CIRCUIT BENDING ... Mini forum in a single thread !!!

[whyterabbyt]

it all depends upon your definition of "bending". let's take the assumed definition to be "useful bending". connecting a short between two ground pins then would not be covered by this definition - it would do absolutely nothing and therefore not be useful.

lets take the definition to be what it is, according to the guy that defined it. m'kay?

[aciddose]

your understanding of semantics is quite simply incorrect.

now while i'm helping people out around here, would you mind not coming to argue about useless semantic nonsense in some attempt to cause trouble or prevent people from accomplishing what they've set out to do?

feel free to contact this fellow, by the way, he'll side with me.

[whyterabbyt]

your understanding of semantics is quite simply incorrect.

there's nothing 'semantic' in it. its simple facts; Rheed Ghazala explicitly explains what circuit bending is and your assertions about what it is, and how people do it, do not conform to reality.

now while i'm helping people out around here, would you mind not coming to argue about useless semantic nonsense in some attempt to cause trouble or prevent people from accomplishing what they've set out to do?

i clearly posted to agree with someone; i didnt come here to argue anything, you're the one who did that. and nothing Ive said here prevents anyone from accomplishing anything.

just for the record, i was one of the people the OP was specifically aiming this thread at when he started it in 2006, because the OP's first contact with anything circuit bent was something I built. i think i was the first person to talk about circuit bending at KVR at all, in fact, and one of the reasons this thread exists as a sticky because Id specifically requested a forum here.

feel free to contact this fellow, by the way, he'll side with me.

which fellow?

[aciddose]

the one you claim 'invented' the combination of words "circuit" and "bending". not only did he not invent this term, although he may have posted it on his blog first; he will also agree with what i said about "circuit bending". you need some basic knowledge to get anywhere useful - let's add a bit to that though - without a lot of trial-and-error and potentially destroying your electronics in the process.

i'm confident he'll agree with what i stated originally though, not even needing this additional bit.

can you "get somewhere useful" by adding random components? yes.

you can also make a million dollars on the lottery, but not everyone is so lucky. everyone can make a million on the lottery if they play long enough, but not everyone has such time. my statement was aimed more at spacedad, who i was specifically posting in response to, whom specifically stated that he does not have much time or money to spend on these things. he clearly wants to get somewhere, do you think he should be prodding at random, or do you think he should spend five minutes learning some basic rules and five dollars on some basic tools to get something done for certain?

now, you can say "but circuit bending is prodding at random and doesnt need to be useful", but if you do you'll just fit perfectly with that statement about the special oylmpics.

it isnt possible to win an argument with a retard - the retard lacks the ability to comprehend anything you say. i'm not certain if you've ever had an argument with person who is actually mentally disabled, wr, i'm sure you'd enjoy it. i'm sure everyone would after the yelling and slapping had gone on for several hours.

[whyterabbyt]

Reed Ghazala on circuit bending:

http://www.anti-theory.com/texts/EM/index.html

Not that long ago, a short circuit in audio electronics was considered to be only one thing: destructive. But nowadays, an audio short can function as a constructive as well as a creative element.

The creative short circuit, or the technique that I call circuit bending, is a form of hardware hacking or modding, but with two important differences. First, whereas hackers usually know something about electronics, you don't need any real knowledge of electronics to circuit-bend. Second, while most people hack an instrument with a particular goal in mind — such as increased frequency range or cleaner outputs — the circuit bender works improvisationally and has no idea where the trail will lead.

In circuit bending, the instrument shapes itself by telling the bender what it can do. In this way, circuit bending has turned the electronic circuit into an immediate "canvas"; a circuit is accessible at that moment to everyone for the creative act. No theoretical knowledge is required, and on the first occurrence of experimentation a one-of-a-kind instrument is created.

And here's his methodology, which I think presents the most fundamental point of circuit bending; that the process is organic and exploratory, and that it requires almost no skill or knowledge to achieve interesting sounds.

