I got this off Ebay recently. It did not take long to bend this one, as I found all the bends in the Circuit Bending Book by Reed Ghazala. I think I will open it back up and search for more bends at some point. But she is a real horror movie music maker. Its got a 10 switch panel that is controlled by the knob (flux dial). I wired in a 1/8 inch mono output with a speaker on/off switch, and a 1/8th inch mono input, with a microphone on/off switch.
I got this at KB toys. It was the first toy I found to try to circuit bend. When I first opened it up, I thought wow, there are no components that I know in here. I poked around a bit, and then closed it back up unbent. I later learned what surface mount components were. It took me a few years before I ran out of things to bend, I opened it back up and found the pitch resistor, and replaced it with a 1M potentiometer. This is the smallest resistor I have replaced yet. This thing now kicks out some wicked bass. I had to replace the speaker to make room for the Pitch Knob. It has a reset button, and a mono 1/8 inch output.
This started as a cigar box. Incased is a 555 timer on a home made circuit board that is controlled by light. This spits out some mean square waves. I then found an LED strobe light flashing kit from all electronics. This was a fun thing to solder together. You can control the speed of the strobe light, and use that to trigger the pitch control while you use another LED flash light to control the pulse width. When I first built the Light Box, it kept running out of batteries. Then I realized that it was sitting in the sun shinning through the window during the day. It was silently singing to itself and running the batteries dead. So I added an on off switch. The little white rectangles below where it says Casa Blanca are the photo transistors, where you shine the light in for control. The one on the left is pitch, on the right is the pulse width. The green knob is volume, and there is a standard 1/4 inch mono jack for the output, so it plugs in like an electric guitar. I am currently looking for some googly eyes so I can use the clear plastic lenses for covers to protect the photo transistors.
The Neurosmith Musini’s are musical toys that are designed to teach kids cause and effect. When the sensors pick up vibration (like that of a kid dancing around it) it will match the tempo (sort of) of the vibrations. It is filled with lots of songs, and expandable by a cartridge slot for more games. The sounds are very Hi Fi. The sound quality reminds me of my Roland XP60.
Will be bending these soon. I have read that the innards of these are said to be “A dream synth on a chip”. Each is in stereo, and 100% MIDI controlled. My friend Dustin gave me one. I got the other off Ebay. The wand in the middle came with a cartridge that Dustin also supplied. When you hear the “banjo” you shake the wand, and win… I am now waiting on some MIDI jacks so I can get these a singing.
I picked up this parrot from Wacko (a store in LA).
It can store up to 31 different samples, and play them back randomly when the microphone picks up enough noise. My dog hates it, and when she barks at it, it will start its random playback of various sounds that I have recorded into it. For example “ruff ruff ruff!!!” It also flaps its wings and moves its beak as it talks back. It totally rocks when you get it beat boxing.
Here are the bends I have found so far.
The pitch dial makes a darth vader style playback. The chance trigger seems to make a glitchy high pitched loopy sound. I put it back together because I got a speak and read, and wanted to work on that. So I will be tearing into this one soon. I will post sounds and pics as soon as she is all bent up.
soniccircuitry 