noise Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 so, you're tired of that same fucking sound your piece of dusty, ebay scavenged machinery's been farting out for the last few years. you think "oh, i'll just do it like RICHARD D JAMESTWINS and ram a few pot meters and screws into it to make it sound fresh and electronic music again" and decide get to work on making your amazing custom dream synth 4000. or do you? i'm wondering if anyone of you started your own modification work on any type of gear you have? i'm mostly skewing this towards the analogue end of the setup, as digital modification obviously would be mostly directed towards software alterations and deal with a very different method of implementing sound generation. i don't really want to discuss software right now, although i'd love to have a chat about general interface programming/sound routing/generative processes later... anyway, most people who get into this will probably start out 'small', aka on cheap, less sophisticated equipment. economic risk obviously plays a huge part in tinkering with this stuff, i'm sure none of you would even dare unscrewing an 808 unless it went completely bonkers. where do you begin? do you have a set goal when modifying the equipment? do you know how this particular piece of equipment works electronically, like what controls the various envelopes, where the clock pulse is generated etc.? and how much change is necessary to warrant satisfaction with a modification? or do you just solder in a few diodes and hope for electronic music? one of the biggest problems with dealing with the insides of these things is that you have an array of ICs that quite likely are doing most of the 'thinking' within their circuitry. to really understand how these work you need their data sheets with mapping of the different ports and their functions, which can be a pretty 'counter-intuitive' (if pretty necessary) way of learning how the instrument works. if it's a proprietary chip, you'll probably be out of luck on finding out anything about it unless you have an insider man. the further the stuff goes back, though, the easier it is to find data on its innards. generally. and then there's the thought of replacing circuitry elements like ICs, pots, capacitors, resistors etc. or rerouting whole circuits altogether. if you really wanna do a professional rehash of something, you'll most likely need a complete sheet drawing of the circuitry and detailed information on each IC. most people are not gonna bother with this at all and will just dick about in there with the easily removable through-hole components, which can provide a just as interesting and fruitful result as a massive component shift/circuit rewiring. hey, that duty cycle shift made everything sound obnoxiously thin! as far as i've come, i've mostly tried replacing equal components with different characteristics to alter pulse times. i don't have a lot of components to play with, as it's all scrapped stuff that i have lying around from school a few years ago or shit i've pulled out of my old tv. it's still an interesting start, even if it's with a shit synth. you feel incredibly mighty just hearing the (un)intended change manifest itself as sound, and soon you'll start imagining potential that you'll never realistically will be able to fulfill. it's kinda like thinking up that ideal tune and never ever being able to write it. most of us get a few of those each day! so are there any of you who are actually into this stuff? really, anyone at least thought of it? one of the more intriguing ideas would be to modify a 909 or a 303... i know there are some existing ones like devilfish, but to try it out for oneself would be something different entirely! too bad about the astronomical cost, though. okay, i write way too much. gear modification! cool? stupid? don't care? interesting? lots of silly questions. i had more to write about, but this is dull enough already. theee end! jeez, that's a lot of text. sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vegeta897 Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Nice post. I think circuit bending is pretty interesting, though I don't really like obnoxious random noise. After watching videos of it online, and knowing next to nothing about electronics, I tried cracking open my Simon game to see what I could do. The only result I was able to achieve (by using a piece of wire to link two seperate wires) was make the sound quieter. So I gave up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ten fingers ten toes Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 For me, circuit bending stuff I have seems too risky (even though there are some free mods I can do to my Dotcom modules to get different envelope timing and stuff), but, building kits and shit works well. I started out with this little lo-fi "voice changer" electronics kit that basically is a pitch shit+lfo, modded it to use 1/4" in and out instead of the crappy mic and speaker in/out and now I'm just taking off from there. Going to build some Ken Stone filters and things on the cheap... I guess I would circuit bend something silly but when I've just spent $185 on a new oscillator I'm not really keen on cracking it open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iep Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 its not so risky if you know what you are doing, but i think the whole thing about circuitbending is not knowing what you are doing. if you find an old synth that you want to modify, look for the schematics first, there are very few commercial synths of which there aren't any schematics floating around. then get your hands on the ic datasheets, you should be have a rough idea of what's going on then, and what can be modified succesfully and what can't. good tools help, a nice desoldering-gun (which can also handle the small smd chips) will be very useful if you're reverse engineering stuff. it might be worth it to stock up on common parts, get a bunch of the most common resistor/cap values, some clean op amps, handful of general purpose trannies and diodes. it's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vegeta897 Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 modded it to use 1/4" in Oh that reminds me, I modded my Fabulous Fred to have a 1/4 out. Me using it in the beginning of this vid: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hahathhat Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 i'm very cavalier about bending casios and shit. not the end of the world if i blow them out, and i know from experience that it's pretty hard to do so. the stuff that bends best, by the way, is late 80s/early 90s cheapo consumer stuff. modern things tend to not have very many discrete components... modifying serious gear (proper vintage synths, drum machines, etc) i am MUCH more cautious about. i think the most important thing here, is - don't be a trailblazer unless you know what you're doing. find out if people have modified whatever it is before, and what they did. look for schematics of the device, try to get a vague understanding of what's going on. analog gear, in general, is not bendable - it is modifyable. random fiddling is just asking for disaster, but often you can do something if you know very specifically where you are going. a good example would be the TR-606 or 505. both of these machines have been modded to hell and back by many people, and you can find schematics, ideas, and hell - TUTORIALS on the 'net. you decide your own level of danger, but if you're poor bastard like me that's nervous working on anything over $25, having a thorough understanding of what you're doing is very important. once you work with electronics for a bit, you start to get some of the gestalt down. you open something up and say - ok, that's the power circuitry, that's the amp... and you'll know from experience what it pays off to much around with. casios, for example - avoid the power and amp shit, avoid the keyboard controller shit, go for the digital logic... the evil casio robot brain. and, of course, start on stuff you don't care about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
National Park Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 im about to enter the second year of my electronic engineering course and will soon hopefully be ready to get bending. in short, can we have more posts in this thread please :smiling: great stuff so far.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hellomynameis Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 i've ripped apart my korg poly 800 to add new cut off and res pots as well as fm synth distortion. If you look inside a synth and have a look at the trim pots, they may be able to be put as variable resistors on the front panel giving you more flexibility. However only try this on equipment you dont mind killing because it is possible that in the process of modding you will kill your machine. But I havn't yet (touches wood) PS bending is fucking easy because its random. Just go to a carboot and buy a cheap casio and you will be amazed. The TR 505 etc mods are better and well documented so creating custom bays and that shit is easy. All you need is time and a steady hand. (I have yet to do my 505 mods as I need a good little saw and a lot of spare time lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noise Posted July 18, 2008 Author Share Posted July 18, 2008 i'm working on modfying an old casio at work, we have a bunch of proper electronics labs with top tier soldering equipment and esd protection. it's great fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hahathhat Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 where do you work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noise Posted July 18, 2008 Author Share Posted July 18, 2008 i'll keep that secret, but we develop electronic equipment, i'll leave it at that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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