Circuit Bending
Circuit Bent Roland TR-505, originally uploaded by romanedirisinghe. I found a great site on circuit bending, which Wikipedia defines as “the creative short-circuiting of electronic devices such as guitar effects, children’s toys and synthesizers to create new musical instruments and sound generators.” Never mind that it’s potentially hazardous, and could kill you, but the results are pretty awesome. A few months back I picked up a used Roland TR-505 drum machine, circuit bent by the guy who sold it to me. I think I paid around $75 for it, and man is it cool. Not only can I get the standard sounds out of it, but a few flips of some extra switches allow some otherworldly percussive sounds. Interested? Check out a full circuit bending tutorial at anti-theory.com I’ve just uploaded an MP3 of my circuit bent TR-505 (MP3, 1.51 MB).
Categories: blog, music
Tags: blog, music, podcasts, sci-tech
Comments: 5 Comments.
I know someone who is very into that kind of thing, but he’s not a musician, so he gives his completed projects to friends who are musicians. Also, I have learned from him that you can make a tazer from the parts of a disposable camera. He’s just full of useful information.
a taser eh? man, if you can’t build ’em yourself, you can prb just buy ’em; i’ve heard of cheap, no-name knock-offs circulating out there. totally scary shit.
dude.
circuit bending cannot kill you unless you are a damn fool. just lettin’ ya know.
I got my 505 out again yesterday (it sat unused for 4 years) after installing some new recording software on my PC. Unfortuneatly I can’t get the bass drum to work. It doesn’t work when I hit the pad or when a pattern is running. Any thoughts ?