The Bendinator SB Circuit Bent Keyboard

This was an awful X-Factor TV show toy keyboard now given new life and seriously mod-ed into the Bendinator SB. If only Simon Cowell could be circuit bent!

Bends Include :

Pitch On/Off toggle switch
Pitch Mode
Pitch Control
Light Sensor (LDR) On/Off toggle switch
Light Sensor
Fuzz On/Off toggle switch
LFO in socket 1/4" Jack
LFO Mode 3 position toggle switch (pitch / off/ glitch)
Output Socket 1/4" Jack




Also has separate LFO device with

On/Off toggle switch
Speed Control 
Soften On/Off toggle switch
Soften amount control
LFO output socket 1/4" Jack

Video

More Pics

The Bendinator 7

It's been months since my last Circuit bent project, but here is the Bendinator 7. This keyboard features:

Pitch Control A Control
Pitch Control B Control
Pitch Mode Switch
Light Dependant Resistor (LDR)
LDR Switch
1/4" Jack Output

Pitch modes are activated by switching away from the desired control, centre position is off. One pitch mode is more glitchy than the other.

The keyboard has a built in echo effect which works well with the guitar effect, when pitched really low.

Here are some pics

 

 

 

 

Video

 

 

Bendinator 1.3 Circuit bent My Music Maker Toy

It's been quite a while since I bent anything, but a free friday night last week allowed me to get back into it and I produced a Bendinator 1.3. This keyboard I got on ebay for a few pounds and was exactly the same as the Bendinator 1.2, a My music maker toy keyboard. The bends are quite different on this one though. I opted for body contacts instead of an LDR, and didn't bother with a sustain switch as one of the pitch modes gives extra sustain anyway.

The keyboard features :

- On/Off switch

- Jack Output

- LED Sound Indicator

- Pitch/Glitch Control

- Mode Switch controls whether Pitch/Glitch Knob is off or acting as Pitch control, or glitch control. (This is a 3 way switch. Centre is off, right is glitch mode, left is pitch mode)

- 2 Body Contacts for pitch. Holding both affects pitch, holding bottom one effects the sound.

Video Demo

Bendinator 5 featuring Light Sensor Pitch Control

Introducing the Bendinator 5 originally a pleasant childrens toy keyboard now turned a bit deranged thanks to some modifications.

The B5 features :

Pitch Control Knob and switch

LDR (Light Dependant Resistor) for pitch and switch.

Distortion Switch

Distortion Dial 1 - Amount

Distortion Dial 2 - Shape (Fine adjust)

Output jack (1/4inch)

There wasn't as much room as I'd hoped for controls on the body so I've left out a reset button, but it has a fairly handy on/off switch for crashes.

Pictures below and video :

Bendinator 2.1 used in another dance track

Steve Noxx has used one of my circuit bent keyboards in another track, only in the intro and middle bit but have a listen at :

http://soundcloud.com/stevenoxx/up-at-night-sample

Bendinator 4 - Circuit Bent Keyboard

This My Music World toy keyboard turned out a lot better than expected.

This is my first circuit bent keyboard to have a button called 'Egg' on it. This toy was bought for 99p in a charity shop by my son, and he also worked on it with me.

It had no controls when i got it, but I soon discovered it has loads and loads of hidden Demo songs which are activated by pressing the 'Egg' button then hitting a note. Pretty much each note fires off a different demo song, you can then mess them up with the other controls.

It has three Body contacts which work well, either touch the first two together for pitch wobble and dives, or touch the middle and third for harsh glitchy noises which are quite distorted.

It's pretty stable but does occasionally crash out to silence or holding a note, but the reset button is in a handy position.

It has a pitch mode with three settings, Mode A, Off (centre) and Mode B. Both modes have their own characteristics. Mode B turned full way will set the pitch so that notes are in concert pitch.

I also discovered there are a few extra sounds for the keyboard hidden on the board, so I added a push switch to toggle between them. The organ sounding one is good for pitching low, and sounding dirty and synthy.

The Bendinator 4 will probably go on sale in the near future on ebay.

