Circuit Bending's topics - tribe.net

Circuit Bending Burners - Mutant Orchestra Evolution

2009-05-23T12:31:41Z

Where to find circuit benders who are also burners. Oh I know! Tribe!

I had an idea for an art project for this year's Evolution theme on the playa, but its most definitely a collaborative project. So... Here's the abstract, if some of you take a shining to it, great. If not. <shrug>

So, it occurred to me that circuit bending is really an evolutionary art. At its base it involves trying random permutations, keeping the ones that work and tossing out the rest. That in a nutshell is evolution. Circuit bending is in effect electronic mutation, and so it fits into the theme perfectly.

So that's great. But how to make it into a greater art project? Well, make a circuit bent orchestra.

Now this isn't as simple as just gathering a bunch of bent devices and playing them together - that's too simple and doesn't really get to the heart of evolutionary systems which involves interaction. So...

Imagine an old fashioned telephone exchange, with a whole whackamole of sockets and a whole whackamole of cables. Yes I'm talking about live circuit bending, not just within a device, but between devices. The tangled mess would be impossible to reason out, and would be constantly changing as people added and subtracted devices and components or manipulated controls in one place but effecting something in an entirely different place.

The only two things that would remain constant would be A) the power source(s) and B) the audio output. Everything in between would be dynamic.

Does the idea excite anyone? Or does it just seem plain loopy?

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

Shows

2009-02-07T03:13:52Z

Hey is there any bending shows coming up in the OC area?

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Melted Rubber Humans

2008-07-29T12:59:47Z

The Melted Rubber Humans are an experimental electonica outfit that live in the hinterland of the insane fringe. Influences include Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, The Orb, Public Image Limited, Samlas Mammas Manna & Faust.

So, if that tickles yer tastebuds, go give them a listen at:
http://www.last.fm/music/Melted+Rubber+Humans
find out more at
http://www.myspace.com/captainmelted

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Bent ThingaMaKit / ThingaMaGoop / JoMoX T-Resonator

2008-07-24T01:17:05Z

Made a little vid of my newly built/bent ThingaMAKit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENn2udpk-1c

posted in Circuit Bending - 1 reply

Tenori-on US Launch Events

2008-04-03T23:40:16Z

Hey everyone!

My company, Keyfax NewMedia, has been put in charge of promoting and distributing the coolest thing since the lunar landing - the Tenori-on. With a cohesive and intuitive union of sound and light, the Tenori-on allows for a new method and experience in music and art. Check it out...

Yamaha and Keyfax NewMedia announce the US release of the Tenori-on at 2 launch events - April 16th at Southpaw in Brooklyn, NY and April 18th at 1015 Folsom in SanFrancisco - and they're both free! So come on down and check it out. We'll have demo stations downstairs that you can play with, free drinks for the first 100 people, and lots more!

We're also giving away a free Tenori-on at each of the events! Just go to the website and sign up:
NYC Registration: www.tenori-on-tour.com/nyevent
SF Registration: www.tenori-on-tour.com/sfevent

Who:
Led by its inventor and designer Toshio Iwai along with other notable electronic musicians:

Robert Lippok (www.myspace.com/robertlippok)
Pole (www.myspace.com/poleartist)
Sutekh (www.myspace.com/sutekh2)
I am Robot and Proud (www.robotandproud.com/)
Nathan Michel (www.nathanmichel.com/)
Safety Scissors (www.myspace.com/safetyscissorsmusic)

This innovative boutique instrument will be made available for purchase in limited quantities in the US beginning in April 2008, direct from the www.tenori-on-tour.com website.

For more information go to - www.tenori-on-tour.com

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

the furby gurdy

2008-03-19T21:39:05Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVBfF_wppWs&feature=related

get's really excellent around 2:21

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

TR-505 DeComposer Sampled

2008-02-20T04:41:51Z

This is the TR-505 DeComposer.
What you have are 29 24bit/44,100 Samples of this beast. Every pad has been captured with pristine TC-Electronic A/D converters. It's knobs&toggles have been tweaked to generate some of my favorite sounds. I have also included “Noize” samples of the amp output abuse mod. All samples are unaltered. This is the DeComposer as is. Enjoy this circuit bent disaster.

http://www.rhythminmind.net/tr-505/tr-505.html

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Soldering Station

2008-02-13T03:43:56Z

Does anyone have any recommendations for brands of soldering stations that work well for bending?
I know it should be under 30W with a fine tip on the pencil.
Any other specific ideas?
Thanks.

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

Very Rare 'Roland tr-330' analogue drum machine for sale on ebay! Primed for serious circuit bending / modification

2008-02-10T12:40:36Z

Just popping in quickly to let you all know about this rarety.

I had big plans or is drium machine when I first bought it, but the fat is that I just don't have the time and effort to work on this baby. . . . It pains me greatly, but I'm gonna have to sell it on t someone who has the time to give it the mods which it deserves.

Is a big job, but this analogue drum machine has massive potential for modding / bending......... check out the photo's of the board and components on the ebay lising

Any way,,, thanks y'all, link to the auction is below -
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220199915660&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=012

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Parts

2008-02-09T15:46:47Z

Quick question.
I am a new to bending and was wondering a good place to get parts (switches, pots, LEDs, potentiometers, etc).
Online works, or somewhere in the bay area would be much better.
Also, does anyone have recommended brands of soldering irons / stations.
Thanks for the help.
~Brian

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

Seeking a Bender for Hire!

2008-02-06T23:05:36Z

Local San Francisco spacenauts Lopsided Space Kart are seeking someone with basic circuit bending skills to put audio outputs in toys etc. If you are more advanced (or do effects repairs as well) that would be great!
WE have a fun event coming up at 12 Galaxies March 14th and woul dlove to add some toys and whatnot into the mix.

We can pay by the hour or by the mini-project. Our mission is missing a chief scientist and we need one bad.

http://www.myspace.com/lopsidedspacekart
http://www.lopsidedspacekart.com

email Kurt at mystenzo@yahoo.com or through this Tribe thing.

Thanks!

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Wanna teach circuit bending for $30/hour?

2007-11-14T05:31:39Z

this is from a friend, kinda short notice.

Hello-
The Children's Art Program of the city of Palo Alto
needs an instructor for their circuit bending class,
as well as some other electronics and digital art
classes. It's kind of short notice, they start on
Saturday, and they really need the help or they'll be
forced to cancel the class.

It should actually not be too hard to do if you like
that stuff, and they pay $30/hr.

It's run by Larnie Fox, who is a really interesting
kinetic sculptor.

If anyone thinks they might be able to do this it
would be a great service to a great program, and you'd
really enjoy it! I have too much going on to do it,
which bums me out because it would really be fun.

If you think you might be interested in this contact
me, or Larnie directly at larnie@infoflow.com

Thanks!!
=Rich

----------------------------------------------------------
Richard Mortimer Humphrey
General Specialist

Phone: 1 (415) 839-2090
Fax: 1 (415) 738-2250

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

Sound Sculpture

2007-10-09T03:22:41Z

Just started a tribe devoted to sound sculpture...
http://tribes.tribe.net/soundsculpture

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

The TR-505 Rhythm (De)composer.

2007-08-28T18:07:52Z

My latest (De)creation. Went from 80's cheese to Glitch greatness.
Check it out.
http://www.rhythminmind.net/tr-505/tr-505.html

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Any benders in the San Francisco Bay Area?

2007-08-25T21:54:52Z

Im totally new at it, still reading a cool manual I got on it. Not much experience in electronics but i learn quick, 'specially when physically around people showing me techniques.
I have so cool toys to modify just not sure how to proceed yet. It would be cool to meet up with some peeps into this art.

Any takers?

posted in Circuit Bending - 6 replies

- Badschematic Netlabel seeking submissions for compilation project

2007-07-05T22:55:07Z

Badschematic is a new netlabel devoted to unusual and challenging audio works. We are currently taking submissions for a compilation album

to be released freely online in MP3 format.

If you are interested in submitting your audio please Send an email to contact-at-badschematic-dot-info
In the subject line, please include the phrase "compilation submission".
In order to be considered, your email must contain the following information :

1. Your full legal name.
2. Your geographic location (City, State/Province, and Country).
3. The artist/band name associated with the material you are submitting.
4. Links to the appropriate audio files in 320kbps MP3 format. Messages containing email attachments will not be accepted.
5. A link to your homepage.

Feel free to submit as many tracks as you like. Some tracks which are not included on this compilation may be considered for future release.

All submissions (except those containing email attachments) will be listened to and Badschematic will do its best to reply one way or the other to every submission it receives.

Thank you.
- Badschematic Netlabel
http://www.badschematic.info

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

My Thingamagoop came in!

2007-06-08T01:54:28Z

For a noize maker like myself this is to much fun.. I made a little video showing it off..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLDSZqYAG6g

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

yamaha DD5 / post your videos!

2007-05-06T18:45:18Z

hey y'all
this board seems kind of dead so i thought i'd post my newest (not quite complete) project here. it is a yamaha DD5, which was basically designed to be circuit bent. check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwIOVUfW-CQ

there is a universe of stuff inside this machine, i could probably add a whole other project box and just keep going...

also i want to see your stuff in action. upload some videos and let's have show and tell

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Pacific Film Archive: Joe McKay, Xik, tim Perkis & more, April 18 & 25

2007-04-12T18:03:06Z

Pacific Film Archive presents:
SOUNDING OFF: MOVING IMAGES AND MUSIC
April 18 & 25, 2007

The Nintendo-modulated music of Xik inflects a report on the world of game hackers and chip tuners, and an ensemble of manic musicians riffs on the doc Noisy People. Come join in the noise.

