Squidfanny (Legacy) - Circuity Bent PSS-460 FM Synthesizer (march 2013)

Published on Jul 6, 2014 Haxxor Soniq

"Circuit bent PSS-460 FM Synthesizer, with loads of mods on the FM Chip and Chorus circuit as well as an integrated Step-Sequencer for Gating and Pitch modulation.

Glitch Buttons can be used to generate fascinating new instrument / chord patches. An experimental Bolt-Bay can be used to re-patch the FM chip and create bizarre new sounds and weird glitch effects.

This is an old vid, re-upped for an ebay auction."

Squidfanny is now HAXXOR on eBay

Haxxor 'TANDY ANALOG DRUM' Lo-Fi Analog Drum Synth (March 2014)

Published on Mar 26, 2014 Haxxor Soniq·45 videos

"The TANDY ELECTRONIC DRUM is a Lo-Fi Analog Drum Synth from the late 1980's. It looks like it was modeled on the Simmons drums, and has the same hexagonal pads, and even sounds similar (albeit distinctly Lo-Fi).

Loads of mods on this machine, including a miniature Step-Sequencer for triggering the sounds & an equally miniature Analog Delay (Space Echo).

I have another one of these beauties stashed away in my workshop, so the next 'Tandy' project will be a dissection and attempt at reverse engineering, in order to get schematics and re-create the drum modules. I particularly like the 'Phaser' sound on this machine, and it'll work nicely in my (soon to be completed) TR-808 / 909clone..."

HAXXOR on eBay

I believe Haxxor was previously squidfanny. The first post to mention Haxxor here on MATRIXSYNTH was this one back on November 2, 2013. Note the YouTube channel was still under squidfanny. It changed to HAXXOR AUDIO in this post in December.

Squidfanny (Legacy) - METATRON CUBE 2 Weirdy DSP Synthesizer (May 2013)

Published on Mar 9, 2014 Haxxor Soniq·43 videos

squidfanny on eBay

"The METATRON's CUBE 2 is a Circuit Bent Synthesizer, built using a heavily modified Alesis Delay / Reverb unit & an array of DIY circuitry.

Features include -
* Loop Sampler.
* Metal Touch-points.
* Built in hand MIC.
* All manner of weird Glitch effects.
* Step-Sequencer with GATE, MODULATION & Patchable Bolt-Bay for GLITCH EFFECTS.
* External Sync.

See this vid for METATRON's CUBE 2 used as an effects machine -"

Squidfanny (Legacy) METATRON's CUBE 2 DSP Synthesizer vs MONOTRIBE (May 2013)

HAXXED OMNICHORD SYNTHESIZER w/ Monotron Delay

+ HAXXED OMNICHORD SYNTHESIZER + for Olly (December 2013)

Published on Dec 19, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·38 videos

Note: HAXXOR is Dave Bradbury's aka Squidfanny's new branding. Not sure if it replaces Squidfanny. I shot Dave a message to find out. I did however create a new HAXXOR label for new posts and found one older post I added it to. See the HAXXOR channel at the bottom of this post for it.

Video description:
"This modified Omnichord OM-84 has been infiltrated and subverted using an assortment of DIY circuitry, and a Monotron Delay -

The Monotron is firmly bolted onto the Omnichord, and provides Resonant Filter & Space Echo, and there's a little mixer built into the Omnichord, so that it's individual channels can be sent through the echo & filter.

The Monotron can even be triggered from the Omnichord!

Deep hardware hacking using a sophisticated little Step-Sequencer circuit has opened up a world of weirdness, modulations and custom rhythm patterns.

The Step-Sequencer will trigger a pair of envelope generators, which can be used to MODULATE THE PITCH of the Omnichord & MODULATE THE ECHO RATE on the Monotron. Both envelope generators can also be used the Trigger the Monotron and provide Whooshy synth sounds.

The Modulated Echo sounds amazing....

There's also an array of metal touch-points, which can be used to 'Play' the insides of the Omnichord with fingers...

Other Modifications include a Patch-Bay, which can be used to re-patch the triggers from the preset rhythms (drums, chord & bass), and an extra row of patch-able bolts belonging to the Step-Sequencer; these bolts can be used to generate unique custom rhythms, or just used to add variations to the existing rhythms.

There's also some knobs for tweaking the Analog Drum sounds, and there's powered individual outputs on the back of the machine for the Omnichords separate channels (Drums, Chord/Bass & Harp).