It features :

Pitch Mode A/B

Pitch Control Pot

Body Contact for Pitch

Body Contact for Glitch

Easter Egg Button

Sounds Button

Reset Button

Output Jack

Video Demo

Pics

Steve Noxx Track made with the Bendinator 3

A song made using the Bendinator 3 by Steve Noxx. Have also made a Bendinator 2.1 for him so can't wait to see what music comes from that keyboard.

This is 2 min snippet of the song which is yet to be released.

Steve Noxx - Look At Me (Radio Mix) SAMPLE by stevenoxx

Bendinator 2.1 - Circuit Bent Toy Keyboard

Before starting this post, I'd like to point out I almost lost my mind bending this keyboard. Even though I had done one before, this time it was fraught with problems. The circuit board was also different from the first one, which led to some issues. At one point when tired I though I had destroyed the whole thing, but it turned out the batteries had just gone flat.

Since doing this I also no longer solder late at night when tired as I just end up making stupid mistakes, but sometimes its like an addiction and I can't walk away from an open case!

The Bendinator 2.1 is another Boots Karaoke Toy Keyboard, based on what I did with the Bendinator 2 which turned out well. The 2.1 has some differences in bends though :

No Glitch control

Added LFO Socket and switch for Pitch control

Added LFO Socket and switch/pot for Blip control (a repeating effect)

No Speaker Kill switch

It still has :

Reset Button

Doom Setting

Octave Down Setting

Pitch Control

Distortion

Output Socket

LED Blue Inner Lights

The addition of the LFO sockets works really well and I can get some crazy sounds, I will be posting a video soon, and hopefully some finished tracks using the keyboard.

Here are some pictures at different angles, not sure the black paint job is as good as the grey, but i only had enough grey to spray the buttons, so the body had to be black. It reminds me a bit of a 70s Dalek!

Bendinator 2.1 with External LFO

Sockets for LFO

Main Controls for Pitch and Distortion

These control are for the LFO features

More Shots from different angles

Circuit Bent Toy for Easter

My son bought this for I think a pound at a charity shop and wanted to try Circuit bending himself so we did this together. It's not a great candidate for bending, and I would say its a slightly unwilling participant in our plans. Having said that I might use it in a recording perhaps and it does have a good range of crazyness, if you're willing to put up the limitations.

The components inside are those tiny micro-resistor things, and the only bend I could find was Pitch, but it crashes out a lot at the top end, and the pitch is not that good in range.

So basically we've added a switch to enable the bend, a pot to control pitch, and a reset button, as there needed to be a quick way to reset it when it crashes.

Due to the lack of room in the casing, there was no opportunity for an output jack, and the controls has to be fitted to the back of the toy. This makes it a little tricky to operate but you can produce some weird noises etc.

Here are some pics, and a video.

LFO Project

Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO)

I built this LFO to use with the Bendinator 3 but actually i think it will be much better suited to the Bendinator 2, and the new version i'm building Bendinator 2.2 which will be the same but with a port for the LFO.

Inside I have a 555 Timer Circuit with a LED coupled to a LDR (Light Dependant Resistor) then connected to the jack socket. The LED and LDR are encased in a blob of modelling clay, if this is ever scanned by Airport security or taken apart by the Police it's not going to look good. There are four AA batteries in a battery clip, and obviously the connections to the switch and Pot.

Bendinator 3

The Bendinator 3 is a 'little steps' keyboard i bought in Tesco for £6, which is a lot more than i've paid for some of the others, and as it turns out is a bit limited in what you can bend.

Basically it's just the pitch that i've found, so i've added a pitch control with switch, and body contacts with switch and fine pitch adjust.

I've also added a socket on the back to connect an external LFO box which i'm currently building, video to follow soon.

The bendinator 3 is currently being used by DJ and producer Steve Noxx, who has made a track using the keyboard, hopefully will add a link to that soon.

Bendinator 3 with LFO Video

A song made using the Bendinator 3

Steve Noxx - Look At Me (Radio Mix) SAMPLE by stevenoxx

Circuit Bending - What you might need

Hi, thought I would share some of the components and bits that I have found useful in my circuit bending so far. Most of these I have used in the picture above, apart from the motor. Not sure how I will add a motor to a project but my son found it, and I added it.