Live performances at all screenings.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 18
8:00 8 Bit
Marcin Ramocki, Justin Strawhand (U.S., 2006)

Bay Area Premiere!
Joe McKay and Xik in Performance

Marcin Ramocki and Justin Strawhand's raving report about the demimonde of game hackers and chip tuners is complemented by the Nintendo-modulated sounds of Xik, a sound artist who authored an interface that allows MIDI to run the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment Station. Joe McKay is a media artist who specializes in unique, often whimsical, and non-combative videogames.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 25
8:00 Noisy People
Tim Perkis (U.S., 2007)

Bay Area Premiere!
Tim Perkis in Person, with Guest Performers

Perkis's documentary offers sonic sketches of aurally fixated Bay Area artists George Cremaschi, Tom Djll, Greg Goodman, Phillip Greenlief, Cheryl Leonard, Dan Plonsey, Gino Robair, and Damon Smith. A post-screening jam will practice what the film preaches.

PFA Theater: 2575 Bancroft Way at Bowditch, Berkeley, CA
Info: (510) 642-1124 Advance Tickets: (510) 642-5249
http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Do you have photos and sound of your work?

2007-04-05T03:32:38Z

i was wondering if anyone has an online gallery of their bent instruments/ toys/ equipment. i'd also like to hear the sounds that your bent things make! some people take the time to really consider the concept and aesthetic of the final product (an art object). that's my favorite kind of bend. if you have pictures (and/ or sound files?) online of your work, share them! Even if you don't think it's "art". i'm sure other people would be as delighted as i would to see them.

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

they keep breaking :C

2007-04-05T03:17:28Z

Ive been casually bending toys at home for a while and getting some cool sounds. Ive only installed a few buttons and sound jack, and still need to figure out the best sauder (i heard rosin core?) wire (something small to thread tiny chip leads?) and button suppliers...

I have a bigger issue now though. I brought in to work (im a highschool music teacher) a toy ive been bending for a while (Musini ftw!) and they managed to kill it within an hour. Lights work, and speakers work with one particular connection that distorts the signal, but otherwise, no sound comes out anymore.
So i brought another toy, and within a few minutes of opening it, it died. Wires are all ok, and i wish i knew exactly what the student hit last before it stopped making noise. I was planning on bending my keytar (my baby) but now im scared!!!

Are there general No-No spots when bending? I try not to connect things directly to the battery. Anyone else have stories about killing toys?

Help! Thanks!

posted in Circuit Bending - 12 replies

Get Bent 303

2007-04-04T03:49:38Z

Not quite a bent project but still worth a look. I saw this project on an AVR forum and thought you all might like to have a look. I don't have one but it looks like they did a bang up job.

http://www.ladyada.net/make/x0xb0x/

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

consider this reactable stuff

2007-04-01T22:03:25Z

http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/

posted in Circuit Bending - 1 reply

I have huge collection of retro computers I am selling off

2007-03-12T21:18:59Z

Please see my ebay store for the listings;

http://stores.ebay.com/MD9-Enterprises_Vintage-Computer-Atari_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ8007312QQftidZ1QQtZkm

Thanks for looking at my post!
~Sayomi

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

of interest

2007-01-20T01:08:52Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7J0MkzfcBs

i want one. then again you could use the 101/201/301 electronics kits from radio shack.

posted in Circuit Bending - 4 replies

Women Take Back The Noise Live Series Dec 8-10

2006-12-09T12:17:33Z

DECEMBER 8-10
21GRAND ARTS SPACE
http://21grand.org
416 25th Street (at Broadway) - OAKLAND, CA

UBUIBI presents a 3-day live experimental music series featuring a worldwide selection of female artists from the recently released Women Take Back The Noisecompilation. Each night of performance will focus on the themes from the 3-disc collection: ORGONAUTA, SCHEHERAZADE & VOCIFEROUS featuring works by the artists in their own unique style & interpretation, reflecting the mood of each theme. (web: http://ubuibi.org/wtbtn)

DECEMBER 8th - ORGONAUTA electro-laptop-loop...
ELISE BALDWIN
MICHIKO KAWAGOE
KADET
DARK MUSE

DECEMBER 9th - SCHEHERAZADE whimsical-vox-beat ...
XYRAMAT
FARI BRADLEY
HEIDI MORTENSON
BCO WOMEN'S AUXILIARY

DECEMBER 10th - VOCIFEROUS harsh-glitch-noisecore...
LEPORIDAE
EXPERIMENT HAYWIRE
BLEVIN BLECTUM
INSECT DELI

* * * * *

Tix $10 / $25 for 3-day pass-available in advance from UBUIBI: http://ubuibi.org/wtbtn/wtbtn_tickets2006.html
All showtimes 8:00PM (doors 7:30)
Co-presented by KUSF
http://kusf.org

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

USB noise

2006-11-19T10:24:10Z

Does USB data sound like anything? I've got a couple of boards out of $10 webcams from walgreens that it would be fun to play around with.

posted in Circuit Bending - 5 replies

Circuit Bent Atari

2006-11-15T23:28:56Z

I heard that people were removing the sound chips from atari 2600 to make synthesizers out of them. Anyone done this or know how? I've got a spare 2600

posted in Circuit Bending - 7 replies

Talking Jesus Doll

2006-11-15T23:04:09Z

Anyone get their hands on this yet?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/14/toy.jesus.ap/index.html

What would be cool is to figure out how to this talk from Sam Harris on it and then do some mischievous things with them.
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail785.html

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Bids for Beats - Charity Auction - Final countdown!

2006-11-14T21:34:05Z

Join the biggest names in the dance music community raising funds for NextAid! Our goal to raise $20,000 will benefit the continuing development of our earth-friendly child support center in Dennilton, South Africa.

We're auctioning off everything from top DJ and studio gear, music production software, midi sample and loop libraries, flyer design and recording studio services, to once-in-a-lifetime experiences with your favorite artists! Also note that a generous private donor will be matching all proceeds, so your winning bid will go twice as far as it would otherwise. Seriously, there are some great deals available and it's for a great cause to boot!

You can check out the full auction catalog at http://nextaid.cmarket.com and learn more about our organizations' efforts at http://nextaid.org -- Thanks for your time!

Inlakesh,
Elias

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

arduino / open source board and C language

2006-10-31T01:24:32Z

What is Arduino?

Arduino is an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple i/o board, and a development environment for writing Arduino software. The Arduino programming language is an implementation of Wiring, itself built on Processing.

Arduino can be used to develop interactive objects, taking inputs from a variety of switches or sensors, and controlling a variety of lights, motors, and other outputs. Arduino projects can be stand-alone, or they can be communicate with software running on your computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP.) The boards can be assembled by hand or purchased preassembled; the open-source IDE can be downloaded for free.

Arduino received an Honory Mention in the Digital Communities section of the 2006 Ars Electronica Prix.

posted in Circuit Bending - 4 replies

Yamaha PSR-19 ... I'm at a bit of a loss.

2006-10-17T17:58:54Z

What a wonderful sounding keyboard for $10... I've been trying to find some interesting bends by simply doing random short circuiting... but nothing yet. I'm not familiar with this chipset and can't seem to find any detailed diagrams of the circuit boards. Has anybody here successfully bent this keyboard before?

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Call for musicians/composers,artists,presenters 2006 Spark Fest. of Electronic Art and Music, MN

2006-09-12T15:53:35Z

Spark Festival of Electronic
Music and Art 2007

CALL FOR WORKS
University of Minnesota School of Music, Noel Zahler, Director Announces

2007 Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art

Douglas Geers, Director West Bank Arts Quarter, University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus

Minneapolis, MN February 20-25

CALL FOR COMPOSERS, ARTISTS, and PRESENTERS Submission Deadline: September 30, 2006 (postmark)

The University of Minnesota School of Music is proud to present the 2007 Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art, February 20-25. The festival will be held on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota (USA) and neighboring Minneapolis performing arts venues, and will feature guest artists Morton Subotnick, Richard Devine, and others to be announced.

Now in its fifth year, the Spark Festival showcases the newest groundbreaking works of digital music and art. Last year's festival included innovative works by over one hundred international composers and artists, including featured guest artists Alvin Lucier and Scanner. Leading scholars and technology specialists also presented papers relating to new technology and creativity. Audiences for the concerts, installations, and lectures last year totaled approximately 4,000 people and garnered multiple mentions in local and national media.

Spark invites submissions of art, dance, theater, and music works incorporating new media, including electroacoustic concert music, experimental electronica, theatrical and dance works, installations, kinetic sculpture, artbots, video, and other non-traditional genres.

Spark also invites submission of scholarly papers on Collaborative Arts, Interactivity, Cognition, Compositional and Artistic Process, Social and Ethical Issues in the Arts, Art, Music, Video, Film, Animation, Theater, Dance, Innovative Use of Technology in Education, Scientific Visualization, Virtual Reality , intermedia composition, performance, human-computer interaction, software/hardware development, aesthetics, and history and all topics related to the creation of new media art and music. All accepted papers will be published as part of the Spark proceedings. Please see http://www.spark.cla.umn.edu/media.html for a PDF copy of the Spark 2006 proceedings and program.

MUSIC SUBMISSIONS
Music submissions will be accepted in four categories:

1. Concert works: Interactive works for acoustic instruments and electroacoustics (performance forces are available, TBA) Electroacoustic works with and without performers. Performance venues will accommodate 2-8 channel works and works with video. Although there is no strict limit of duration, pieces of fifteen minutes or less are encouraged.

2. "Spark Nitelife": Experimental electronic performances in a "club-style" venue. Performers of various styles will be considered, including those influenced by IDM, hip-hop, glitch, jazz, and etc. Selected performers will be given sets of 15-30 minutes. Performance venue will accommodate stereo sound and video.