Yep, this one's been an epic project..... Learned alot though, and it's interesting to see how the technology inside has advanced from the original OM-27 (produced 8 years earlier in 1980).
This OM-84 was the last 'Analog' Omnichord, and although the voicing circuits ARE analog, all of the really cool chips/circuits have been compressed into a large ROM/MPU, so sadly they can't be accessed externally - and that means NO GLITCH SOUNDs on this machine :(
Instead, I've gone to some considerable effort to modify the ECHO on the Monotron, to act as a 'Glitch Sound' provider. It works very well, and has an interesting 'under water' style of sounds, which I really like :)

Sorry about the dodgy audio levels in places - recorded this vid late at night with cheap headphones, while the neighborhood was soundly sleeping :]"

Squidfanny Circuit Bent KAWAI R 50e Drum Machine Electronic ROM july 2011 YouTube 360p

Published on Nov 25, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·37 videos

"Beloved Kawai drum machine from the late 1980's. Circuit bent by Squidfanny."

Squidfanny (legacy) - Bit Crusher Voice Machine (June 2011)

Published on Nov 22, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·36 videos

"The original Circuit Bent electronic instrument - Loads of very distinctive and instantly recognizable sounds & Lo-Fi digital effects. . . . .

Robot Ring-Mods, Pitch-Shifting Effects, Distortion & plenty of variations in between.

By Dave Bradbury (AKA Squidfanny) June 2011."

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

Squidfanny (Legacy) - 'Psychoactive' OMNICHORD SYNTHESIZER for SPACE GUN BUNNY (October 2013)

Published on Nov 16, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·35 videos

"A commission for Space-Gun-Bunny, this machine is a Circuit Bent & Hardware hacked Omnichord synthesizer from the early 1980's.
This machine has been lovingly combined with a Korg Monotribe Delay, and the Omnichord now has a decent VCF & Space Echo.
Hardware Hacking allowed me to add a Patch-Bay to the rhythms section, and an additional Step-Sequencer circuit to provide custom rhythms and modulation.

I particularity like the warped echo effect - it sounds really unique."

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

Squidfanny (Legacy) - CMOS Abuse in a box.

Published on Nov 11, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·34 videos

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

"What happens when you take an infinite amount of monkeys, over an infinite period of time, and give them a handful of CMOS chips, an old voice changer toy?

This thing is a workshop tool, which also makes lo-fi tones and grainy effects.

It was made using (from memory) at least one 4093, a 4040, a 5051, a 4017 & an old 80's voice machine.

I use it to test out circuits on my creations using the patchable bolts. It also makes a good probe, for finding useful pulses & clocks within curtain devices."

Squidfanny (Legacy) - Circuit Bent YAMAHA DD 50 Drum machine

Published on Nov 11, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·34 videos

"This thing was used by PEDIGREE CUTS on their excellent album CIRCUIT BENT.

Check them out -

http://blog.pedigreecuts.com/?p=1204"

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

Squidfanny (Legacy) - 'Trance-Gate' AMSTRAD CKX100 Synthesizers (August 2013)

Published on Nov 11, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·22 videos

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

"The Amstrad CKX100 is a quirky / odd 8-bit machine from the late 1980's. It was designed by the same team of people who were responsible for all those SID based devices, which have since become legendary.

The CKX100 does not contain a SID chip, instead it has a little ROM and a fancy DAC which does all the interesting stuff.

To the untrained eye, the Amstrad probably doesn't look too hot, but with some gentle circuit bending, it can be re-envisioned as something truly fantastical -

These particular 'Trance-Gate' Amstrads represent about 5 years of experimentation and hacking.

I am currently working on a new version of 'Strad, with different sounds & features.
There's something very lovable about these bleepy old machines..."

Squidfanny (Legacy) - Circuit Bent MONOTRIBE with R 50 & VCO Mute

Squidfanny (Legacy) - Circuit Bent MONOTRIBE with R 50 & VCO Mute (March 2013)
Published on Nov 11, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·20 videos

"Circuit Bent Korg Monotribe - All the standard mod, loads of modular outputs, VCO Mute (for using the external VCF input) & Some interesting glitch sounds thanks to the REZ-MOD."

squidfanny on eBay (RSS) | Monotribes on eBay

Squidfanny (Legacy) - Circuit Bended KAWAI R 50 Drum MAchine

Squidfanny (Legacy) - Circuit Bended KAWAI R 50 Drum MAchine (march 2013)
Published on Nov 11, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·20 videos

"Lo-Fi grainy digital drums & loads of features - the Kawai R-50 drum machine is one of my favorite devices for circuit bending.
This one has loads of new sounds and features thanks to some hardcore circuit bending on the ROM.
It also has an extra ROM, containing the the excellent R-100 soundset. There is a switch which will swap between the two ROMs.
There is also an 'LTC1799 precision oscillator' inside the machine, which can be used for live / instant pitch modulation of the drum sounds."

