Saturday, August 25, 2012

UPDATES?!

Been too busy for a proper update...
Still too busy for a proper update so...
Here's some designs I'm working on for small synthesizers. These designs will be chemically etched onto copper clad circuit boards. Hope to have the first run of etchings done by next weekend.


 THE BIT BUSTER!
Rhythm/Drone Synth

THE SCARAB
ELECTRO-TOUCH SYNTHESIZER
Mini-Keyboard that you play by letting electricity travel through your body

  
THE SPIRA-SYNTH
Another touch based synthesizer that works a little differntly
 
DUAL TONE DRONE SYNTH 

MORE INFO/PROPER UPDATE COMING SOON!





Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Children's Museum

Last weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh talking/demonstrating to kids and parents about circuit bending and synthesizers. It was a very fun experience and I hope to do more events like it and workshops in the future.  Massive update tomorrow about the sequencer I recently built with schematics/research/explination.
-Jonathan


Thursday, August 9, 2012

MEGA UPDATE!

Long time since an update.
I was without a way to upload pictures and video for a month here's a taste of some things I've been working on.


CIRCUIT BENT FRANKENSTEIN TOY:
     This was one of the first things I circuit bent around..9 years ago. Decided to make a nice enclosure for it and add a couple more features like LFO with RATE and INTENSITY controls.

FEATURES:
 -Trigger sound: Momentary button to trigger sound, which is Frankenstein's monsters saying                  "Urrrhhhhh...        Fix Me!"
-Body Contacts- Pitch is effected by how much electricity is passing through players body
-Loop: Flip this switch and the sample gets stuck on the first syllable of the sample
-1/4 Output with Speaker Shutoff
-Built in SPEAKER
-LFO ON/OFF- Turns LFO on and off which modulates the pitch of the instrument.
-LFO RATE- Controls the speed of the LFO
-LFO INTENSITY- Controls how much the LFO effects the pitch
-METAL ENCLOSURE WITH CUSTOM ACRYLIC FRONT

-I still have to add LED covers and holders

PICTURES:


VIDEO COMING SOON!

PEE WEE (T)HERMAN:
      Made this for a birthday present for my roommate Sean. Simple light sensitive synth that wearable! Very Punny.

PICTURES:



VIDEO:


UNTITLED MECHANICAL SYNTHESIZER:
     Mechanically sequenced synthesizer, Uses salvaged microwave motor to trigger synth sounds.  A lot more about this soon. I should be finishing this Monday/Tuesday next week. I have all the circuits built but I'm working on building a much nicer enclosure. Eventually it will have 6 pitch control knobs to control the pitch of each step of the sequence, plus another control panel that will feature 4 patchable oscillators that can filter the sound or be used as stand alone oscillators.

PICTURES:
VIDEOS:
 
 
THE GOLDEN DOMES:
-LIGHT SENSITIVE STEP TONE GENERATOR
FEATURES:
-POWER SWITCH
-1/4 OUT
-GOLD DOMES
-INTERNAL LED BRIGHTNESS KNOB
-VINTAGE MEDICAL REFERENCE BOOK COLLAGE ON TOP PLATE
PICTURES:





VIDEO:

MORE COMING TOMORROW!