3. Installations: [See "Art Works" below]

4. Music with video [See "Art Works" below]

New!
Bob Dylan Events
In collaboration with the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in conjunction with its exhibition "Bob Dylan's American Journey 1956-1966," we are inviting submissions in two special catagories:
Bob Dylan Remix Submissions: Submit your remix of a Bob Dylan work. Selected submissions will be programmed throughout the festival.
Bob Dylan Themed Installations: We are looking for installations that relates to the theme of "Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966." Selected installations will be installed at the Weisman Art Museum and elsewhere throughout Spark Festival event locations.

To submit in either of these catagories, enter the online submission system and follow the instructions.

Software
A new submission catagory for software has been added. We are looking for applications that create, enrich, enhance, or contribute to the digital arts or the teaching of the digital arts. Selected applications will be given a demonstration area and poster presentation. Additionally, programmers may be invited to give a paper demonstration on their work.
To submit enter the online submission system and identify your submission as a Software Poster Presentation.

ART WORKS
Submissions will be accepted in three categories:

1. Installations and gallery works: A number of installation and gallery exhibitions will be mounted in various spaces on the UMN campus, including the Weisman Art Museum. Please include technical and space requirements with submission. Installations may be physical objects, video and/or sound projections, or combinations thereof. Artists may be required to provide some or all of necessary technology to mount installations.

2. Video: Experimental video works will be screened at multiple Spark events. Videos featuring digital music compositions (two-channel or Dolby 5.1) are welcome, but this is not required. Although there is no strict limit of duration, pieces of twelve minutes or less are encouraged. Please submit on DVD (NTSC) or DVD data disk in mpg, mov, or avi file format.

3. Theater/Dance: A number of theatrical and dance works incorporating new technologies will be programmed at Spark 2006, with a special interest in shorter works that can be integrated into programs with music and video works. In addition, although not confirmed as of this writing, we hope to produce at least one performance in a dance theater with video projection and an Internet 2 connection. Please include performance venue and technical requirements with submissions.

PAPERS
Technical papers, lecture/demonstration, and workshop submissions that deal with topics relating to creating arts and music with new technology are encouraged, including Collaborative Arts, Interactivity, Cognition, Compositional and Artistic Process, Social and Ethical Issues in the Arts, Art, Music, Video, Film, Animation, Theater, Dance, Innovative Use of Technology in Education, Scientific Visualization, Virtual Reality , intermedia composition, performance, human-computer interaction, software/hardware development, aesthetics, and history. Paper presentations will consist of a twenty-minute presentation and five minutes of Q/A, and all accepted authors must attend to present their papers.

Submissions should consist of a two-page abstract with bibliography. Camera-ready papers will be due on November 1, 2006.

Individuals may submit a maximum of one paper and one lecture/demonstration, and these will be submitted online. More information about the submission process will be available soon on the Spark 2007 website when the online submission procedure has been activated. All accepted papers will be published as part of the Spark proceedings.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Applicants are invited to submit one work per category in up to three categories for consideration. All applicants must complete an online submission form on the Spark Festival website and include their submission number(s) with any physical media sent via postal mail. The submissions website will be at http://spark.cla.umn.edu/submissions.html and will be activated in late August. More details about the submission process will be available on the Spark 2007 website when the online submission procedure has been activated.

Regarding music and other performance works: Performing resources will be drawn from the University of Minnesota and Twin Cities area musicians. However, availability of musicians will be taken into consideration when selecting works, and therefore applicants are encouraged to bring their own performers when possible. More information about available performers will be posted on http://www.sparkfestival.org when the online submission procedure has been activated.

Composers and artists whose works are selected for inclusion are strongly encouraged to attend the festival. Scholars whose papers or demonstrations are accepted will be required to attend Spark to deliver their presentation.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
Selected works will be announced by November 1, and travel and accommodations information will be posted on http://www.sparkfestival.org by the same date.

Submission deadline is September 30 (postmark). More information and the online submissions procedure will be posted soon on the Spark 2007 website at http://www.sparkfestival.org . Questions can be directed to the Spark hosts at sparkfst@umn.edu .

***deadline will likely be extended, watch website for details***

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

WOMEN TAKE BACK THE NOISE (Now Available!)

2006-08-21T19:21:31Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2006

Contact: Ninah Pixie / UBUIBI
ninah@ubuibi.org
www.ubuibi.org

WOMEN TAKE BACK THE NOISE (CD COMPILATION)

'Women Take Back The Noise', a 3-disc collection, features 47 women artists from all around the globe who work with SOUND in various ways, from ambient-electro-darkwave to some of the harshest noise ever burned onto spinning metallic plastic.

UBUIBI is now offering MAIL-ORDER for a limited time at www.ubuibi.org
(A list of distributors will be posted to the website shortly...)

(U.S. ORDERS ONLY via website - FOREIGN ORDERS - Please Contact Us Direct: via email: ninah@ubuibi.org)

The release is a LIMITED EDITION of 1,000. The packaging is handmade and contains a custom-designed, circuit-bent "noise cookie" device that makes NOISE when you touch it, lights up and plugs in via mini-jack. A soon-to-be collector's item.

47 PARTICIPATING ARTISTS WORLDWIDE:

Aedria Hughes (USA)
A. L. Dentel (USA)
Alicia Wade (USA)
Analog Tara (USA)
Ava Mendoza (USA)
BCO Women's Auxiliary (USA)
bLevin bLectum (USA)
Cheryl E. Leonard (USA)
Christina N (AUSTRIA)
Choronzon (USA)
CJ Reaven Borosque (USA)
Cosey Fanni Tutti (UK)
Cyoakha Grace (USA)
Dark Muse (USA)
Elise Baldwin (USA)
Experiment Haywire (USA)
Fari Bradley (UK)
Fast!Fast!Cash! (USA)
Fe-mail (NORWAY)
Gydja (NEW ZEALAND)
Heidi Mortenson (GERMANY)
Hertta Lussu Ässä (FINLAND)
Hooray! For Old Timers (USA)
Insect Deli (USA)
ioioi (ITALY)
Irene Moon (USA)
Jessica Rylan (USA)
Kadet (USA)
Khate (USA)
Kunt (AUSTRALIA)
Leporidae (USA)
Maggi Payne (USA)
Meri von KleinSmid (USA)
Merlin Coleman (USA)
Messy (NETHERLANDS)
Michelle Webb (USA)
Michiko Kawagoe (JAPAN)
Nadin Katrin Buben (BELARUS)
Noveller (USA)
Passiflora (USA)
Priya Ray (USA)
Rotwangsrobot (UK)
Solanas (NEW ZEALAND)
Suzanne Quincey (USA)
VyL8 (USA)
Wisteriax (USA)
Xyramat (GERMANY)

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

sk-1 project

2006-08-21T17:46:07Z

phil... phil jones.. I go by phatjones and sometimes telling people that makes me feel childish. That may be the point.. but to the point.. I joined this tribe because I am into bending casio sk-1 boards..www.myspace.com/sk1project i also enjoy bending toy cell phones and other things.. I have a musical experiment called the sk-1 project.. We record music different places and with different collaborators but it revolves around bent gear, vintage synths, organic instruments and good times. check it out @ www.myspace.com/sk1project

the music on there is from our latest session entitled Ordinary Bubble.. I hope you enjoy.

peace,
phil

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

little break for tiny Circuit Bending beeps - Video

2006-08-21T08:36:12Z

just a break for some experimental beeps outdoor by a geeky circuit bender.

http://cyberiannomad.blogspot.com/2006/08/little-break-for-tiny-circuit-bending.html

runtime : 1.04 min

:)

posted in Circuit Bending - 1 reply

help me get started

2006-07-04T01:22:57Z

I've got an old crap keyboard from the trash bin downstairs and no power adapter seem to work with it.

Since it's not MIDI compatible and I have a bunch of other keyboards, I want to learn how to bend on this one.

Anybody in SF that can help me get my feet wet?

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

Tools?

2006-06-14T19:37:05Z

So-

What tools would one have ideally in order to best mash up some cicuits?

-soldering iron
-solder
-VU meter
-logic probe (?)
...
?

posted in Circuit Bending - 25 replies

UNIVAC

2006-06-14T07:45:31Z

hot damn this guy is on a roll

just look at what he did to those poor teletubbies:

www.techdweeb.org

posted in Circuit Bending - 5 replies

modwerk

2006-05-19T19:14:29Z

Heya guys

I just opened my site last week, modwerk.com. It's an online marketplace for all things modified whether it be circuit bending, music, clothes, art, toys, everything. I'm trying to get some sellers set up. The shop is pretty barebones right now so I'm on a recruiting mission. hehe. Is anybody interested in selling some of their mods? Shoot me an email and I'll set you up with a sellers account. Do you guys like the idea of the site?

steve

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

Reviving dead speak and spells

2006-05-08T17:37:36Z

So I broke the cardinal rule of bending speak n spells: I was connecting leads with no resistor in the middle. I was only on battery power, as I know better than to bend stuff that's connected to an AC adapter. Unfortunately I apparently broke a perfectly good german speak n math, and I don't know where to get another like it. Does anybody here know how I can trouble shoot the sucker? Mr Univac told me that there might be a way to revive them... does anyone have info on this? You would be my personal savior.

_Mark

posted in Circuit Bending - 5 replies

shiny!!!

2006-04-28T18:29:53Z

http://www.getlofi.com/2005/12/intense-recasing.html

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

liclimbquid.mp3 - Ready for Error.Patterns and bent Glitch ?!

2006-02-01T10:18:02Z

A fresh excerption of my newest circuit bent and glitched
liveact for the next performance on february.
Feel free to hear trippy psyGlitch beats and hardest bendings
of my classic hardware and glowing cores.

http://www.myspace.com/joritokyo

posted in Circuit Bending - 1 reply

AM Radio = Theremin

2006-01-27T22:35:48Z

http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/theremin/bamtrat.htm

"What happens if you start to restore an old AM battery-operated tube table radio... and put it back together all wrong? The answer - BAMTRAT! (Battery AM Tube Radio Authentic Theremin).

