Introduction to Circuit Bending Workshop and Other DIY Events

via ROTH MOBOT (click for more events)
"Sunday, November22, 1:00 PM - 4:50 PM
The Old Town School of Folk Music
7004 N Lincoln Ave., 773-728-6000

We bring the tools and components, you bring the battery powered toys. This crash course in Circuit Bending, and Toy Hacking covers the basics of electronics, the tools of circuit exploration, and the techniques of finishing a project.
No previous electronics experienced required!
More information, pics from past classes, and circuit bending tips can be found on our 'Workshops' page."

Synth DIY Flickr Pool via SynthFrog

You can find the flickr pool here.

Description via akorbeti aka SynthFrog: "I uploaded some photos of my works. They include Mr. Braska too. There are almost 580 photos in there, of various stuff. From wide open synths like the SY77 and the QY 70 (I have to gut the QY 700 too). And some side stuff like eg. a colored octal clock that counted time in octal, by lighting RGB leds. B was bit 0, G was bit 1 and R was bit 2.

Etching stuff, UV box stuff, you name it..

If you leave a comment on a photo, I will give you detailed info about it. It is not too easy to remember and comment on all of these photos :)

for updated stuff checkout www.synthfrog.com"

Mr. Braska Hangs with Mr. T Robot

via SynthFrog where you'll find more images of Mr. Braska's latest adventures at Sound's studio. You'll also find a note on how Mr. Braska met the piggy mentioned in this prior post. :)

CLICK FOR MORE »

RC CIRCUIT BENT 'ALIEN ENCOUNTER' SCI-FI SYNTH

YouTube via djwidow420
"A DUAL OSCILLATOR SCI-FI NOISE SYNTH BY RESONANCE CIRCUITS"

djtechtools MidiFighter DIY Kit

via djtechtools
"The Midifighter kit comes in a flat box that can be personally assembled in 5 minutes. Entry level moders can select the arcade button colors they want when ordering and assemble the kit into a custom configuration that fits their personal style or mapping. The arcade buttons snap into place thanks to our hand made clips that require zero soldering. Just screw together the frame using a simple allen wrench, snap in the arcade buttons and your custom controller is assembled and finished. The finished controller is plug and play with super high quality low latency drivers and will work with all midi compatible software."

BBC "Bonger" Analogue Sequencer Oscillator Synth Filter

via this auction

"Not something you're going to see every day - this custom modular rack unit was rescued from a BBC studio. In all honesty I know very little about it other than what I can tell from looking at it, and I have not tested it as I don't have the Neutrik mains connector required to power it up (these are available on eBay though). This custom-made box consists of 4 modules.

From left to right:
* The first, main module, appears to be a 4 step sequencer with variable rate, hold, and reset controls. If you remove the 4 black covers beneath are potentiometers for adjusting each of the 4 frequencies.
* Next: Envelope shaper with on-off control
* Third module is a low pass filter.
* Finally a very high quality BBC PS2/13D/599 dual rail power supply.

On the side of the machine is a Neutrik mains connector and two jack sockets (possibly GPO jack).

An internal sticker indicates that the unit was known as the "Bonger" - which may well be descriptive of the kind of sound it produces.

I have no idea what this unit was designed for but it could well be an interesting addition to the analogue synthesists arsenal."

The note and the design remind me of something out of J. J. Abrams' Lost.

Sold For: GBP 182.77

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dsPIC FPGA board

A new DIY FPGA project by Eric Brombaugh. Click here for full details.

"Potential applications include:
* Wavetable oscillators
* Field upgradable MCU firmware
* Flash-based FPGA configuration
* Voltage Controlled digital hardware
* Granular Synthesis
* etc"

MAKE presents: The Capacitor

YouTube via makemagazine. A look inside one of the parts used to make our synths and sound devices.
The video includes how to make a capacitor.
"Simple yet effective, they come in a dizzying array of forms and materials. Vital to so many circuits for storage, timing, and filtration - the mighty capacitor!

audio and video by Collin Cunningham
makezine.com"

Tiny Electric Arc Making The Worst Synthesizer Noises Ever Made TOO LOUD!

YouTube via Photonicinduction
"I need to learn to play that keyboard and get a life. A line output transformer is better to do that with as it can handle a wider frequency, For normal people - ( the dirty bit in the old style telly that makes the HT voltage on the tube )"
See the Tesla Coil label below for more.

Folktek Arts New Time Machine Collaboration

via the Folktek Arts blog where you will find more images.

"Fresh out of the lab a new co-mission collaboration by Ben Houston and Arius Blaze."

Glamour Box : Pattern processing (by Franck Smith)

YouTube via znshn
"Processing a 7/4 pattern w/ dual analog oscillator Glamour Box (by King Capitol Punishment) used w/ Sleepdrone 5 & Tenori-On. Contents: pattern processing, minimal pulses, signal trajectory, glitch, clicks, noise manufacturing, phonocrafting...

N.B.-Routing :
- Sleepdrone 5 into Glamour Box mix input — on 1 channel.
- Tenori-On sequencing sounds from the Glamour Box (prepared before) — on a 2nd channel.
- 2 channels into Korg Kaoss Pad KP3.

IF POSSIBLE USE HEADPHONES OR CONNECT YOUR COMPUTER TO A QUITE DECENT SOUND-SYSTEM.

