got my start as an instrument maker/modifier. I have since branched out to electro-acoustic, electronic, or purely acoustic instruments, but I still do quite a bit of bending. The first toy I ever tried to bend was a Casio MT-something, I don’t remember the model number as I sort of destroyed it. This was back in 1997-1998. I came to bending so excited, but this keyboard was a dud. Eventually understood that some toys/keyboards don’t have much ‘juice’ as it were. This was one such keyboard. After a few months I gave it another go, and upon a more fruitful bend under my belt, I was hooked.
This was before Ghazala’s excellent Book on Circuit-Bending, or mailing lists devoted to the subject or any real community, other than some discussion on the Oddmusic mailing list. At the time, armed with only a printed copy of Reed’s ‘How-To Circuit-Bent’ section from his webpage and Electronic Projects for Musicians, I poked, prodded, soldered, melted, twisted, and broke everything I could get my hands on.
Below is a picture, a brief description, and soundfile/bending notes when available, of most of the instruments I currently own.
The Yamaha DD-7 is probably the bent toy that I use the most. It was purchased specifically to be a bent addition to my acoustic drumset, but has become part of my 'main' travel setup of DD-7/SK-10/Melodica. The DD-7 has several relatively useful drum sounds and rhythms. The bends add different distortions, stutters, and overall glitches. It can also be pushed into chaotic pseudo-randomness very easily by applying several bends at once. The section on the top left controls a series of filters that are applied to whatever is happening at the time. The switches on the bottom left produce drones, one of a perma-stuttering bass drum, one of a stuttering "one" count-off.
I decided to bend a Yamaha DD-6 after hearing how amazing Serg’s DD-6 bent came out. It’s very different from the DD-7 sound wise, primarily because the lack of a ‘drone’ switch on the DD-6. I went with two of the ‘filter bank’ bends, from the DD-7, with an amount control, and a 12-position switch (instead of 6-position).
I wired up the ten juiciest bends to dedicated switches. The rest of the bends were hooked up to a bolt-bay. This is the first time I use a bolt-bay in a toy. It works very well in this toy, particularly in conjunction with the normal bends.
Here is a gut shot. I used thicker braided wire for the bolt-bay as the thin stuff wouldn’t stay put well.
Here are Sergio Gato’s ‘bending notes’ for the DD-6, which I referenced for picking my points.
YAMAHA DD-7
YAMAHA DD-6
CASIO SK-10
The Casio SK-10. This was the fastest bend I've ever done. I originally modified it for Gilbert Kong, then guitarist in Failure, Arc of Beauty to use. I literally opened the toy, found five bend points, marked it, drilled it, wired it, and that was it. My wife, Angela, painted it.
The sounds it produces are somewhat atmospheric, typical of Casio SK keyboards. There is one bend that makes each key produce a rhythmic pulse of whatever note is played. It makes for very nice rhythm/textures when you play several notes at once.
CASIO SK-5
The Casio SK-5 is my go-to atmospheric keyboard. I modified this in a similar fashion to the SK-10, very quickly/casually. You can get lost for hours in the soundscapes it creates for. Unlike the SK-1, the SK-5 also has real drum sounds(as apposed to the 'blips' of the SK-1), and stores the samples while powered off.
The Casio SA-2 was one of my first bends ever. The original one died when I rehoused it into a watch tin. This is a second, cleaner one. I used higher quality switches/pots, as well as streamlining the bends I had built into it. There are two glitch buttons with pots, a reset, and three body contacts that produce theremin-like tones while making the SA-2's tones move in a step-wise manner. The glitches produce anything from white-noise, to acid-jazz. A beautifully unpredictable instrument. I only wish it was louder.
CASIO SA-2
CASIO SK-1
The Casio SK-1 is probably my biggest bending flop. I tried to copy Reed Ghazala's SK-1 as described in his EMI article. To say it sounds horrible is an overstatement, as it still produces some interesting sounds. I just expected it to be my 'ultimate' keyboard, and this it is not.
DEMON KEYS
The Demon Keys sounds way cooler than it looks. It was made at the peak of my crackle paint days, hence the paint job. It produces strings of chance music similar to that of the SA-2, but draws from a completely different palette. Other than that it doesn't sound interesting. I've mainly used this for recordings. I don’t actually remember what make/model this keyboard is since it’s all been painted over.
SPEAK & MATH/READ
The Speak & Spell toys are staples of the circuit-bending worktable. They are interesting the first couple of times you hear them,. Other than, perhaps the loop function, these are unusably boring. I had a Talking Teacher that broke down, that produced similar text-based sounds, but in a more interesting way.
MORPHIUMS
The Morphiums are from my early bending days. The industrial looking one is a body contact controlled animal/train sample bank. The space looking one is a boring, piano sounds toy. I had planned to build several bongo toys into it, but I couldn't figure out how to wire up several toys to the same power supply.
Here’s a demo video I made to show off all the mods.
Here’s a demo video I made to show off all the mods.
Here is the SK-10 controlling two kitten-nettiks.
Circuit Bending