If anyone is interested in taking up circuit bending, the following establishes how to begin 'mapping' a device in order to locate the points which can be connected via switches et.c. to constitute a 'bend'; its also how one would perform bending 'live' in an improvisational or performance setting, for example.

http://www.anti-theory.com/soundart/circuitbend/

First, clip the smallest two metal jeweler's screwdrivers in the alligator clips at the ends of the test lead. This gives you a wire with a probe at each end, and is your most important circuit-bending tool. (Obviously, a custom test lead with a permanent probe at each end can be made for this job, as well as the elaborate console described at the end of the tools section).

Remove the back from the game or toy to expose the circuitry.

Turn the device on and activate the sounds (press keys/buttons, or tape/wedge in place to sustain sound production).

With the device MAKING A NOISE, press the tip of one of the test lead's screwdrivers to a printed circuit trace, component lead or integrated circuit pin. Keep this screwdriver tip in place for the next step.

Now, with the other screwdriver at the opposite end of the test lead, begin touching various parts of the circuitry while listening for interesting changes in sound.

Electricity will follow the new course you've provided with the lead. This may have no effect on the sound at all. On the other hand, the audio effect may be outrageous.

Each time an interesting sound is created, note with a marker directly on the circuit board the pair of points that were connected to each other to create the sound.

Once the traveling end of the test lead has explored the circuit's corners and all interesting connections have been noted, place the stationary screwdriver tip on a new circuit point.

Again, the traveling end of the test lead explores the rest of the circuit; interesting sound-changing connections are marked.

This process is repeated until the entire circuit has been searched in such a manner.

Given a bit of luck, the circuit will now be marked with a number of potential connections discovered with the test lead.

At this point, a number of choices face the explorer in implementing the creative short-circuits discovered.

[whyterabbyt]

the one you claim 'invented' the combination of words "circuit" and "bending". not only did he not invent this term, although he may have posted it on his blog first; he will also agree with what i said about "circuit bending".

In other words, you have no idea of who he is, do you. Trust you to pontificate on something you have no background information on at all.

'posted it on his blog first'??

I dont think they had blogs in the 60' and 70's.

you need some basic knowledge to get anywhere useful - let's add a bit to that though - without a lot of trial-and-error and potentially destroying your electronics in the process.

no, you dont need any knowledge to get somewhere useful, as Ghazala clearly says. And destroying the electronics is a known and embraced risk of circuit bending.

i'm confident he'll agree with what i stated originally though, not even needing this additional bit.

ive already posted what he says on the matter. your assumption of what he'll 'agree with' doesnt match his own statements to the contrary.

my statement was aimed more at spacedad, who i was specifically posting in response to, whom specifically stated that he does not have much time or money to spend on these things. he clearly wants to get somewhere, do you think he should be prodding at random, or do you think he should spend five minutes learning some basic rules and five dollars on some basic tools to get something done for certain?

I know you think that he should do the specific things that you tell him he should do. I have no opinion on what he 'should' do, except have fun doing it.
I do know that what you're telling him about what 'circuit bending' is is at odds with the meaning of the term as it was coined, and with the processes of every circuit bending community around.

now, you can say "but circuit bending is prodding at random and doesnt need to be useful", but if you do you'll just fit perfectly with that statement about the special oylmpics.

actually the process is often quite methodical prodding, and usually results in something useful, so your strawman fails.

[whyterabbyt]

By the way, aciddose, I find your repeated use of prejudiced terms like 'retards' and 'mentally disabled' as pejoratives to be highly offensive. I'd be grateful for a moderator to comment on whether your constant bigotry against those with physical or mental disabilities contravenes the third section of KVR's 'General Forum Rules'. It really reads like quite a nasty little prejudice.