While such a project might offend the sensibilities of collectors, I decided to go ahead with it because this poor old radio had been sitting in my "to do" corner for several years, and I could never quite get the motivation to restore it. After all, the reward for all that work would have been just another AM radio.

Instead, I decided to re-use all the major components to create a tube theremin with as authentic a sound as possible. A novel "differential tuning" approach makes for ease of tuning using the original tuning dial. The close-coupled antenna coil, used as the variable pitch oscillator, duplicates Lev Termen's trick of using hard coupling to provide that unique saw-like classic theremin sound.

Schematics:
http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/theremin/bamschem.htm

Tech. Details:
http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/theremin/bamttech.htm

Sound Samples:
http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/tubestuf/sounds.htm#bamtrat
"

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

circuit bending Phonics A-Z

2006-01-19T22:44:32Z

I was wondering if anyone here has bent a Vtech Phonics from A - Z. This is going to be my first instrument that I"m bending and I was wondering if anyone has any beta for me. I've found a pitch control to run a pot off and I've found a few glitches that don't seem very stable. Being there is a button for repeat I'm assuming there is a loop bend somewhere in there. Any other ideas?

posted in Circuit Bending - 4 replies

New Tribe - 8 bit electronica and more...

2006-01-04T05:47:29Z

Join it here =)
tribes.tribe.net/8bit

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

IO track pre.mastered - ready for hear in + download

2005-12-21T00:10:38Z

my newest track is pre.mastered.
kick ass neo.breaks are ready to hear and download.

:) - funky christmas time to all here. *.-_

http://www.myspace.com/joritokyo

http://msn-cnet.com.com/joritokyo/3600-8357_32-100797508.html

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

RHEED GHAZAL Circuit Bending book

2005-11-29T16:23:47Z

I just got it and it is really wonderful.

What a great job he did on it.

I also thought I should hip you all to the fact that
I bought a toy keyboard brand new for $10 at Sear's tonight
in the Capitola Mall (near Santa Cruz, California)

really nice sounds...........a vibrato addition to them, a great and really cheesy
little microphone that does cool feedback things
and $10!!!!!

Don't know how bendable it is because I'm a rank newbie but it's cheap enough to fuck with without terrible fear of losing it.

posted in Circuit Bending - 7 replies

RIP Robert Moog

2005-11-27T18:52:58Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4173510.stm

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

BEND THIS! A night of Circuit Bent Mayhem at the Il Corral in Los Angeles

2005-11-02T01:42:47Z

Come get your brain bent at the Il corral Saturday Oct 22nd!

9pm $10 BYOB

http://www.cannedbeefrecords.com/bendthis/ Click Here for Flyer

http://www.halfnormal.com/ilcorral

PRESENTING:

Dingis Khan http://www.geocities.com/dingiskhan
XDUGEF http://www.xdugef.com
Bent Monkey Cage http://hometown.aol.com/poppacootch/ with OX
UNIVAC http://techdweeb.com
Zef Renirhs http://absurdity.biz

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

Anyone here know "FASTMATT"???

2005-10-16T23:29:43Z

There is a guy -by the name of FASTMATT- selling Circuit Bent Speaks (all of them) on eBay... and I'm wondering if anyone here has ever bought from him or knows of him. I'm not much of an electrical engineer, so I'd rather buy a bent device from someone who is. Fastmatt's bent devices look really pro and he has these little blue lights (on all of his devices) that change brightness with the sound and also light up your hands. I just wanted to check before dropping $229 on a Speak & Spell (the older one with round buttons).

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

circuit bending the book now out!

2005-10-12T22:41:44Z

its great, very complete
and written by the man himself

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764588877/104-1161730-1192762?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

vectorcells - ready to hear and download

2005-09-24T10:51:40Z

a little organic.circuitbended.noise fractal
'vectorcells' is ready to hear and download
the mp3. Pick it out of my standalone-player:
www.myspace.com/joritokyo

the visualized sound.version can be shown at

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=MpsrzCOTq6M

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

King George II

2005-09-20T07:03:04Z

http://techdweeb.com/EmpGeorgeII.html

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

Bent 2004 DVD now available

2005-09-12T21:32:29Z

thought i would start a thread here
i made a 2 hour documentary on Bent 2004
the first international circuit bending festival in NYC
check it here
http://absurdity.biz/bent2004dvd.html
and check out this video of me promoting it on G4TV from june here
http://absurdity.biz/bentaots.mp4

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Circuit Bending workshop and show NYC 8/25/05

2005-08-23T23:54:01Z

Thursday, August 25, 2005
1 pm - 11 pm
A Day of Circuit Bending: The New Revolutionary Musical Voice System
History and Reference www.anti-theory.com
at FusionArts Museum (57 Stanton Street,btwn Forsyth &
Eldridge Steets on the Lower East Side, NYC)

Workshop Forum 1 pm -5 pm
A 4 hour lecture and workshop on circuit bending for the novice and the
accomplished circuit bender.
cover $15
Please bring your own “Bendables” and tools

The Circuit Bending Orchestra Ensemble:
Doors open at 8:30 pm
Performance from 9 - 10:30 pm
cover: $5
Lighting by Shalom

Featured Circuit Benders are:

• Derek Sajbel
• Daniel Park
• Matt Pass
• Jeff Boynton
• Marc Sloan - Music (Orchestration Mix) and Technical Director for
FusionArts Museum
• The work of Reed Ghazala (www.anti-theory.com)

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

!@#$ Imma kill this touch n' tell

2005-08-08T03:14:25Z

anyone got any tips on how to get it to still produce sound after opening one of these hoes? they piss me off so much with their damn little metal connectors to let the circuit board know which faceplate they have....I've tried everything man and eventually just tore those damn little metal contacts off and tried taping them in the proper places to no avail still....anyone have any tips, ideas, help, etc? I'm really pissed @ this toy more so than any previous bend I've bothered with....

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

nice toys

2005-08-03T21:46:46Z

http://www.miniorgan.com/

posted in Circuit Bending - 1 reply

7/2 - LA - Audiocrash - Hard Experimental Dance Music feat. Norcal and Socal artists.

2005-06-26T20:07:38Z

saturday july 2nd
suburban theory presents

AUDIOCRASH
technobreakelectrocore

Uniting the California Hard Experimental Scene
WARNING: Not for the lighthearted or closeminded.

SAN FRANCISCO
-------------
kid kameleon
dj ripley
red max
r-type
filthmilk
heartworm
dj semtex
bass bin laden
666 gangstaz VS megabitch

LOS ANGELES
-----------
sonic death rabbit (live PA)
baseck
violentfingers (live PA)
hatbox (live PA)
low tech (live PA)

$10 - 21 & over
9:30 pm - 5:30 am
Los Angeles Location
Call (323) 769-5844 for directions

Costumes are encouraged.

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Anyone in LA bending besides me?

2005-06-26T19:02:39Z

I know you're/we're out there. I'm just hoping to make some connections: my duo "NORC" has a performance next week @ Solids & we would love to meet & network with some other benders. Hit me up for more info if interested. thanks!

posted in Circuit Bending - 6 replies

EMP Workshop in a Transylvanian castle!!!

2005-06-26T14:48:10Z

EMP Workshop & Artist Exchange
9 July 2005 - 19 July 2005

40 people have the special opportunity of meeting some of the artists in the line up for 10 days to produce together with them some high quality electronic music! The best tracks made in that time will be released on a special compilation and will be played at Transylvania Calling Gathering 2005. The EMP Workshop takes place in and around of a castle in Transylvania not far from Hermannstadt / Sibiu which is surrounded by massive big walls.

If you ever wanted to have some experienced electronic music producers around you to give you tips and help you out where you get stuck, this is the chance to meet some of them and many others who decided to get into producing electronic music.
here some names :
Tamlin
Sienis
Loopus in Fabula
Squaremeat
Infinitium
Whicked Hayo
Atma & R´Tur

Participants of the Electronic Music Producer Workshop should bring theyr active small speakers, soundcard, headphones and laptops if they have. We will also provide around 10 working spotsYou will make music in groups and get assistance & lessons for fruity loops, cubase and other software from experienced producers. Pepe from Squaremeat will lead the Workshop! cost 10 euro per person and day. You need tent, sleeping bag, camping gear and some euro for food what cost little extra.There might be some sharerooms available for xtra costs in one of the many houses inside the walls, or you can even find another place somewhere in the village cause many people rent out rooms. Or you just camp on the green grass inside the walls which is included in the 10 euro. there is still about 25 spots left! so hurry up! :)
www.transylvaniacalling.com

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

music trading?

2005-05-29T10:58:56Z

does anyone swap tapes or cds?

i've got some twisted jams i'd like to share, and something mail-arty in me wants a hardcopy trade.

i'm very interested in hearing whatever people are doing in the circuit bending world, cause i don't get a lot of it in edmonton.

dylan

posted in Circuit Bending - 7 replies

Origin of word "Glitch"

2005-05-26T05:45:49Z

Glitch:

Glitch is from the German glitschen via the Yiddish gletshn meaning to slip. The term is technical jargon in the electronic hardware world to describe what happens when the inputs of a circuit change. When the inputs are changed, the outputs briefly spike to some random value before settling to the correct value. If the circuit is queried during a glitch, a wildly inaccurate response may result. From there it acquired a more general sense meaning any malfunction.

http://www.wordorigins.org/

The term gained popular currency through the US space program--which used electronics heavily. In general print, it dates to John Glenn's 1962 book We Seven.