This is my main box but I also have two others with other things, like soldering irons, and some tools like Jewellers screw driver set, plyers, wire (0.2mm the thinner the better)

The body contacts are just cheap nuts and bolts from a DIY store which when connected to certain parts of a circtuit and produce good results when touched on the outside of the case. (see Bendinator 3)

The Bendinator 2 Circuit Bent Keyboard

Hi, welcome back, today's blog is about my second circuit bending project. My chosen victim was a Boots Karoke Children's Toy keyboard which I bought from a charity shop for 75p.

The visual feel of the keyboard is quite sci-fi/industrial and so is the sound really. It's quite different from the Bendinator 1 which was more Analogue Synthy.

Here is a picture of the keyboard when I first had it.

Here it is after the bending process is complete.

Here's what i did to it in all :

Custom grey/black paint job

Blue clear plastic over vent gaps with inner lit blue LED (after removing side plastic bits)

Added Reset switch

Speaker Kill switch

Jack Output

Pitch Control

Doom Setting

Tranpose notes setting

Distortion switch

Glitch control with momentary on, and on/off switch

Here are some more pics and a video demo of some of the sounds, but because there are so many combinations of bends etc, this isnt everything it can do. I'm still discovering more effects, sounds etc. I will either update with another video or possibly a music track when I make a song with it.

Simple Flashing LED Circuit using 555 Timer IC

Although not amazingly useful in itself wanted to see if I could build a simple flashing LED circuit with a controllable flash rate, to maybe make the LED part of a vactrol to then effect pitch or some other aspect of sound in one of my circuit bent keyboards.

So many tutorials and examples on youtube, it turned out quite easy, thanks to chilliqueen2007 for the easiest to follow though.

Next step to make it properly on a strip board.

After that may attempt to make a guitar pedal that uses the circuit to make an adjustable tremolo effect or whatever i can think of at the time.

Although very sad this was a great way to spend an evening, apart from the first attempt where i cooked the chip and burnt my finger!

Felt good to use my brain to do something outside of my comfort zone, can see me slowly becoming more interested in electronics and what not.

Also weirdly the flashing LED seems to be in time with the music I used from my old band Box Of Thumbs at some points in the video too. Coincidence? yes, yes of course.

Circuit Bending - First project complete

Recently i've got into Circuit Bending. My first project was this toy keyboard I got on ebay for £3.50. Also got some components from Maplin which were all pretty cheap. Spent quite a few hours on it, lost a few evenings here and there, but really pleased with the final keyboard. I call it the Bendinator 1.2 Deluxe!

Here's a video and a picture of the final keyboard and a video of me playing it badly!



Details

The keyboard came with no controls or switches, not even an on/off switch. So I've added an on/off switch, a blue LED to indicate signal strength, a sustain on/off switch, a pitch pot with a switch below that has two modes, one chokes off when it get below a certain range, then the other mode has a capacitor wired in that smooths out the pitch control.

The pitch control also has sustain in it too so interacts with the sustain switch, and also the LDR.

The LDR (Light dependant resistor) basically wobbles the pitch when you move your hand over it, and also has a variable filter capacitor wired into the switch to make it more sensitive.

All the controls interact with each other providing a wide iteration of possibilities, didn't get them all in the video though.

Lastly I added an output jack so I can plug it into an amp or DI for the studio. One thing I didn't count on as I wired the output jack, is that the speaker becomes microphonic, so you can get feedback too when amped up. To me this is a plus, but in future ones I might do that differently, with some kind of switch or cut out feature when plugged.

Video

How I invented the Nintendo Wii in the 1980s

Hello, today I would like to tell you about how I invented a basic version of what now people would recognise as the Wii some 25 years or so before.

It all began when I would use my BBC Micro computer to play games, I didn't have a joystick and so had to use the keys to move and fire in games. One game Daley Thomsons Decathlon especially would require constant and heavy use of the Z and X keys as I recall.