[aciddose]

anybody should know that following his instructions you will _always_ short a supply rail to ground or a sensitive pin, always destroying the circuit. he should also know this. i would hope.

again, your understanding of semantics is quite simply incorrect.

the majority of people will understand "circuit bending" to be "limited modification without particular aim resulting in useful properties without terrible expense or damage to equipment". i still believe that he would agree that this is the currently understood definition.

unless you now want to argue that this definition is "incorrect" bring out your circuit bending bible and start preaching more nonsense, go somewhere else and mind your own business.

[whyterabbyt]

aagain, your understanding of semantics is quite simply incorrect.

There's nothing 'semantics' about it. The quotes speak for themselves.

the majority of people will understand "circuit bending" to be "limited modification without particular aim resulting in useful properties without terrible expense or damage to equipment". i still believe that he would agree that this is the currently understood definition.

So you're now retroactively changing your position. That's nice.

unless you now want to argue that this definition is "incorrect" bring out your circuit bending bible and start preaching more nonsensego somewhere else and mind your own business.

since when do you get to decide who contributes to threads? that seems to be a standard trope of yours, doesnt it? when someone says something you disagree with, even if they were in the thread before you, you often claim ownership of the thread and tell them to get out, dont you. that's nearly as common as you jumping on what someone said, then accusing them of starting an argument with you.

btw this is my own business, as Ive already told you. and i dont capitulate to bullying little fascists like your decidely nasty little self.

[whyterabbyt]

hmmm, just recapping;

my first post today is an agreement with someone, and a useful link. that gets aciddose jumping on my back, telling me not to come into this thread, or argue with him.

so I post a couple of things by Reed Ghazala that support what intel said. that gets aciddose arguing like a rabid f**king monkey about the 'semantics' of something said by someone he hasnt actually heard of.

so i post a couple more of quotes from Ghazala, most of which is information that would encorage someone to believe there's nothing hard about bending, so aciddose claims Im arguing about 'semantics', then tells me that im disrupting him from helping people. aciddose still doesnt know who Ghazala is. but he thinks he had a blog

aciddose then tells us he has the definitive definition of circuit bending, that Ghazala and everyone else agrees with it, and tries to tell me to exit the thread and 'mind my own business'.

wow. so, so far, ive posted a link to how to start bending, and some nice toys for a bender, as well as some of Reed Ghazala's comments on what bending is. in return, Ive been attacked, insulted, misrepresented, lied about, and told to stay out of a thread I suggested in the first place.

and all this by someone who doesn't actually seem to do any circuit bending of toys, or anything really, and who's never posted any music using circuit-bent instruments, or even been involved in any threads on the subject here until you stuck your oar in this one to (gasp!) start arguing with me back in October last year.

amazing.

[vurt]

the majority of people will understand "circuit bending" to be "limited modification without particular aim resulting in useful properties without terrible expense or damage to equipment". i still believe that he would agree that this is the currently understood definition.

unless you now want to argue that this definition is "incorrect" bring out your circuit bending bible and start preaching more nonsense, go somewhere else and mind your own business.

i suggest you read reeds book.
he doesnt agree with you.

[spacedad]

i didn't want to start an argument,i know what i was trying to achieve was not strictly circuit bending,but as it wasn't a complex electronic problem,i figured someone would be able to help me out.i could have posted it in hardware or some electronics forum,but i didn't.
so please call a truce.and thanks for the tips and useful links,fellas.

[whyterabbyt]

i didn't want to start an argument

im pretty positive nobody thought you were trying to, honestly. and, as far as Im aware, noone (no-one sane, anyways) would criticise anything you were trying to achieve, either...

[vurt]

i didn't want to start an argument,i know what i was trying to achieve was not strictly circuit bending,but as it wasn't a complex electronic problem,i figured someone would be able to help me out.i could have posted it in hardware or some electronics forum,but i didn't.
so please call a truce.and thanks for the tips and useful links,fellas.

you may also want to check "handmade electronic music" lots of projects in the book from simple to wtf?
help get you on your way

[whyterabbyt]

you may also want to check "handmade electronic music" lots of projects in the book from simple to wtf?
help get you on your way

yup, seconded.