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

midi controller

2005-05-19T14:40:29Z

all the midi controllers out there and none suit my needs.
can anyone help me built one. i imagine they would be pretty easy ? any thoughts ? is anyone piloting a project like this .. ?

amPEd

posted in Circuit Bending - 9 replies

BENT FEST 2005 NYC april 27-31

2005-04-19T20:30:30Z

http://www.thetanknyc.org/bent2005/

ill be playing the last night with my friend jeff as Zef Renirhs
come on down if yer in new york, gonna get bent

This schedule is subject to change

Circuit bent art and installation during the festival from:

Daniel Cashin
Peter Edwards
Paul Slocum
Daniel Walker: The Battle of the Monkey Robots!

Wednesday April 27

3-5pm Open Circuit Bending Lab - FREE

Learn to circuit bend in a casual atmosphere.

6pm Workshop - FREE

Cassette-looptapes and pitch-shifting Walkmans with Gijs Gieskes:
In this workshops you will learn how to make a tape loop from an audio Cassette, and pitch shift it with a variable resistor.

8pm Concert - $7

Joker
bobby vomit
xdugef
David Linton

--

Thursday April 28

3-5pm Open Circuit Bending Lab - FREE

6pm Workshop - FREE

“Touch it! The Suzuki Omnichord” workshop with Joker Nies

8pm Concert - $7

Homicidal Choir (Nobody & T-Bone)
Flavour
Travis Fuller
FoodTeam
Talibam
Lorin Parker
KING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

--

Friday April 29

6pm Workshop - FREE

Gameboy Hacking Workshop with Gijs Gieskes. In this workshop you will get started in the gameboy tracker application LittleSoundDJ.

8pm Concert - $7

noisetet
Vic Rawlings
Joshua Hydeman
Can’t
Joker
Jeff Donaldson
Gijs Gieskes
nullsleep
atari noise

--

Saturday April 30

12-3pm “Day at the Circuits” – FREE

Introductory circuit bending workshop for kids and adults of all ages! Do you have an old battery-operated toy at home that makes noise? Bring it in and transform it into a new and srtrange musical instrument. Or just bring yourself and rip apart some of our toys!

4pm Workshop – FREE

“Engineering Chaos” workshop with Jessica Rylan. Lessons that synthesizer builders can learn from circuit benders, and vice versa.

5pm Workshop – FREE

“Nintendo NES Hacking Workshop”with Paul B. Davis [BEIGE]

7pm Concert - $7

Ant Macabre
Zef Renirhs
Rampart
vorpal
Burnkit2600
Receptors
DJ Sniff
Lektrogirl - Rephlex/Lektrolab
Paul B. Davis - BEIGE/8-Bit Construction Set

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Bob Bellerue live on KFJC 89.7 FM, Saturday 3/26 at 3:PM

2005-03-25T21:40:25Z

Psychoacoustic Soundclash
with Nozmo King
Saturdays, 3-6 PM (PT)

KFJC 89.7 FM (http://kfjc.org)

Saturday, March 26 at 3:PM
Reverberate to the noise of Bob Bellerue (http://halfnormal.com) as he
produces maximum sonics with small electronics.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Upcoming live actions:

Saturday, April 2 at 3:PM
There will be no sloppy seconds when Master Musicians of Bukkake
(http://suncitygirls.com/abduction/mmob.php) perform lysergically
poisoned impressions of ceremonial music!

Saturday, April 9 at 4:PM
SF transplants from the New York noise underground scene, Axolotl
(http://mysite.verizon.net/vze3zcd6/CD_Pages/Axolotl.htm) deliver
dense psychedelia live in the pit.

Saturday, April 16 at 4:PM
Joseph Hammer (LAFMS, Solid Eye) and Mitchell Brown (Solid Eye)
(http://melonexpander.com) will take you on an ether-like, tape loop
and electronics hallucenatory voyage.

Saturday, April 23 at 4:PM
Every conscientous objector fights for freedom! Tune in as Big City
Orchestra (http://ubuibi.org) plays George M. Cohan.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Psychoacoustic Soundclash is an evolving soundscape created from
layering multiple sources at once. I'm always interested in new music
to play on my show. Send your vinyl, CDs or self-produced CD-Rs of
experimental, drone, noise, microsound, dark ambient, home recordings
and field recordings to:

KFJC
Attn: Nozmo King
12345 El Monte Road
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022

Thanks for listening!

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Hugh Davies R.I.P.

2005-03-17T18:46:58Z

Hugh Davies 1943 - 2005

"Sad news: Hugh Davies died on the 1st January, 2005. Born in 1943,
Hugh was a pioneer of live electronic music, an inventor of musical
instruments, a composer, educator, and renowned researcher into the
history of electronic music. An assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen
from 1964 to 1966, he participated in the recording of Stockhausen's
Mikrophonie I in 1965. Other recordings included wonderful LPs by
Music Improvisation Company and Gentle Fire, and his solo albums for
FMP and Grob. Anybody involved in live electronics, electronic
improvisation, hardware hacking, or, come to that, anybody who needs a
table in order to be able to perform, owes a debt to Hugh. He will be
sadly missed."

posted in Circuit Bending - 1 reply

Wormsynth

2005-03-16T05:38:17Z

reposted from the Synthesizer tribe:

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/03/diy-worm-powered-synth.html

Perhaps inspired by last week's Hamster powered sequencer, Tim writes to let me know about Peter Blasser, a Baltimore-based circuit bender who has built a synth (Called Din Datin Dudero) with a patchbay controlled by live worms. As the worms wriggle around the contact pins, the circuits inside the synth are modified, and different sounds come out. And Peter is convinced his worms enjoyed touring: "The worms seem to like being electrically stimulated... With the din datin dudero, we can induce all sorts of new sensations in the worms - new waveshapes at new and unfelt speeds... They squirm into action as all the nodes are stimulating them and they crawl around touching thiings together and making it go crazy." Peter also sells synth kits which could well be worm-compatible.

posted in Circuit Bending - 1 reply

BENT 05 NYC open call

2005-03-09T03:13:32Z

i'll be thar, will u?

BENT2005
Circuit Bending Festival
CALL FOR WORKS

spaceworks @ The Tank is currently accepting submissions for the BENT 2005 Circuit Bending Festival. The festival will take place from April 27th - May 1st at The Tank on 42nd street in New York City. It is our hope that the festival will be as diverse in its programming as possible, with performances, installations, lectures, workshops, etc, and that it will represent as accurately as possible the interests and talents of the circuit bending community. In addition we are looking to expand this years' festival to include work people are doing with software/hardware manipulation (i.e.- gameboys/computers/nintendos/etc).

Additionally, we are limiting this year's festival to a Wednesday through Sunday schedule instead of spanning two weekends. This will give a more even trajectory to the festivities and help us separate evening concerts and public free-for-all workshops from more focused, intimate and multi-part daytime workshops and events.

This call for works falls into three categories:
Musicians / Performance Artists
Installation Artists
Instructors / Volunteers

--

Musicians / Performance Artists:
We are seeking bands, musicians, and performance artists who somehow incorporate the tools, aesthetics, or ideas of circuit bending into their live performance. We are putting together three nights of circuit bent performances and are interested in as diverse an array of performances as possible. Please send a brief description of your live show, and/or any links to mp3s/photos/websites etc. No attachments will be read or considered. Also feel free to mail us your info. See below for our contact information.

--

Installation Artists:
The Tank includes a basement gallery space, and as such we are seeking 2-3 artists-in-residence who will each receive 15-20 hours of gallery/studio time and as many tools and resources as we can provide to complete a circuit bent installation during the festival. All studio hours in the gallery will be open to the public, and we are most interested in artists who don't mind chatting about what they are doing and explaining circuit bending to gallery visitors who wander through. Please keep in mind that this is a smallish gallery space and your work and your working attitude will have to co-exist with the other artists and their work. Be excited about interacting!
We will have a wide assortment of standard circuit bending tools/equipment (soldering irons, pots/wires/capacitors/resistors/etc/etc/etc) and as much random materials as we can pull together. We will also facilitate a trip to Materials for the Arts to help gather more supplies. (www.mfta.org)

Please submit a written proposal of a circuit bent project that can reasonably be completed in the time allotted with a modest but flexible amount of supplies. See the floor plans of the gallery space at http://www.thetanknyc.org/spaceworks/floorplans.html

--

Instructors / Volunteers
This year we are looking to find people that are interested in leading workshops, presenting talks, and being on-hand during public workshops to help beginners learn how to bend. This year we are considering doing a multiple-day type workshop for attendants that want to work in a more intimate setting and develop more complicated work. Also, when 100 newbies show up and start ripping apart toys (so fun! if you experienced the first day of the festival last year you know what we mean....) it would be great to have dependable people on hand that can help guide them.
Please tell us about yourself and what you do, and how you would want to be involved.

--

FUNDING

A quick word on funding. We have applied for some grants specifically to cover stipends for artists coming to participate and perform in the festival. However, we do not hear the results of this until mid March. As such, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE FUNDING TO PARTICIPATING ARTISTS. As artists and performers ourselves, we realize this is a concern, and we would very much like to compensate you for your talent and your time. We hope this will be possible, but we cannot assure you of any funding until AFTER the open call deadline. Please act accordingly.

--

Submission Deadline March 8, 2005.
Send all submissions to:
spaceworks@thetanknyc.org
Or via mail at:
Spaceworks
C/O The Tank
450 W 42nd Street
NYC, NY 10036

http://www.thetanknyc.org
http://www.thetanknyc.org/spaceworks

For information on last year's festival please see http://www.thetanknyc.org/bent2004/
To see the frame of this year's festival (still being assembled) see www.thetanknyc.org/bent2005

thank you,

Mike Rosenthal
Daniel Greenfeld
spaceworks @ The Tank
www.thetanknyc.org
www.thetanknyc.org/spaceworks

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

need help making a pitch shift thing!