Material in this video:
- Glamour Box (by King Capitol Punishment)
- Sleepdrone 5 (by King Capitol Punishment)
- Tenori-On (Toshio Iwai & Yamaha)
- Kaoss Pad KP3 (by Korg)

http://www.odiolorgnette.com
http://www.myspace.com/sthintosmither...
http://francksmith.blogspot.com
http://znshn.blogspot.com

Complete video selection on http://www.youtube.com/znshn
........................................
"Franck Smith" alternative digital techniques Live Electronics Odiolorgnette "Glamour Box" Tenori-On "Sleepdrone 5" "King Capitol Punishment" Korg Kaoss Pad KP3 Analog Filters dual oscillator phonocrafting noise manufacturing"

Zombie

YouTube via pss50
"Gakken and modular synth played by a zombie."
Tags:
zombieland zombie lf4d2 left fore deadTB 303 tb303 doepfer modular synt qmmg makenoise make noise zorloncannon harvestman zorlon cannon lowpassgate lowpass gate rack a-100 pss50 analogue digital synthesizers eurorack 1986 buchla 292 musik maximum karate Gakken sx150 sx-150

Trommelmaschine Mk. 2 - DIY Drum Machine

video upload by GeorgeHurstAV

"Hand built drum machine using a mix of plundered circuitry from a drum machine and hand built circuit boards.

For more like this see my other videos or website: http://www.georgehurst.co.uk"

Trommelmaschine Mk. 1 - Mechanical drum machine


"A working prototype for a large scale sculpture, which will use petrol engines, crankshafts and pistons to play percussion.

This prototype machine uses DC motors to drive Lego Technic crankshafts and pistons which strike piezo transducers to trigger drum sounds from a drum machine circuit board. There are no Lego kits or anything involved in this, it is all hand built.

Thanks to elastic band drive belts this machine works sporadically, as you can see in the video, but it proves the theory, allowing me to move on to developing the large scale 'Trommelmaschine'."

The Wacom Tablet Theremin

Max for Live - The Wacom Tablet Theremin - Using Max/MSP in Ableton Live, with Akai APC40.
YouTube via rerunnermusic

"Using Max for Live to control the Analog synth instrument in Ableton Live 8. The live.remote~ object passes data at many times the resolution of MIDI (one of the great things about the Wacom tablet and sample accurate modulation from MSP to Ableton Live using the API objects in Max for Live). The Wacom tablet has 5 degrees of hi-res expressive freedom (see below for mappings). Very promising, this is just a quick little study... Cheers.

x axis = pitch (tempered)
y axis = volume
pen pressure =vibrato amount
tilt axis y = vibrato rate
tilt axis x = detune +/- semitone."

steiner vcf 002

YouTube via bluelantern320. bluelantern on Ebay
"This is a demo for the new Steiner VCF. I am using a Tom Whiltshire Digital Sample and Hold to do the modulation. A Double Saw wave is being fed into the unit."

practicando nebuloso

YouTube via imesco. sent my way via Dominik

"con un poco de practica se puede tocar alternando entre la superficie continua y el sector cromático"
Googlish:
"with a little practice you can play continuously, alternating between the surface and color sector"

CLICK FOR MORE »

Vangelis and the Journey to Itheka - Real Time Performance of Symphonic Orchestra

Update: new video upload by WavesArt

Finally we know what those sequencer looking things are. They appear to be some sort of preset patching system. Check out the mechanical nature of it.

This one in via Joao (thank you Joao!!!)
"you can spot the greek master improvising in his setup and there are some closeups of his custom made modules he uses to switch patches. Pretty awesome stuff... they have a mechanical stuff that goes around where he writes symbols that symbolize different instruments so that he can easily pick his favorite sound. This is matrixsynth material..." Indeed. Vangelis gear mystery solved.

DIY Drum Synth

I just spotted this thread from droffset on electro-music.com. I thought it would be worth a post for those curious about synth DIY. The Drum Synth will feature the following:

MD24 MIDI to Gate PCB by Highly liquid
2x CGS Gate to Trigger Converters
4x Thomas Henry Mega Percussive Synth
1x CGS Cynare
3x Coron DS8 clones by m.Bareille
2x Thomas Henry UD-1
1 set of Klee Sequencer PCBs by Scott Sites

"Testing some panel designs for the quad MPSs based on the four elements. Can you tell which is which?"
You can track progress on the thread linked above.

Roland SH-101 "Nova Mod" version

via this auction
"SH-101 Nova-MOD Features :

VCF FM : Amazing new sounds are now added through this feature. Six FM Sources are available.

LFO Clock Input : Syncing the Apreggiator and LFO to external drum modules and sequencers in now possible. As well, interesting feedback loops can be created.

PW Modulation Source Selection : Now you can choose a pulse width source. It is indeendent from the LFO's waveform setting. OSC sources are included.

Pulse width to near 0% : Pulse width effects are now made more extreme and powerful.

External Audio Input : Just plug in a foot pedal or a CV from a midi convertor and your SH-101 will sing

LFO Rate Scalar : Ever hear a bell sound out of SH-101? Try this on Hi!!! Want a really slow sweep.... you got it too.

Overdrive : You may notice that this acts more like a "filter cleaning" knob as the filter is overdriven at it's minimum setting and clean at the max."

Paper Piano

YouTube via rishabhrajan
"Commuity Core Vision, Pure Data and Logic Pro used to create a 16 note progression that is controlled by fingers detected on paper surface."