Showing posts with label thebetatesters stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thebetatesters stuff. Show all posts

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Circuit Bent Hing Hon EK-001

I just stumbled across this keyboard in a shop around 3 years ago. I thought I would give it a try. It turned out to be amazing. There is a potentiometer to change the pitch and also a photocell to change the pitch.

There is a bend that uses the tempo LED to bend the sounds of the drums. Inside the acrylic panel there is a blinking light that shins into a photocell to control the pitch. It gives it an interesting vibrato modulation. Various other switches and bend points that I don't recall. I have since found a whole community of people that are bending these keyboards. Some of the bends are just mind blowing. This keyboard when bent has sounds similar to the Roland 808. You would never have expected that.

I have an upcoming tutorial on how to add a video output to this model. I am bending one right now. In the future I will have a complete tutorial on how to bend this from start to finish. Plus I will likely be selling new un-bent models on the site as they are tricky to find. Maybe I can sell the new ones with a bending kit of components, that seems like a really good idea if there is enough demand for that.

Please excuse the poor quality of the video I think it was one of my first videos.



Optical theremin with LFO

This was made with two 555 chips. One for the audio output oscillator and the other one modulating the first.

Red light oscillator

I built this years ago. I'm trying to remember exactly what it was. I'm pretty sure that it was a standard 555 oscillator being modulated by a blinking light circuit that was taken out of a bike light.

Modified light for optical theremin

Here is a modified light for use with this optical theremin.

Circuit bent Decision maker

This was my first circuit bend ever check it out. Turned out pretty cool, if you ever see one pick it up and bend it.

Youtube description - Added body contacts and pitch control. Also red LED's habe been replaced with blue ones.

Circuit bent style optical theremin

This is the first oscillator that I built. I'm not sure why I didn't go with something simmilar. It was sold on ebay. I made 1 or 2 of these I can't remember.

Preview of the new synth on a breadboard

Just a quick shot of the new synth.

New "Squaretooth" synth from thebetatesters.net

Basically an Atari Punk Console on crack