Squidfanny (Legacy) - ZOOM-O-TRON 506 Bass Effects Synthesizer.

Published on Nov 10, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·20 videos

"Circuit Bent ZOOM 506 Bass Guitar pedal - Re-born as a Lo-Fi DSP effect processor.

Meet the ZOOM-O-TRON 506."

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

Squidfanny (Legacy) - Circuit Bent OMNICHORD OM 27 SYNTHESIZER Videos

Squidfanny (Legacy) - Circuit Bent OMNICHORD OM 27 SYNTHESIZER (October 2012)

Published on Nov 10, 2013

squidfanny on eBay

"Circuit Bent & Hacked Omnichord OM-27.

This Omnichord has been fitted with an array of powerful new circuitry to dramatically increase it's features & functions -

The obvious stuff is FILTER, LFO, ECHO, METAL TOUCH-POINTS.
Just out of camera shot is a Metal Bolt-Bay, which is connected to the Omnichord's RHYTHMs chip - this allows the rhythms to be re-patched in any combination to create custom rhythms.
Switches above the rhythms buttons allow the rhythms to be combined, and thus increase the potential of the Bolt-bay.
There's also knobs to tweak the drum sounds.

The really interesting stuff happens when you use the Step-Sequencer circuit - this can be used to create custom rhythms, but it can also be used to modulate the Pitch of the Omnichord, and also the Rate of the Echo... Very cool warped Echo sounds can be achieved using this mod."

Fun with Glitch. (November 2013)

Published on Nov 2, 2013 squidfanny·153 videos

"'Haxxor HR-16' Drum Machine & friends (November 2013).

Just testing out a new circuit bent drum machine, along with some other favored devices.

This is an interesting set-up - the Little 'Kawai R-50e' is providing master MIDI sync and triggering to the little yellow drum synth thing (via it's built in MIDI - Trigger Converter). One of the R-50e's MIDI triggers is acting as a clock signal and is used to sync the Monotribe.
The 'Haxxor HR-16' is also synced to the R-50e via the MIDI thru on the yellow thing.

I'll make a separate video to show the new 'Haxxor HR-16' within the new few days."

Quick Circuit Bent PSS-470 (October 2013)

Published on Oct 26, 2013 squidfanny·152 videos

"A quick noisy runthrough of October's PSS-470.

I'm suffering from winter flu, so this just a very quick and not particularly musical vid for my own personal consumption :)

Most of the features are shown, albeit in a no depth at all. There's also a Monotribe used to show the external audio input, used along with the PSS-470's Chorus / Phaser & Gate.

Can someone please send me some asprin & lemsip - everything's too bright and my head hurts"

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

'Psychoactive' OMNICHORD SYNTHESIZER for SPACE-GUN-BUNNY (October 2013)

Published on Oct 14, 2013 squidfanny·151 videos

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

"Epic Circuit Bent Synthesizer, built from a vintage Omnichord & a Monotron Delay.

This machine contains an array of new circuitry designed to twist, warp, disrupt & distort the sounds of the Monotron & the Omnichord.

There's way too much stuff to show in this vid, so I'll probably make another vid to explore the more mellow side of this machine..
In the meantime, this vid is basically an orgy or weird & experimental electronic glitch & filtered noise.

This machine belongs to my friend in America - Mister 'Space-Gun-Bunny'

http://www.youtube.com/user/SpaceGunB...

-----------

Want more details? -

Loads of servicing on the actual Omnichord - lots of new little caps to remove most of the annoying clicks from the triggers. New amp circuits and individual outputs for the separate channels (drums, chord/bass, harp). A little built-in mixer to send the separate channels to the monotribe.

'Monotribe Delay' provides nice interesting VCF & Delay (based on a PT2399 design). I've bolted it next to the Harp-Plate, so that it can be played easily. It can also be modulated by the Omnichord, courtesy of my little DIY step-sequencer.
I particularly like the twisted up delay sounds that can be had from this design - it's a very unique sound.

Regards to the Omnichord mods -

+There's touch-points, for playing lovely squarewaves from inside the machine.
+There are knobs for tweaking the Analog Drums.
+There's switches above the rhythms buttons, so that the rhythms can be combined with each other for making interesting new rhythm weidness.
+A patch-bay allows brand new rhythms to be created.
+Separate volume knob for the BASS tone.
+Glitch Mods, to amaze.

The Monotribe required a little modding too - had to add a 'resonance' knob for the VCF, and also came up with an interesting mod to generate some fascinating distortion (see later vid).