2005-02-27T22:00:39Z

i was wondering if it was posible to make a pitch shift thing that could be inserted right before the output jack of a bent device? if anybody could help that would kick ass. i think it could be done with the right combination of resistors/potimeter (spelt rong) wires and other stuff but i'm not sure how to construct the circuit. thanks.

posted in Circuit Bending - 8 replies

SF C-Bending: GREEN LIGHT!

2005-02-27T21:43:00Z

Rather than continuing the prior thread about this and making everybody scroll forever...

The Drum Machine Museum has offered us Saturday, Feb. 19th @ 4:00 PM - 7/8:00 PM at their space: I realize it's somewhat short notice, but prep for this shouldn't be so difficult as I have all of the stuff from last time. They're also very stoked to have us.

This is a fairly large performance space, including a house PA system & more than enough power outlets.

They're also having a party that night at 9:00, which we're all invited to stick around for if we like: they usually have some very cool electronic stuff happening performance-wise as well, so perhaps we'll get a free show out of it as well.

Sound off! How's this sound?

posted in Circuit Bending - 34 replies

anyone know if this is safe

2005-02-17T00:58:54Z

http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p37.htm
crystal seemed to be using a homemade one of these at the last SF workshop
how you/ why you do that? anyone?

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

South Florida Circuit Bending Performance??

2005-02-16T04:51:32Z

http://webpages.atlanticbb.net/~thelaundryroom/inc.htm

Down at the end of the Saturday line up there is this:

>>Circuit Bender Mart & Performances (Outside Patio)
"redesigned music toys & home made noise gear"<<

Don't know what that will turn out to be but the show is FREE

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

lost some sounds

2005-02-15T02:29:22Z

i lost half of the sounds on a small toy keyboard i'm bending. is it possible to recover them? could i have burnt out half of the memory bank? the keyboard has some drum loops that play all of the drum sounds still but the pads that trigger the sounds only plays half of them. now when the drum loops are playing they go up to the top tempo when i press any of the other keys. they also will not stop unless i turn the keyboard off. wierd

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

Flyer Posted (SF CBend Workshop)

2005-02-08T23:09:14Z

...in the pics section.

If you would like me to email this to you as either a jpg or a pdf file, please msg me with an email address I can send it to.

See you there!

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

SF C-Bending- Pt. II

2005-02-02T18:31:21Z

So...

We're a little slow on the uptake, but if I recall correctly the consensus on the last such event was pretty positive:

Anybody ready for round two? I still have a ton of parts for us to use, plus just bought an ultimate Dremel kit that's just dyin' to drill some holes for SMD's and stuff!

posted in Circuit Bending - 30 replies

Anyone listen to records anymore?

2005-01-19T04:11:45Z

So I am currently working on an album of beats made with my circuit bent toys.
I thought it would be nifty neat to press it to vinyl, yet I don't know how functional it would be. Do people (besides DJs) still own and use record players anymore? *EVERYONE SHOULD!*

I also thought of including an mp3-snipit insert thingy for all of the super high tech peoples and poor unfortunate souls record-player deprived.

Hmmm...any thoughts?

posted in Circuit Bending - 13 replies

Bending Texas Instruments

2004-12-22T20:30:42Z

Does anyone have ideas on bending speak and spells?

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

A video of mine

2004-12-19T04:27:14Z

Its a 1950s industrial film tribute
www.mindstreammusic.com/tvmind...rol.mov

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

other circuits

2004-12-01T17:38:50Z

i know this is the circuit bending tribe, but...
does anyone know where i could find good schematics or information on magnetic induction-based circuits?

i'm trying to build my own magnet powered light setup for my bike.

posted in Circuit Bending - 6 replies

what is circuit bending?

2004-11-28T00:15:21Z

i've fixed broken circuitboards on my samplers,changed stuff on my mixing borad, but this is different. what is it that you guys do? i'm really interested in bending some circuits but where do i start? do i need anything besides my meter and iron? thanks for the help.

posted in Circuit Bending - 4 replies

Seattle electronics suppliers?

2004-11-19T04:01:33Z

Hey all, I've been mucking about with a Speak 'N' Spell and have come up with some rad possible bends, but I lack mini SPDT switches to attach. Anyone know of any electronics wholesalers in Seattle? Radio Shack is an overpriced corporate nightmare...

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

bending the sticks

2004-11-15T21:55:34Z

For about a year now I've been working on bending logitech dual action USB joysticks to much success. Just wondering if anyone around here has worked on anything similar, or would be interested in my results. I use it for noise performance (with max/msp). Any tips?

posted in Circuit Bending - 8 replies

plug in power intead of batttery power

2004-11-13T04:15:29Z

Have you tried wiring any battery toys to plug in power? I have a talkboy scrambler [a cheap sampler that reassembles the sound you just recorded] and a cheap wired hand fingertip drum machine with a choide of four looped beats and four sets of samples with 1/8" output. They are supre fun to play with, but the battery life sucks and its expensive to buy new batteries all the time.

Any bending ideas for these toys?

posted in Circuit Bending - 17 replies

New tribe for Portland, Or. benders

2004-10-19T02:38:24Z

Just wanted to let folks know that I started a tribe for circuit benders in the Portland, Or. area. If you live in or around Portland, please feel free to join. Here's the link: http://555-pdxbenders.tribe.net/

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Sharing this against better judgement...

2004-10-15T04:35:23Z

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5924499489&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1

posted in Circuit Bending - 7 replies

Horrible Noise 5 MP3's are up!

2004-10-08T12:15:24Z

http://www.superhappyfunland.com/horrible_noise_mp3s.htm

The 5th annual

Horrible Noise 2004

Every Saturday in October

@ Southmore House

3107 LEELAND AT PALMER

Houston, TX 77003

(713) 299-4996

http://www.southmorehouse.com

It is time again for Houston's annual month long Horrible Noise fest at Southmore House, every Saturday in October. There are a few featured projects for each night, then the show dissolves into a free for all noise fest with toy and strange instruments that usually goes on for about 6 hours a night. People are encouraged to bring their own weird instruments, but instruments are also provided for everyone, and everyone is encouraged to participate. All the shows are recorded and put on CD and MP3.

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Bullhorn Insert Loop Surgery

2004-10-04T03:36:32Z

Has anyone performed this sort of surgery to a $99 RadioShack Powerhorn - model 32-2038A? Power source is 12VDC from 8 C cells. Output power 10W.

I'm hoping to attempt a bypass of the microphone signal to as to create an instrument level insert loop to run through a footpedal effect I intend to strap on to it.

I'd be drilling holes and installing 1/4" jacks.

I'm curious as to the actual wiring modifcations required internally.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

click here to hear some original music tracks if youre interested:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/kingofswordsmusic.htm

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

Y2K4 International Live Looping Festival next weekend

2004-10-03T08:04:41Z

Hi, I thought the folks in this tribe might want to know about this really cool festival. There will be two circuit bending artists, Cochlear Electrolysis and Wayne Jackson's Better Days performing.

We're bringing 50 live looping artists from 5 countries to perform for four days in San Francisco and
Santa Cruz (where the main festival will be this coming Saturday and Sunday).
I hope you can make it. If you come from this tribe, please come up and say hello if you make one of the
events.

yours, rick walker aka L()()p.p()()L

Y2K4 International Live Looping Festival October 7th -11th, 2004

SCHEDULE for THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7th
The LUGGAGE STORE
1007 Market St. San Francisco

admission: $6-$10/admission (opener begins at 8 p.m.)

9:00 The INAMI/WALKER/WAGNER International Looping Trio

SCHEDULE for FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8th
QUESTION MARK GALLERY Santa Cruz
in the Pearl Alley Building behind the Pacific Garden Mall

admission: FREE

8:00 Michael Klobuchar (USA)*
9:00 Bernhard Wagner (Switzerland)*
10:00 Sunao Inami (Japan)*

MAIN FESTIVAL for SATURDAY and SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9th and 10th
The RESONANT CHURCH, Santa Cruz
429 Pennsylvania (1/4 block south of Soquel Avenue across from Rite Aid/Albertson's)

admission: $10/per day no one turned away for lack of funds

SCHEDULE for SATURDAY,OCTOBER 9th
12 noon Scott Kungha Drengsen (USA) -1
12:30 Krispen Hartung (Idaho, USA)-2
1:00 Trey Donovan (USA) -1
1:30 Craig McCollough (USA) - 2
2:00 Stanosaur (USA) -1
2:30 LX Rudis (USA) - 2
3:00 Kid Beyond -1 (USA) -1*
3:30 Cochlear Electrolysis (Minnesota,USA) -2
4:00 Andre Custodio (USA)- 1
4:30 Matt Davignon (USA)- 2
5:00 ghost 7 -M (Massachussetts, USA) -1
5:30 DINNER BREAK
7:00 Rena Jones (USA)-1*
7:30 Dark Muse (USA) -2
8:00 Sunao Inami (JAPAN) (HEADLINER) -1*
8:30 Armatronix (USA) -2
9:00 Ted Killian (Oregon, USA) -1*
9:30 e o (USA) -2
10:00 James Sidlo (Texas, USA)/Rick Walker (USA) -1
10:30 Are Jay Hoffman (USA) -2
11:00 Joe Balestreri (USA)-1

SCHEDULE for SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10th
12 NOON Kitundu (Iceland) -1*
12:30 Ahl-i Nafs -2 (David Giovachini and Susan Sammel) (USA) -2
1:00 Daniel Thomas (USA)- 1
1:30 Chris Cohn (USA) -2
2:00 Peter Chester & Rob Cross (USA) -1
2:30 Amar (USA) - 2
3:00 Dr Richard Zvonar & Bob Rice (USA) -1
3:30 Warren Sirota (New York, USA)-2
world premiere: Multi Loop software
4:00 Mark Hamburg (USA) -1
4:30 Alex Stahl (USA) -2
5:00 Bernhard Wagner (Switzerland) -M -1
5:30 DINNER BREAK
7:00 Michael Klobuchar (Pennsyvlania, USA)-1*
7:30 Larry Cooperman (USA) -2
8:00 Daniel Lewis (USA) -1 *
8:30 Gary Regina (USA) -2
9:00 Brian Kenney Fresno (Mars) - 1
9:30 Bill Walker & George Perry-2
10:00 Wayne Jackson (USA) - 1
10:30 George Demarest (Massachusetts, USA) -2
11:00 Timothy Crowe (USA)-1

SCHEDULE for MONDAY, OCTOBER 11th
1:00 Annual Loopers Luncheon at the CATALYST, Santa Cruz

Asterisked PERFORMERS are Featured Perfomers
Numbers refer to stage numbers
All artists that say (USA) are from California
SUNAO INAMI is our official Headliner for the festival.