I thought to myself there must be a better way. I knew that my BBC B had an analogue port which was capable of measuring voltage. Then I realised that human muscles produce electricity when in use. I connected a wire to the analogue port, then the other end to an adapted special wrist band which was worn by the user. I then setup a special mat on the floor for the user to run on, as not to wear out the carpet.

I wrote the software which would take the voltage reading from the analogue port then move a graphic of a human along the screen, the athlete would only move on the screen if there was a voltage of a certain amount, then move faster proportionally to the amount of energy being generated by the real human wearing the wrist band.

It was a very simplistic game, but provided many hours of fun, and impressed some of my friends at the time.

Ultimately I discontinued development of the technology, as at the time I thought it to be ludicrous that people would prefer to exercise in their house as opposed to outside in reality. I imagined that the computer game version of running could not be as popular or worth while as the real activity itself. I was wrong.

I also failed to imagine other applications, or trying a variety of other sports such as golf. I did not file a patent to my invention which now seems most regrettable given my current meager financial situation.

My old 80s Personal Stereo (Walkman)

Recently I found this in an old box, yes it's my favourite Personal Stereo from the 1980s.

I got it working again too by replacing a battery spring that had come off, though it's missing the battery case lid, and the aerial is slightly bent. But it's all good, they don't make them like this anymore. That Matsui quality can't be beaten, even if it was a fake Japanese brand made by Curry's or Dixons or whoever.

This was no ordinary Walkman as many of my peers would have had in the 80s, this one was very special. It cost about £39 I think, which was a lot in those days. I remember saving up for it, longing for it. This was a superior bit of cheap tat, boasting two stereo built in speakers, a microphone, 4 band graphic equaliser and telescopic aerial.

You could record from the built in mic or from the radio. I remember thinking that was very important, my ability to record the radio on the move. Though I'm not 100% sure why now, I suspect it was something to do with my childhood being constantly preoccupied with making mix tapes from the radio. Remember those preachy signs on record sleeves saying 'Home taping is killing music', well that was me. Fast forward to today and the intangible world of mp3s and somehow making copies of songs from records doesn't seem that big a deal. At least in those days you had to buy a physical product for someone to actually copy first.

The Matsui PH6182 RSP has a vast array of features and switches though a proclivity for many of them to be pointless. A mono/stereo switch? for the days when Stereo sound was just too much, and you wanted to keep it real with just good old mono? Also the metal/normal switch, not sure it was actually wired to anything, as I could never get this thing to record with anything but normal cassettes. Also the 4th graphic equaliser fader could be moved to any position without any discernible difference to the sound, but that didn't matter. I had 4 bands of EQ, and most of my friends had at most 3. So I won the Graphic equalisers, it's important we take a moment to remember that, as life was to offer very few later triumphs!

Why did we need to move away from Cassettes? I mean records/vinyl were fine, then with tapes, surely that was it, why would we need more? No, you said 'let's move to digital, CDs then mp3, and the internet'. Do we have to I replied, yes you said, don't worry nothing bad will happen! (No nothing except the complete inevitable collapse of the music industry!)

Anyway back to the Matsui PH6182, it works really well, and I'm keeping it, I'm going to get out all my old cassettes and listen to them again, as I rock gently back and forth into gradual mental illness. What? what's that you're saying, what if I want to listen to a track further on the album, well then I simply hold down the FWD (Forward) button until in my mind I guess that's where on the tape the track will be, in continuous iterations of trial and error. That's what real music appreciation is about, now it's all been lost. Lost i tells ye. Nowdays it's all about convenience, though the words 'One Touch Recording' on the front were a pre-cursor to that. Even in the 80s holding down PLAY and RECORD at once was obviously becoming to much for consumers.

Here's a tape i listened to then and will do again now, a classic too by AC/DC!

Here are some more pictures (some would say too many) including the mysterious normal/metal switch.

Sometimes I would spend the whole day listening in Mono, then move the switch to Stereo for a treat! but just for an hour!

Well that's about it, that is my tribute to my trusty old Walkman.

This was for you PH6182, enjoy this brave new era, old friend!