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Forum – Week 4 – Circuit Bending:

Forum – Week 4 – Circuit Bending:

Post-tinker..

Upon carefully selecting a $5 Reject Shop radio for destruction, I thought I had made a wise choice that would give immediate results. This was not the case. The circuit board inside an FM radio is substantially more complex that in your average “Force Space (Engrish)” light saber rip off.

Pre-tinker..

After spending a considerable amount of time trying different variations of point connecting, with and without resistors and potentiometers, all I achieved were varying degrees of volume attenuation. Not being one to let initial disappointment hold me back, I dampened my hands with a cloth and began some “wet hands” circuit manipulation. At first this seemed to give me random radio stations and occasionally a mix of more than one, an effect one could probably get from a cheap radio without ripping it apart. Then I stumbled on the sweet spot, which allowed for some Theremin-like manipulation of sine tones.

Sweeeet!!

The spot was considerably small, and only the slightest movement of my finger created drastic fluctuation in frequency. It still managed to feel like an organic form of instrument control however, kind of like a subtle vibrato on a guitar string that produces anything but subtle results.

Click here to link to online folder containing a sound file of the ‘sweet spot’ in action.

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Forum – Week 4 – Circuit Bending.” Workshop presented at the Department of Engineering, Intermediate Practical Laboratory, University of Adelaide, 16^th of August 2007.

Tomczak, Sebastian. “Forum – Week 4 – Circuit Bending.” Workshop presented at the Department of Engineering, Intermediate Practical Laboratory, University of Adelaide, 16^th of August 2007.

posted by David J Dowling @ 11:55 AM