Circuit Bending

January 31, 2002 2:40 PM

Circuit Bending is hacking electronic games and musical toys to produce new sounds. Twisted Speak'n'Spells and Pikachus, for example.
posted by skyline (5 comments total)

...includes not just frames, but frames and a flaming logo. I feel dirty.

I am, however, pleased that the document is in fact a how-to guide. That's infinitely more cool than the "golly, isn't my unusual art project just so special?" showcase kind of stuff that usually turns up around here.
posted by majick at 3:14 PM on January 31, 2002

Great site, thanks skyline. The Seattle experimental improv collective SIL2K features some of this stuff, too.
posted by Ty Webb at 3:16 PM on January 31, 2002

In my first band (in 1985), I played a modified Magical Musical Thing, it had a reverb attached and other mods, very cool. Since I had no musical training, I got to play this while my bandmates got the real instruments. I'm not the only one.
posted by pekar wood at 8:18 PM on January 31, 2002

I have to say that they've WAY WAY overhyped what they were doing. Heck, someone might be tempted to pay $100 for a mod'ed speak-n-spell. However, it is still cool.

One of my favorite toys when I was young WAS a speak-n-spell. It was especially cool when the batteries were going low and it freaks out. Saying and doing all sorts of crazy things. That was fun. Really wished I could have created my own dictionary module back then.
posted by jmccorm at 8:03 AM on February 1, 2002

soviet france kind of used toys when i saw them last.
posted by asok at 9:36 AM on February 1, 2002