Circuitbenders Forum
Circuitbenders Forum => Banter => Topic started by: PolyPhuckin on March 05, 2009, 04:09:27 PM
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You know those days you have, the ones where everything you do doesn't seem to work even if it did before?
I'm having one of those days :(
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they're the worst days... but not as bad as those days where you just fry everything you open. I had one of them recently. Killed two toys in about 30 minutes. Gutting. I feel for ya matey.
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I think at times like that you just have to take a break.
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A few days ago I finished painting all the keys and entire case of a keyboard different colors and then when it was almost done drying I stumbled, the case fell and I accidentally stepped on the case and cracked it in half :/ I figure I'll do something else with the innards at some point. Such a frustrating feeling though!
I agree with polyphuckin. When everything's screwing up it just tends to get more frustrating and harder to concentrate...take a break for a bit!
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I have the great fortune of having a bar downstairs from my studio. When I've got the stupid hands I go down and have a beer to regroup.
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I go down and have a beer to regroup.
That sounds like a plan. :)
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I go down and have a beer to regroup.
That sounds like a plan. :)
That's why i usually open a can of beer just before i start bending... ;)
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That's why i usually open a can of beer just before i start bending... ;)
And tonight was one of these nights when even the can of beer didn't help.
First i fried one of these "My Music Center"-like toy keyboards merely on FIRST TOUCH (turning the pitch resistor slowly to zero just killed it! Left me speechless for quite a while...)
Then i opened a Casio SA-21 just to find out that there are just 3 (absolutely boring) bends possible, a bitrate-reducer like bend, the well known feedback bend (which makes me yawn just by typing the words here) and the usual crystal crash (which doesn't produce anything other than a silent crash in 4 out of 5 tries!!!). My proposal for the "unbendable machines" list!
The last one was a Kids Drum Toy, an ugly orange/yellow/neon-green plastic monster... There are lots and lots of caps, resistors, transistors and other parts on the PCB but there was not even ONE useful bend! Except the pitch bend for the black blob, ok... but nothing else.
Maybe i should find another hobby.
Maybe i shouldn't have started circuit bending with my DD-11 and my RY30 because these machines where wonderful bending targets.. almost every connection on these big chips produced a cool noise sound and bending them was a lot of fun! After these two machines there were only crap devices like the Casio SA-10 (the same as the mostly useless SA-21 bends or M-200 or PSS-50, you name it...), the boss DR-202 (harsh noise but uncontrollable and much too unpredictable) and lots and lots of toys which didn't do anything except a boring pitch bend...
Maybe i should buy more beer though...
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Maybe i should find another hobby.
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:o
Nah, Just because some toys suck doesn't mean you should give up. Plus, there's a few ways to spice up a shitty bend.
I know you ain't too keen on the SA-21 feedback, but you can add a couple of switchable caps with a pot in series for mixed distortions. An LFO for vibrato or triggering different keys/buttons/whatever.
I'm not saying that it isn't disappointing when your newly acquired toy doesn't glitch out or behave how you want it, but that's bending and a part of it is frying and crying, but when you do find a toy that shits all over your ears, you know it's all worth it.
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Well it's not circuit bending, but I've been trying for a week to get an audio modulated flyback driver to work.... Damn thing is really starting to piss me off...
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Well it's not circuit bending, but I've been trying for a week to get an audio modulated flyback driver to work.... Damn thing is really starting to piss me off...
Say what?
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my "those days" are just ones in which I want to grab most of belongings (sitting in boxes) and bring them to the thrift store -- not just CB stuff, most everything else! Clothes, albums, all that shit we buy and don't actually need. :c\ Today was one.
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I've just spent 6 hours with a laptop in pieces all over the floor trying to work out why the hell the lights came on but it wouldn't boot. Resoldered a few surface mount IC's (always fun, oh yes), tested and resoldered everything i could think of, reseated and cleaned everything out but it still wouldn't boot.
Eventually got sick of it and put it back together with the 30,000 odd screws it seems to require, only to discover that the problem was with the ON button all the time and i could have just saved myself 6 hours of rage! >:(
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Crusty Paul, that does sound like a rage filled day.
I get those days where i just feel like deleting all of my social networking site accounts. i get really annoyed at them, most of all Facefook.
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On a somewhat lighter note that all of your stories (christ, especially yours crusty. I've done that before... terrible feeling!), I broke a casio SA-2 I was going to bend...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RcM0WkiTmY
As you can see, completely my fault though :D Perhaps somebody'll get a laugh outta that... I did. That sound of plastic slamming into the ground... I just didn't expect it to break since I've dropped SA's from that height before. It'll turn on and play correctly for about 10 seconds then fade to glitching then die. Shorting all the caps didn't help.
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dude, if you're gonna share anything, share the awesome video-out mod!!!
that's the business, that is!
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As you can see, completely my fault though :D Perhaps somebody'll get a laugh outta that... I did. That sound of plastic slamming into the ground... I just didn't expect it to break since I've dropped SA's from that height before. It'll turn on and play correctly for about 10 seconds then fade to glitching then die. Shorting all the caps didn't help.
Perhaps the new, more distilled take on anti-theory circuit bending; dropping things until something messed up happens.
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I think my worst day was when the SK 1 i'd paid more than i'd have liked to for and had spent a considerable amount of time and care bending just died. It's still sat under the bed, waiting fro the day I ever find a broken one for spares or repairs
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what happened to it?
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Perhaps the new, more distilled take on anti-theory circuit bending; dropping things until something messed up happens.
See, I quite like at least a *bit* of theory. If more people bending Alesis HR16s applied the theoretical knowledge and read up on what all the chips do, there would be less dead HR16s with knackered sample ASICs out there...
Read those datasheets, kids, no matter what the "anti-theory" people tell you. Reed Ghazala is not your God/
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Perhaps the new, more distilled take on anti-theory circuit bending; dropping things until something messed up happens.
See, I quite like at least a *bit* of theory. If more people bending Alesis HR16s applied the theoretical knowledge and read up on what all the chips do, there would be less dead HR16s with knackered sample ASICs out there...
Read those datasheets, kids, no matter what the "anti-theory" people tell you. Reed Ghazala is not your God/
When you start dealing with complex instruments and anything with datasheets that need to be read I'd say that's closer to just "modifying" instruments than bending. I associate circuit bending more with toys and cheaper keyboards.
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When you start dealing with complex instruments and anything with datasheets that need to be read I'd say that's closer to just "modifying" instruments than bending. I associate circuit bending more with toys and cheaper keyboards.
True to an exent, but my point is more that if you actually look at how the thing works, even briefly, you're going to hit the good stuff straight away and *also* you're going to know how to avoid stuffing 12V into a pin expecting 5V and frying the unit...
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Well it's not circuit bending, but I've been trying for a week to get an audio modulated flyback driver to work.... Damn thing is really starting to piss me off...
Say what?
Say yeah.. That thing is going to be the sickest with some 8bit GB sounds modulating it...
Anyways, I managed to get like a super crappy 1mm continous arch from it (with non-audio modulated driver) so atleast I know the good old flyback isn't dead.. I think it is just TOO picky about drivers.. I guess I have to find another flyback.. Id really like to get the old one working with a cascade.. Can you say 25kV AC non rectified... :o ;D