The Spidey Synth

This is another instrument I built for a friend, because if I don't build it for someone else, it never gets finished. I have boxes and boxes of unfinished projects for myself.

Anyway, here it is...

When I saw the tiny spider man lunchbox at the store, I knew it would be perfect. I'm really happy with the way this turned out. 

Here is another angle...

Here is the schematic I used for it...

The only differences are that I added a switch in between pins 2 and 3 that selected between a photocell and the pot in the schematic, and another switch that selects between a 0.1uf ceramic cap and 1uf electrolytic cap on the first oscillator.

I've already given this one away so I can't make any recordings of it. I made a video though, just pretend like it isn't almost upside down...

Coleco Talking Teacher

When I originally bent this I only included a pitch knob, body contacts, and about 8 glitch switches. Which was okay, but I had seen schematics online that had used more. So I decided to take a second look. I used some stuff from a few things I've seen online and some other stuff I poked out myself.

Without further dudes...

From top to bottom, left to right...

• 1/4" Output Jack
• 5PDT Rotary Potentiometer Glitch Selector
• Distortion Knob
• Tone Momentary Push Button
• 2 Glitch ON/OFF Switches, connected to rotary switch
• Long Glitch Knob
• Hold Switch and Audition Button

Just like above...

• Pitch Photocell
• Photocell ON/OFF Switch
• Coarse Pitch Knob
• Fine Pitch Knob
• Barely Visible Reset Button

Originally, I just removed the pitch trimpot and replaced it with a 100k pot. The pitch range was okay but removing the resistor next to the trimpot really opens up the range. You have you replace it with a jumper wire though. I used a 500k pot for the coarse knob and a 50k pot for the fine pitch. You could just split the difference and use a trimpot if you want. You could probably just leave the original trimpot and just remove the resistor, but I lost it after I removed it the first time.

Here is the inside and a diagram of the bends...

You can see I had to remove ribbon cable to the LCD screen because it broke. I had to rewire it and it was a pain. The ribbon cable is really finnicky so you have to be careful with it.

  

Its kind of a sloppy mess but oh well. You can see the jumper wire used when I removed the pitch resistor. The three black wires on the left are for the body contacts.

Here's a video...

Atari Punk Sequencer

This is the first thing I successfully built. I built it for a friend back home. It seems like I only finish the things I build for other people. I just keep trying to add things on to stuff for myself until it stops working. Anyway.

Here it is...

It is an Atari Punk Console with a four step sequencer added. There are 2 photocells that can be switched on and off to replace the potentiometers for the APC. You can't seem them in this photo but there are 3 body contacts on the top of it. I've already given it away or else I would take some more pictures. The dome nail below the photocell switches is the reset button. You have to touch one of the body contacts and the reset button to get it to reset.

Here is the schematic I used...

This schematic is for 8 steps but I only used 4. Another thing that is different is I added a reset button. Also I didn't follow the schematic for the power switch. 

The eyeball in the upper right-hand corner is the power indicator light. It looks awesome when it lights up. I was inspired by alot of Reed Ghazla's alien instruments. Although since I don't have a heat gun I wasn't able to melt the plastic around the eye. It would have looked way better if I had one.

There is a 1/4" mono out audio jack on the left side next to the big black volume knob. I found some old computer speakers by the dumpsters in my apartment complex. I built one into a test amp for prototyping and put the speaker from the other one into this beauty.

Here is another Atari Punk Console I built...

This APC only has a photocell for one of the potentiometers. There is also a tiny speaker in there so the whole thing is self contained. With the 9v battery, it's a really tight fit. I would put up some pictures of the inside if I still had it. It has a on/off/momentary on power switch.

Sesame Street All Star Band

This keyboard sounds so cool you almost don't even need to bend it. The first one of these I bought off ebay for like twenty some ought dollars and I kinda fucked that one up. Then I few months later I found one at a goodwill for only a $1.99. I was definitely beating myself up for spending so much on the one from ebay, but I really like this keyboard so I still think it was worth it.

This is what it looked like before I painted it...

And the after I painted it...

I love the way the paint cracked and split over the keys. Apparently if you spray on a coat of white spray paint as a primer and then get impatient and spray on a thick coat of the next color, it'll look crackled like it does above.

The mods from left to right  :

• 2 Black Coarse Pitch Knobs
• 2 Grey Fine Pitch Knobs
• N.C. Momentary Reset Button
• ON/OFF/ON Pitch Resistance Switch
• Body Contact
• Loop Hold Switch and Audition Button

This keyboard can make such thick glitch-y tones when you lower the pitch. I love the way it sounds. You can also get some great drone sounds out of this thing, just drop the pitch way low and flip the loop switch. 

I removed the buttons on the left that played the programmed songs and put the pitch switch and the reset button there instead. I basically followed the schematic from the Getlofi.com. The only thing that is really different is there are more pitch knobs and I left out the capacitor buttons. 

First Circuit Bent Toy

This is the first toy I ever successfully bent. I've been really lazy about getting my circuit bent stuff online. I'm over that now, so I figured this would be the best place to start.

I was about to give up on the whole bending toys thing and life all together until this came together so well. There were so many mods I was able to find just by poking around with one lead connected to the pitch resistor. So many that I decided to use a rotary switch so I could use them all.

The mods from top to bottom and left to right are :

• N.C. Momentary Reset Button
• Low Frequency Oscillator Rate Knob
• LFO Depth and Shape Knobs
• LFO ON/OFF Switch and Rate Indicator Light
• Rotary Potentiometer Glitch Selector Switch
• 1/4" Mono Jack Out
• Glitch ON/OFF Switch
• Glitch/Pitch Knob

Here is what the inside looks like.

The Low Frequency Oscillator is from Getlofi.com, but the I used the schematic from Casperelectronics.com under the Speak n' Spell section. I just replaced the point on the Speak n' Spell in the schematic with the pitch resistor on whatever generic toy this is.

If I was smarter at the internet, I would find a way to upload some audio. You can see what points the rotary switch goes to on the board. They basically just drop the pitch in different ways. Some of them cause it to loop over and over. I put trim pots on the pitch knob because it will crash if it gets too low.

I've seen a handful of these things bent online. Some of them have had distortion mods but there was no audio so they very well could be the same bends here. It doesn't seem like there is a lot else you can do with this thing. Although, this was the first thing I did so maybe I could find some more in there if I came back to it.

Here are some more photos of it's insides...