My sincerest thanks go out to the following people.

Webmaster: Bernhard Wagner,
Poster/brochure and Website artwork designer: Ted Killian
Poster/T-shirt photography: Andrew Kaiser (for 'the spiral')
T-shirt design: Rick Walker (ooops, that's me)
T-shirt printing: Jason Gellis
Stage management: Chris Cohn
Simulcast organizer: Bernhard Wagner
Streaming bandwidth provided by ETHERIC NETWORKS
and.....
All the artists who have donated all of their time and who have all
travelled to perform at their own expense.

This festival is run on virtually no budget. The fact that it has become so big and wonderful is a testiment to the live looping community all over the world. None of this would have been possible without the existence of Loopers Delight, founded and maintained by Kim Flint. He just told us that this incredibly informative and exciting website has over 900,000 page views per month now. Thanks Kim for all of your energy, time and financial contribution to this community.

See you all there, I hope!!!!

yours, Rick Walker (festival organizer)

ps Sadly, Concert headliner, Italy's Roberto Zorzi's has had to cancel his tour to the US because of the illness of his partner Paola. Our heart is with them both and we pray for her speedy recovery.

posted in Circuit Bending - 0 replies

BLISTER your DOME, yo!

2004-08-11T00:56:37Z

Just thought I'd share this-

Did a search on eBay for shits n' giggles using the term "circuit bending" - and found this, um, 'deal'.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29552&item=3739403440&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
------------------------------------------------------------
you get:

163 page CDR--630 megabytes of info Circuit Bungling INSTRUCTION & eXtreme NOISE Wave files--Devoid of Logic 101 Journal on CDR plate
1 NEW YELLOW Digital mulitimeter electronic tester with 2 probes & batteries--a total necessary tool for BENDERS
22 CLEAR Circuit Bend wires @24" each
1-Labeling Kit for Method Grab Identification--wire grouping stickers
2- 30 Watt circuit Board SOLDERING GUNS
2- TOGGLE Switches w/ rubber tipped handle and Nuts DPDT w/ 6 connects
2- toggle switches with circuit board mount--copper connects SPST--clean flush mount on devices
2 switched PRO potetiometers w/ nuts, variable resistor 50K
1- photo cell- variable resistance component
20- alien green LED's
5- Blinding ULTRA BLUE LED's 7000mcf
12 Chrome Metal precision Jewelers Screwdriver set w/case
2- trim pots resistors--mini board mount, for use in Voltage actuation trim
6- resistors with different values
2- pushbutton MINI Switches w/ nuts for solder connects N/Open
10- chrome body contact tacks--no drilling required
10--straight-pin body contacts
1-Bent Monkey Cage MP3 & Wave songs with anomalied audio---on CD------included within JOURNAL
1- Electric GLUE GUN for inner wire placement and control --110 volt
5 sticks of HOT GLUE
13 piece Xacto knife set w/ case and 3 handles
1 pair of Magnifying glasses....2.50 MAG with case
2 slider potentiometers --variable resistance
10 ZIP Ties for wire grouping and clean connects
INTERNSHIP with the BMC---3 months
=======134 pieces with printed inserts and BMC Folder
____________________________________________
synthesis
purchase includes ALL answers to your frustrations and commendable progressions- guaranteed!
___________________

BUMP eXtreme anomalied effects into your own
keyboard or device!"
---------------------------

... um.... what?!?!

And for only $100.00 if you buy now.

[snicker]

posted in Circuit Bending - 5 replies

Supplies

2004-08-03T19:57:15Z

Howdy-

Going on a Chinatown run tomorrow morning I think to pick up some cheap electronic keyboards to cannibalize/bend/etc.-

Any other suggestions? This is for those attending tomorrow's Bending workshop in SF, fyi...

posted in Circuit Bending - 5 replies

so next time...

2004-08-03T19:54:56Z

... can it be planned for something a little later then 2pm on a saturday? that was about what time i managed to get out of bed ;)

posted in Circuit Bending - 9 replies

SF C-Bending Planning

2004-08-03T19:49:52Z

Check it-

after the thread 'Circuit Bending in SF Area', I posted in a couple other tribes to see if any other heads were out there that'd potentially be into thos: lo & behold we got some replies!

http://www.tribe.net/tribe/servlet/template/pub%2Ctribes%2CViewThread.vm?threadid=25f3fe5c-dda6-4f29-bd40-bacb1b40a137&_message_resource=info.post.created&tribeid=f0c9642c-c3ca-41aa-b59e-0c73542fc654

This thread has replies from not one but TWO different guys with leads on a space to do this at.

So- now that we have a couple potential venues, shall we start divvying up org. responsibilities?

posted in Circuit Bending - 64 replies

Sk-1 Songs

2004-08-03T19:39:53Z

I'm almost finished with my Sk-1 now... just a few tweaks needed to get the second atari jack I set in it to work. In the meantime I closed it up and recorded a couple of tracks. I'm really very happy with the variety and complexity of the sounds this thing can make now... it's surpassed all my expectations.

The first track is a couple of layers of the sk-1 built up into a nice drone.
http://www.wileywiggins.com/akjcfbhqlavbsadv.mp3

The second track is some midi noodling with built up color of sk-1 and the vocaid.
http://www.wileywiggins.com/headache.mp3

posted in Circuit Bending - 3 replies

is this any good.

2004-08-03T00:07:23Z

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38071&item=3739774601

I was thinking about getting this... I love the sounds from Circuit Bending but have no skill in doing myself.
Thought this might be cool.

thoughts?

posted in Circuit Bending - 1 reply

8-Bit Punk [repost]

2004-07-19T22:56:42Z

thanks to Konrad from the Cultivated Audio tribe for this.

8-Bit Punk

Malcolm McLaren, the subculture hacker who created the Sex Pistols, discovers the new underground sound. It's called chip music. Can you play lead Game Boy?

We live in a karaoke culture. The Japanese word means "empty orchestra" - a lifeless musical form unencumbered by creativity and free of responsibility. Simple, clean fun for the millennial nuclear family. You can't fail in a karaoke world. It's life by proxy, liberated by hindsight.

Authenticity, on the other hand, believes in the messy process of creativity. It's unpopular and out of fashion. It worships failure, regarding it as a romantic and noble pursuit - better to be a flamboyant failure than any kind of benign success.

Karaoke and authenticity can sit well together, but it takes artistry to make that happen. When it does, the results can be explosive. Like when punk rock reclaimed rock and roll, blowing the doors off the recording industry in the process. Or when hip hop transformed turntables and records into the instruments of a revolution. Now it's happening again. In dance clubs across Europe and America, young people are seizing the automated stuff of their world - handheld game machines, obsolete computers, anything with a sound chip - and forging a new kind of folk music for the digital age.

Until recently, I was feeling stifled by the tyranny of the new. New corporate lifestyles for doing everything well. Too well. iPod this. PowerBook that. Listening to albums, like Madonna's latest, that were made using Pro Tools - software that reduces virtually every mixdown effect to a mouse click - left me with a depressing sense of sameness, like everything on TV. I had decided to make an album about the "look" of music: the visual gestalt of youth culture. For me, music has always been a bridge between art and fashion, the two realms I care about most. It's one of the most natural expressions of the youthful need for confrontation and rebellion. Now it was lost in the hearts and minds of a karaoke world. I couldn't find my place in it.

Then I discovered chip music.

It all began on a freezing winter evening in snow-capped Zurich, Switzerland. Some friends of mine had a vague relationship with a small-label dude who caught my attention at a party rattling on about lo-fi. He soon had me playing phone tag with a clique of "reversible engineers" working illegally in Stockholm. I didn't know what that meant, but I was eager to find out.

The quest led me to the outskirts of Paris: Ivry sur Seine, to be exact, dead south of Chinatown. In that desolate industrial district, I had a 10 pm appointment with two guys named Thierry and Jacques.

The address turned out to be a forbidding, semi-abandoned factory. I couldn't open the gate, so I waited nervously in the darkness. After a while, a suspicious, balding youth came out of the building - Jacques. He seemed to have trouble finding the keys to undo the heavy chains that secured the premises. Finally, the doors swung open. After a terse greeting, he led me up a concrete stairway and through dark, labyrinthine corridors of peeling plaster.

"What's that smell?" I asked, my nostrils assaulted by what seemed like a hot pot of hairy horse and curry powder. "It's the Cameroon embassy," he answered, smirking. Jacques, a shy young man whose teeth were nearly black because of his fear of dentists, explained that wood carvers, graphic artists, photographers, and hip hop kids from North Africa worked here. Only half the factory had electricity or heat.