This was a very experimental project, tried lot's of interesting new circuits with this machine. Also had a few problems along the way - I put alot of effort into building a new 'clock' circuit for the machine, so that I could Sync it to my monotribe. Unfortunately it still has a few bugs, so I'm cheating a little, and using the Trigger Pulse from the Omnichord's hit-hat as a Clock signal to sync the Monotribe :)

Anyway, this is the crazy vid.... I'll post a mellow vid as a response soon."

chaos never disturbs me

Published on Oct 13, 2013 pianoloft·211 videos

"a very nice setup, useing the dam drum 2.0 by bleep labs, a modified yamaha pss 100 (squidfanny), run through a pitch effect of the roland sp-404, a noise machine by dr. moonstien with body contacts to create screaming sounds, a casio sa-20, modified by dementia labs with an extraordinary outfit in an old suitcase and wonderful chaotic soundscapes and in the background sometimes a pulsating sound is doing its job, useing a sl-20 and a korg kaos pad."

Final 'TRANCE-GATE' AMSTRAD Synthesizers (august 2013)

Published on Aug 20, 2013 squidfanny·150 videos

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

"Well Hacked & Circuit bent AMSTRAD CKX100 Synthesizer(s).

These machines (there's two of them used in this vid) have been transformed using the power of alchemy & CMOS...

The Circuit Bending & Glitch brings forth a world of weird new sounds, chords & waveforms to experiment with.
The Step-Sequencer provides Gate, Pitch-Modulation & Unique Arpeggiator effects.

In parts of the vid, a Monotribe is synced from the Amstrad, in another part I'm using a MIDI-TRIGGER Converter to generate clock signals (for syncing) from a computer.
In another part I'm using the glitch buttons to scramble and disrupt the Amstrad's native beats & accompaniment.
At some point I'm also using the Glitch buttons to generate nasty waveforms and the step-sequencer to manipulate aforementioned waveform.

The Amstrad has a 'computer aided chord' function similar to the Omnichord, which allows the user to randomly hit any keys you want, without generating a 'dis-harmonious' note........

This little feature, when combined with the Glitch mods, will produce all manner of fascinating, ultra-harmonic and often terrifyingly sinister digital sounds.

These things blow my mind every time I play with them.

These will be the final ever 'Trance-Gate' Amstrad Synthesizers - I've reached the apex of what can be achieved with the current design (an evolved 4017 sequencer module), so I'm going back to the breadboard to try out some new ideas.

Constant and relentless experimenting is the nature of circuit bending. Being creative and trying new ideas is what makes it an art form. Without the creativity, you may as well be working as a assembly droid at a car factory....... you listening s-cat?

Anyway, I've got lot's of interesting ideas for the next Amstrad(s). Just gotta translate them into hardware now (the difficult part).

Wanna know what I'm thinking?

Well, I like the idea of fully transforming the Amstrad into an Omnichord (it shares identical chord feature). So I'm gonna build a metal touch-plate to replace the top octave of keys, along with some DIY circuitry, so that I can play it with fingers just like the Omnichord :)

I also want a dedicated arpeggiator, and an advanced sequencer circuit, which can trigger the notes as well as modulating the sounds. . . . It's a tall order, with not much space inside the machine, and limited capabilities of the Amstrad, however, the Amstrad has a MIDI output to go with the chord feature. This means that a decent step-sequencer circuit could further transform the humble Amstrad into a very powerful MIDI controller :)

Hmmm Lots of ideas and not enough hours in the night. Back soon :)"

Project - MONOTRON Acid Thing

Published on Aug 11, 2013 squidfanny·149 videos

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

"An old project, revived from the dead for a Monotron experiment. This synth was originally a TB-303 clone (known as the FB383), which I sadly killed after getting carried away with some modifications some years back :(
I recently managed to bring it back to life, and despite the permanently damaged tuning scale, it's been successfully combined with a Monotron!

So - The Monotron is triggered by various points inside the tb-303 clone. Non provide accurate pitch tracking, but I can tap into the envelopes, gate & various other interesting spot's.

The fun really happens when the Monotron is used as a modulator, to disrupt and screw around with the 303's internal systems. There's alot of weird modulation and bypassing going on with this machine, the best sounds are thanks to the 'Rezzy/Acid FM' on the 303, which I shamelessly copied from Circuitbenders.co.uk. It really is an amazing sound! Kudos to CBUK.

Sounds ace when the Monotron is used as the modulation source for the FM mod, and at various point's in the vid I'm using digital drums, sent through the Monotron, to act as the modulator.
The result is some fierce acid distortion and noise damage....

This is a 'work in progress'. Definably needs some more work, but the initial results are promising :)

Big thanks Mark for your generous gift of the Monotron :)"