Two flights up, Thierry welcomed us into a dim, tiny room at the far end of the building. To my surprise, I found myself in an Ali Baba's cave of outdated studio equipment. The chamber was stuffed floor to ceiling with hardware from the dawn of the 1980s: dinosaurian Amigas and Ataris once prized for their sound chips and arcane applications, giant echo plates, and knob-studded analog synthesizers. In the center was a pair of dusty turntables, one with a 45-rpm single on its platter. Thierry put the needle to the groove. I reeled as the record player emitted a din like screaming dog whistles. It sounded like a video arcade gone mad.

The low light revealed the Frenchman's T-shirt. Emblazoned across his chest were the words FUCK PRO TOOLS. The phrase described perfectly what I'd been feeling for months. Like any fashion victim who comes across a new and stylish idea, I was smitten. Fashion is most easily used as a disguise - it allows you to be something you're not. It's much more difficult to use it to express who you are. I understood immediately that this was no facile fashion statement.

"Who made this record?" I asked. In stark contrast to the silent Jacques, Thierry - once he started talking - could hardly stop. "Mark DeNardo from Chicago," he said. This twentysomething Puerto Rican artist, he told me, is the Velvet Underground of the 21st century, the next step in the evolution of rock and roll. "This is chip music," Thierry continued, "made on an old Game Boy. I don't like hi-fi. I can't afford hi-fi. To make this music costs only 15 euros. You can pick up an old Game Boy from the marché aux puces," the Paris flea market. He presented an outdated Game Boy and, maneuvering his thumbs on the keys, showed me how to create musical sequences.

Thierry spun another record. "This is Puss," he explained. "He's from Stockholm. He sings with a girl: 'I'm the master, you are the slave.' They're the new ABBA!" The album cover featured a simple photo of a Game Boy, nothing more. I loved it.

The next record was an EP - an extended-play 7-inch - by a Stockholm artist called Role Model. The last time I had come across this format was in the 1960s, when I bought my first Rolling Stones record. Role Model sounded like a videogame fashion show, as though Twiggy were somehow stuck inside Space Invaders. It was intelligent dance music made using analog approaches, distinctly human and more individual than simply switching on a drum machine. The more I listened, the more contagious it became. The names of emerging artists rolled off Thierry's tongue: Adlib Sinner Forks, Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, Glomag, The Hardliner, Lo-Bat, 8-bit Construction Set - an entire lost tribe of Game Boy musicians.

The room became hazy with the exhaust of these chain-smoking French guys. I felt like I was at the end of the world, but I also thought I could be happy here.

Chip music is made using processors from the antediluvian 8-bit past. (Pro Tools, by contrast, starts at 24 bits.) The genre's seminal moment occurred three years ago when Role Model (real name: Johan Kotlinski) created a custom Game Boy cartridge called Little Sound DJ - LSDJ for short - that takes over the palmtop's internal synthesizer and turns the device into a musical workstation capable of playing sequences and arpeggios, but not chords.

Role Model, who's studying for an engineering degree at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology, manufactured LSDJ in Japan and offered it on the Web for about $70 until he sold all the cartridges he had made. The software is a simulacrum of DJ culture, combining the Game Boy's native bloops and bleeps with samples of old drum machines like the popular Roland TR-808. LSDJ isn't the only such cartridge: Nanoloop, made by German art student Oliver Wittchow, does similar things, but without the samples. It's easier to generate sounds right away with Nanoloop, but LSDJ is more musical and therefore more popular.

LSDJ may be technically illegal, but who cares? It's the only way Role Model and his cronies can afford to make their music. It's Le Resistance. Chip musicians plunder corporate technology and find unlikely uses for it. They make old sounds new again - without frills, a recording studio, or a major record label. It would be facile to describe the result as amateurish; it's underproduced because it feels better that way. The nature of the sound, and the equipment used to create it, is cheap. This is not music as a commodity but music as an idea. It's the Nintendo generation sampling its youth.

The essence of chip music is in reverse engineering an electronic interface - whether it's a Game Boy or a computer's sound chip - and subverting its original design. Chip music can be made using run-of-the-mill equipment, like a Casio keyboard, but first the insides must be scrambled. The lo-fi sound of the White Stripes and their ilk has a certain aesthetic kinship with chip music, but it's less tech-centric and not nearly as subversive. Kraftwerk might be the grandfathers of chip music - like today's reversible engineers, they invented many of their instruments. As for programs like Pro Tools, chip musicians don't think they're really creative. The sound isn't generated by circuitry, and you can't alter it by twisting a knob.

As DeNardo puts it, "The digital medium may have more accuracy, but it doesn't have as good a vibe. Playing with an analog machine that has an inaccurate bpm" - beats per minute, the dance-floor gauge of tempo - "can be a bitch. But when you can hear the sequence and feel it, it's like listening to a live band rather than someone singing along with a digital karaoke machine."

The urge to breathe some genuine fire into moribund electronica has spurred the chip music underground to embrace vinyl. When I first met Thierry and Jacques, they were waiting for a shipment of 3,000 EPs from a pressing plant in the Czech Republic. Why do chip musicians insist on using such a perversely obscure medium? In a world where information is free and experience is virtual, delicate vinyl discs, black and fetishistic, are precious. They're treasured, collectible, real. And, unlike CDs, they can't be reproduced easily. Chip musicians scorn CDs as cheap, disposable, and, at best, no more ecofriendly than vinyl.

Chip musicians can be found all over the world, but they're mostly in places where Game Boys are popular - the US, Sweden, Japan, Switzerland. Some are into the technical side of it, like Nullsleep, who graduated from Columbia with a degree in computer science. Others are just into the music. They like being pop-culture pirates, and they have little use for the mass market. Their output is deliberately inaccessible to radio and TV, indeed to anyone in the music industry who still believes in hi-fi. At this stage, they don't necessarily aspire to have an audience beyond that of their own choosing, which means friends. This will probably change. Most early punk gigs - the ones that are continually mythologized - had audiences of about 20 people, though today it seems like everyone was there.

I began working in Ivry Sur Seine, programming Game Boy sequences, then overdubbing analog synths, guitars, and vocals. I sent an MP3 to DeNardo, who, I learned, is a classically trained violinist and keenly aware of Steve Reich's orchestral minimalism and John Cage's I Ching-driven randomness. He'd picked up LSDJ from Björk's Web site thinking it would make his music different. He created a Game Boy sequence to accompany one of my favorite old blues tunes, "Mighty Long Time" by Sonny Boy Williamson. Then he rewrote the lyrics and roughed out the chords on an acoustic guitar. We called the new track "Fashion Horse."

I remained in the factory for the next few months, cutting and pasting the ruins of Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters into a videogame wall of sound. I rocked with Adlib. DeNardo flew in from Chicago. We translated the modernist classical music of Francis Poulenc into Game Boy sequences and arpeggios. I went to China and developed a post-karaoke sound with Wild Strawberries, an all-girl group from Beijing. I found the look of music. This was fashion at its most cutting edge. So chic!

Chip music is still underground, but the scene is becoming less insular. Collaborations are beginning. It's easy to swap MP3s over the Net or daisy-chain a track, sending it to other chip musicians who embellish it in turn. F2F gatherings are starting to rumble in Paris and Chicago. The fashion for record players is growing - just look at the display window of Colette on the rue Saint-Honoré, or in the pages of Jalouse and Vogue. Soon tribes devoted to their favorite retro noisemakers will emerge in bars and clubs everywhere, sliding effortlessly through holes in the karaoke culture, personalizing electronic music and taking it to the next level, whatever that might be. Perhaps it will be games for writing music, or mobile phones with MP3 capabilities that let you listen and modify at will.

Chip music is mutating into a growing taxonomy of styles - post-karaoke, rock-and-roll Game Boy, bastard blues - that represent the most anarchic display of the antihero in pop culture. The sound is raw, noisy, and at times poorly played and sung. Still, repurposing defunct devices to end-run a music industry in total decline constitutes a revolution. Chip music is the final repository of the marvelous, its makers the last possessors of the wand of Cinderella's fairy godmother.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/mclaren.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=

posted in Circuit Bending - 14 replies

Vocaid sample

2004-07-15T18:42:52Z

Here's a sample of my finished vocaid. Before anyone accuses me of charlatanism, I t is being played into garage band with some reverb on it, and it's been layered up a couple of tracks for a denser sound. Anyway, check it out. I'm relatively happy with it, although I really wish I had found some loop functions in there somewhere.

http://homepage.mac.com/wwiggins/iMovieTheater6.html

posted in Circuit Bending - 6 replies

new to-and interested...

2004-07-13T18:24:09Z

Hello. This is the first time I've heard about circuit bending, but I am very intrigued.
Forgive my ignorance on the subject if I'm asking the same question that you've all been asked countless times, but I have very little freetime in my day, and it would save me a great deal of time to simply ask the circuit benders themselves... anyway, I am curious as to what exactly circuit bending is?
I understand the concept, but I would appreciate it very much if someone could give me an idea to what you do electrically to various speak & spells, calculators, etc. to get them to emit these unique sounds.
I'm not sure exactly how technical circuit bending is, if at all, but just by chance if there is someone out there that could draw up a rough schematic or functional diagram? I would love to see exactly what is being done to these poor defensless circuits and begin my own bending ventures.

posted in Circuit Bending - 2 replies

Roland B303?

2004-07-11T10:23:40Z

Hey what's the Roland Bass Line thingy in the photos all about? It's interesting looking.

posted in Circuit Bending - 6 replies

shopgoodwill

2004-07-11T10:20:41Z

online, that is: http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=939872

I have one of these, only without the ROM-pack. And the speaker was missing, as well, so it only has an output. I used the gaping speaker-hole to put in a joystick that controls the pitch on one axis, and fades melody-vs-"percussion" on the other axis. It's a learning-device with lots of LEDs above the keys and some weirdness. I presume having a ROM-pack would be much more fun....

posted in Circuit Bending - 4 replies